Religious Separation and Political Intolerance in Bosnia-Herzegovina (review)

The book under review joins a host of others on the break-up of Yugoslavia, and in this case with particular focus on Bosnia. It is a revised edition of a 1998 work, originally appearing in Slovenia by a Slovene professor at the University of Ljubljana.

The book would have been better entitled if its existing title had been preceded by "The Road to," for the author correctly argues that Bosnia has had a long history of tolerance, with few aberrations, until the middle of the twentieth century when outside events brought about tensions and violence among its various religio-ethnic groups.

The author treats Bosnia's society from the Early Middle Ages to the present, a huge period which means that treatment of issues must be brief. And since ethno-nationalism is a modern phenomenon, his major focus is on the various religious groups that were basic to the forming of the modern ethnic groups. Besides the Orthodox, Catholics, and Muslims, he does not ignore the Jews. His treatment is well balanced, and he realizes, which many authors do not, that many issues and figures are not entirely black or white.

Velikonja's discussion of even modern individuals and events is also by necessity brief. He does not hide the role of many Catholic clergymen in the Ustasa regime. He realizes that Archbishop Stepinac is neither black nor white and shows both the very negative and positive aspects of his behavior as well as the context within which he operated and the ulterior motives of many of those who entered the debate about him after World War II. He has a good discussion of the strong differences between the Franciscans and the church hierarchy in Bosnia and Hercegovina and how these differences strongly impinged on the "miraculous sightings" at Medjugore and how, despite the site's becoming a major pilgrimage spot, various hierarchs still reject the developing cult.

When he reaches the critical 1990's, marked by the rampant nationalism of both Serbs and Croats, he prefers, instead of saying war in Bosnia, to say war upon it. He treats well, though maybe too briefly, the sell-out of many Serb and Croat (and also a few Muslim) academics (some very prominent). He also and correctly strongly criticizes the Western nations for their ignorance, short-sightedness, and self-interest which contributed to events in Yugoslavia getting out of hand. He baldly states that pre-war Bosnia no longer exists. It does not mean that it never again can, but it is too early to foretell.

As always in a work treating a matter like a war Velikonja's judgments on particular issues or even facts may be disputed (as there are also occasional factual errors in the work's historical presentation too). But on the whole this volume is a solid and fair treatment of the background to the Bosnian tragedy as well as of that tragedy itself and ranks among the better serious works on this subject.