Bosnian Serb Lobbyists in Serbia
Not all Serb support for the Bosnian Serb military effort flowed through criminals and underworld agents, however, and not all of it was initiated by the Belgrade regime. The Serbian national enterprise was immensely popular in some quarters, and many covert cross-border links were generated by Serbian citizens concerned for Bosnian Serbs' well-being. Serb
― 63 ―
politicians and intellectuals such as Dobrica ćosić, the famed writer, pressed the Bosnian Serb case in Belgrade, lobbying the ruling Socialist Party to supply Bosnian Serbs with food, fuel, and other items. Bosnian Serb supporters viewed Serbia's official disengagement as a terrible betrayal of cherished co-nationals in dire need. Indeed, some activists did more than send humanitarian supplies. The Belgrade-based Association of Bosnian Serbs in Serbia, for example, was allegedly a clandestine conduit for arms and men, as well as food, fuel, and clothing. The group's board included some of Serbia's leading public figures, including executive director Gojko đogo, a famed nationalist poet. đogo was reportedly an unofficial Bosnian Serb representative in Belgrade, speaking to Milošević on their behalf, mobilizing support in the Serbian press, and perhaps even helping to send paramilitary fighters.
[90] đogo himself, however, refused to speak about the issue, saying only that "some things should be reserved for a discussion years from now."
[91] The association had branches across Serbia, based in municipal offices, sports halls, and other public facilities. During the war, it collected money, blankets, clothes, and medical supplies, coordinating what đogo called a "tremendous" popular response. đogo said his association enjoyed support from all Serbian political parties, including Milošević's Socialists. "The regime has their spies in our association," he said, "but we have our spies among them as well."
Through the Military Line, top Serbian officials generated a network capable of transferring influence and coercion from Serbia into Bosnia. Secrecy was vital because the West had designated the Bosnian border as a sovereign boundary, barring Serbia from openly intervening. Secrecy also provided Serbia with plausible deniability, which in turn facilitated an ethnic cleansing policy for which the Serbian government hoped it could evade responsibility. Plausible deniability was bolstered by the chaos and confusion caused by the breakdown of normal state controls, and the emergence of a frontier-style institutional environment in Bosnia. Although a slim coordination chain appears to have stretched from Belgrade to Bosnia through the Military Line and its lower-ranking operatives, the extent of Belgrade's actual control over individual events remains unclear.
To some degree, Serbia's ties to Bosnia were actively constructed by the Serbian regime, but to some extent, they existed sui generis. Here, the regime's contribution was to tolerate the continued existence of those ties and to lend a helping hand when possible. In the spring and summer of
― 64 ―
1992, Serbs in Bosnia and Serbia were connected through multiple links, and it would have required substantial political effort to sever those ties entirely.
[92] Together, Serbian state and society helped construct a complex cross-border network that linked Serbian core to Bosnian frontier, despite conditions of breakdown and chaos. The next chapter explores repertoires of nationalist violence within the Serbian core, where the state pursued a radically different set of policies toward non-Serb populations.
