Three decades after war turned the mountainous centre of the disintegrating Yugoslovia into a cauldron of intercommunal violence and genocidal murder, Bosnia-Herzegovina is once again unravelling. Nowhere have the ominous old spectres and newer menaces been more on display than at the 30th anniversary celebration earlier this month of the Bosnian Serb proto-state known as Republika Srpska.
There, on the parade stand in Banja Luka, standing behind the controversial Bosnian Serb president Milorad Dodik, was Vinko Pandurevic, former commander of the notorious Zvornik Brigade. The unit was allegedly behind the massacres of Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica during Bosnia’s civil war, and Pandurevic was sentenced to 13 years in prison by a Hague tribunal for war crimes. He was released after serving 10 years.
