Over at Teekay’s

Today is a holiday in Bosnia. It marks the day when the country decided to seek independence from Yugoslavia.

Or rather, today is a holiday in the (mainly Muslim-Croat) Federation, one of two statelets that make up Bosnia. It marks the day when most Bosnian Serbs boycotted a referendum on whether to seek independence from Yugoslavia.

BBC Monitoring carries this report, from a local wire service:

Bosnia-Hercegovina Presidency chairman Borislav Paravac said he does not consider 1 March, the BiH Day of Independence, a state holiday, due to the “fact that it is a day that evokes negative memories of the anti-Serb referendum, when a decision was passed on the separation of BiH from former Yugoslavia, without prior consent from Serbs”.

“We should focus on values that contribute to progress and tolerance,” Paravac said sarcastically.

Question to Mr President: how could BiH seek separation from Yugoslavia if Yugoslavia was, in his words, already “former” at the time?

Technorati Tags: Balkania

I’ve just finished the first part of the book I’m co-authoring (reason for scarce posting over the last week). Because this is the key part, where we survey the field, set out the theoretical stakes, and build up our framework, I feel that the most difficult job is now behind us, even though it’s less than 30,000 words (around 80 pp in print). (If you are my publisher: we’ve got much more than that — in fact, the book is almost done, we just need to fine-tune some stuff! Will be done in no time!! We’ll keep all deadlines!!!)