Serbian Soccer Loyalties Cross Borders http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/12/international/europe/13web-balkans.html
By IVANA SEKULARAC and NICHOLAS WOOD Published: October 12, 2005 BELGRADE, Serbia, Oct. 12 Buses carrying hundreds of Bosnian soccer fans made their way through the capital on Wednesday, but most of the fans made the trip to root not for Bosnia but for its opponent, Serbia and Montenegro. The game, which Serbia won 1-0, was for a spot in next years World Cup finals in Germany. But when these two nations have a rare soccer match, memories of the Bosnian civil war, from 1992 to 1995, quickly flare up. In those years, Serbia intervened in support of Bosnian Serbs trying to carve out a broader Serbian state. Ten years later, most Serbs in Bosnia still see their loyalties lying across the border. Thirty of us came from Trebinje, on Bosnias border with Montenegro, said a 25-year-old Serbia supporter who gave his name only as Sinisa. How can we support those we fought in the war against us? When the war ended, international officials tried to bring together the Croats, Muslims and Serbs in Bosnia to make a unified state out of Bosnia, creating a single currency, uniform license plates, a flag and even a national anthem. But in sports as in other areas, Bosnia remains divided. Of the 2,500 Bosnian fans who the police estimated attended the match, just 700 were believed to be cheering for Bosnia. In Sarajevo, Bosnias capital, Bosnian Muslim politicians loudly declared their support for the Bosnian team, but some of their Bosnian Serb counterparts were vague. The Parliament speaker, Nikola Spiric, a Serb, said, I will support our team, and added that people could define our whatever way they wanted. The Bosnian Serb member of the three-member Bosnian presidency, Borislav Paravac, would support the team he has always supported, Drago Vukovic, one of his advisers, told the Srna news agency, adding that he supported Serbia. Not so Prime Minister Adnan Terzic, a Muslim, who came to Belgrade to watch the game. The division extends to the players as well. Savo Milosevic, who is from the northern Bosnian town of Bijeljina, is Serbias captain. But the Bosnian captain is Branimir Bajic, who decided to play for Bosnia although he is living in Belgrade and playing for one of the biggest clubs here, Partizan. Security was tight at the stadium, with more than 4,000 police officers on duty. Bosnian Serb supporters could be seen across much of the stadium, many holding banners with the names of their hometowns in Bosnia. Supporters of Bosnia came into the stadium through a separate entrance, protected by officers in riot gear and two on horseback. Some Serbia fans jeered and shouted Turks, by way of an insult toward Muslims, as the the Bosnia fans walked in. Many Bosnian fans appeared undeterred. The police were very professional, both at the border crossing with Bosnia and here at the stadium, said Ibmel Romic, a 30- year-old professor from Zenica. We came here to support our state, said Hasan Alik, 25, a student from Lukavac, near Tuzla. Soccer and nationalist politics were intertwined for much of the 1990s. Zeljko Raznatovic, known as Arkan, the notorious Serbian paramilitary leader accused of involvement in massacres both in Bosnia and Kosovo, recruited his forces from Belgrade soccer fans. This was the third time the two sides had met. The last was a year ago, in Sarajevo, where the Serbian fans were taunted with a banner that said, We have 250,000 reasons to hate you, a reference to the number of people killed in the war. The Serbian fans responded by shouting the name of Radovan Karadzic, the wartime leader of the Bosnian Serbs, who oversaw the siege of Sarajevo and is accused by international investigators of the massacre of tens of thousands of Bosnian Muslims. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Give at-risk students the materials they need to succeed at DonorsChoose.org! http://us.click.yahoo.com/Ryu7JD/LpQLAA/E2hLAA/1dTolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> =============== Group Moderator: [EMAIL PROTECTED] page at http://magazine.sorabia.net for more informations about current situation in Serbia http://www.sorabia.net Slusajte GLAS SORABIJE nas talk internet-radio (Serbian Only) http://radio.sorabia.net Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sorabia/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
