FIET Commerce FIET Central and Eastern Europe 12 May, 1997 The FIET Commerce Home Page

The FIET Solidarity Project in Bosnia and Herzegovina

What we saw and did:

Notes from the FIET mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina
16 - 22. 1. 1997, day by day

Part of the FIET group, our Norwegian colleagues, arrived in Sarajevo on Thursday 16 January, by road from Zagreb, the capital of neighbouring Croatia. On their way, we made a short stop in Bihac, the home town of one of the Bosnian friends on the bus. Our way then continued through part of the Serb Republic, an entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina, taking us close to the small town of Mrkonic grad. Arrival in Sarajevo was early in the evening, which allowed for a pleasant dinner in the bazaars of the Old Town, together with trade union colleagues from Bosnia and Herzegovina.

These two office towers in the centre of Sarajevo stand as silent witness of human folly. Today, the few usable floors house international relief organisations that try to help feed and shelter the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina. You cannot see it in the picture, but the two office towers are tied together by wires, giving the impression of barely standing up on their own.

The winter weather was beautiful and one could almost have forgotten about the war except for the ruins lining the roads. These ruins used to be homes, only a few years ago. The very essence of trade union solidarity comes close when one sees something like this.

Driving through some of the war-torn parts of Croatia and continuing into the badly destroyed Bosnia and Herzegovina is a shaking experience. We passed village after village where every house was blown up or burned out. One can only try understand the suffering that the war has brought.

On Friday morning, the main part of the FIET group left for Tuzla, a three hour bus drive north-west of Sarajevo. Also this road was lined by destroyed houses and villages, particularly the parts close to Sarajevo. This was where the front line had been and one could surely see it. Now, there were the first signs of people building up homes and starting to struggle again for the essentials of life.

We stopped at the roadside next to this small farm half way between Sarajevo and Tuzla, which had been destroyed in the fights. The front line actually followed parts of the road. In the distance we could see villages, some of them predominantly Serb, some predominantly Moslem, where people lived side by side until the war hit them like an explosion. Even the beautiful winter day could not hide the utter destruction, and we saw very few smokes that could have indicated that daily life was going on.

In the beautiful winter landscape, driving over the hills, we could see villages in the distance. When you looked more closely, you could see that many of them were destroyed. Villages that were practically next door to each other suddenly found themselves on different sides of the frontline.

Tuzla is one of the few really encouraging cities of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Here, people were able to continue living together. Tuzla has been spared from much of the destruction that has hit so many other cities, towns, villages and regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Here, we met with trade unionists from the region, who were eager to get started again with their work for economic and social welfare for their members.

Meanwhile, in Sarajevo, consultations were held between the President of the Independent Trade Union Confederation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mr Suleiman Hrle, and representatives of the FIET delegation. These discussions confirmed the common aim to support the workers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in all towns, cantons and entities that form this country. This can only be done by rebuilding a strong, independent and democratic trade union movement which covers the whole of the country and which reaches out to all of its parts.

This is the street close to the Sarajevo airport where our friend Fuad used to live. On a quiet Saturday afternoon, he took us there to see it. Most buildings were beyond repair, but here and there, people were trying to clear out some living space for themselves.

During all of Friday afternoon, the remaining part of the FIET group was on its way by bus from Zagreb airport. Communications to Sarajevo are still difficult in the winter, with the airport very sensitive to fog and ice and with insufficient equipment to handle civilian air traffic except under perfect weather conditions. If commerce and other parts of the economy of Bosnia and Herzegovina is to be revived, then much attention must be paid to opening up the communications links, both over land and by air, once again.

Saturday began with a visit to the large Sarajka department store in central Sarajevo. Here we met with shop stewards and workers, who had kept their store open and running all through the war. Their work place had been hit by repeated artillery attacks and many had died. But nevertheless, all of them came to work, each day, all through the siege. Finally, only the cellar could be used, and that was where the trading was done.

Now, the shop workers are worried about their future. What will happen when privatisation gets on its way? They have, after all, rebuilt their department store almost with their own hands. They have accepted very low wages, to make it possible for this government-owned enterprise to take loans and repair the war wounds of the building. But what will now happen, they asked, and can you help us?

The concern of the shop workers in the Sarajevo department store, which reflects a widespread anxiety among workers in Bosnia and Herzegovina, was to emerge repeatedly during the rest of the FIET visit. The workers' concerns were raised by the president of the Independent Commerce Trade Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mr Hasan Kovac aa well as by the Head of the FIET Commerce Department both on national and local television and in discussions with leading politicians. The FIET delegation and the commerce trade union of Bosnia and Herzegovina both underlined that it is critically important that signals are sent to the country's workers that they will indeed get their fair share when assets are privatised. This is also the message which FIET will bring to the international agencies and institutions that are involved in the reconstruction process. These include the Office of the High Representative, the European Commission and the World Bank. FIET will raise these concerns also in its European Social Dialogue with EuroCommerce, the European organisation for employers in retail and wholesale trade.

The intensive Saturday programme continued with a discussion in the trade union house of Sarajevo. Here we met the executive committee of the Independent Commerce Trade Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina. We had invited also commercial workers representatives from the Serb Republic. They were represented by the vice president of the commercial workers' organisation in the Serb Republic, Mr Bogdan Davydovich, who came to the meeting together with a colleague. At the meeting he invited FIET and the Independent Commerce Trade Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina to come to Banja Luka to follow up on the project discussions, accompanied also by the president of the Independent Trade Union Confederation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mr Suleiman Hrle. The invitation was welcomed by all and a new meeting has been scheduled for Banja Luka, the Serb Republic, in February.

At a subsequent press conference and in numerous television and newspaper interviews and articles, the message went out that the Independent Commerce Trade Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as the Independent BankTrade Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina were now making important progress in the trade union reconstruction process. As commerce and banking key industries which provide major parts of the network that is necessary for the economy to function, commerce and banking now showed that they want to take their responsibility. The significance of this commitment can hardly escape anyone, in Bosnia and Herzegovina or outside this country.

At the press conference, speaking for the Nordic FIET-affiliated trade unions, Kenth Pettersson told about his conversation with the High Representative Mr Carl Bildt, who had stressed the importance of the project that was about to start. Together with Norway's Sture Arntzen, Finland's Maj-Len Remahl and Sweden's Rolf Blom, he also assured that FIET and its affiliated trade unions intended to extend the project far wider into the country than to the capital, with all parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina being considered equally within the framework of the countrywide projects together with the Independent Commerce and Bank Trade Unions of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Sunday afternoon saw meetings with some leading representatives of the Bosnia and Herzegovina society, which gave a further perspective to the project that was about to start. We were particularly impressed by our discussions with Bogic Bogicevic, who represented Bosnia and Herzegovina in the last collective Presidency of Yugoslavia and who is now president of the social democratic party.

Starting their trip back home on Monday morning, the Nordic trade union leaders of FIET-affiliates in commerce and banking repeated their firm commitment to work with their colleagues in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

This is the historical Union Hall in Mostar, where the regional office of the Independent Commerce Trade Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina is about to open. First, the office room must be renovated, though. The building has been badly damaged by artillery shells. Together with other international trade union organisations, FIET will participate in making funds available for the repairs of this building, where the unions have had their home since the early years of our Century.

The FIET representatives who stayed behind to work on the details of the project spent the following two days in Sarajevo. They met for long working sessions with the leaders of the Independent Trade Union Confederation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. They also met with the Office of the High Representative and with leading parliamentarians, with whom they discussed the pending privatisation laws as well as the project itself. Media attention continued to be high and the work programme included both interviews and informal discussions at national and local television and with press.

On Tuesday afternoon, we continued to Mostar. This beautiful historical town half way between Sarajevo and the Adriatic coast has been destroyed in a way which defies all efforts to describe it. Here, war was waged in the centre of the city, street by street, with cruel efficiency.

These children are the hope of Bosnia and Herzegovina. They have just spent some memorable weeks in Sicily as guests of Italian trade unionists and their families. Now is the time that trade unions and their members from all over the world need to do real things that become big things, for peace and reconstruction.

In Mostar, we met many young Europeans who were working with the European Union or the Office of the High representative. Many of them had been there before, during the European Union administration which helped to save so many lives during its short tenure. They tried to make us understand why they were drawn back, time and time again. Policemen or assistance workers, interpreters or administrators, they shared the sense of deep responsibility and the feeling of closeness with the people of 'their' city.

We believe that did understand something about this feeling of the European youngsters. Also we met so many of the young people from different parts of Mostar and saw how their hearts were beating for a new beginning for their city. We could sense so clearly their conviction not to look back, but to finally start to build a future for themselves, together with each other.

In Mostar, we believe that we learned to understand much more about what is at stake in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The focus must be turned to future tasks. People must cease to live in the past.

Our FIET project aims at this. We want to contribute to get people in commerce and banking back to work. We want to help to bring hope for a future into the lives of young people. We want to support the women, who have suffered so much and who still have the strength to work for reconciliation and peace. This is the nation-building process of Bosnia and Herzegovina that our colleagues in the trade unions have set out to work with and if we can be of help and support to them, then we will try to do our best.

Our e-mail address: jan_furstenborg@fiet.org