CLINGING TO A BARBED WIRE FENCE: THE LANGUAGE POLICY OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY IN BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA SINCE 1995 LOUISE ASKEW, BA (Hons), MA Thesis submitted to the University of Nottingham for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy July 2011 1 ABSTRACT This study takes one aspect of the post-conflict peace-building process in Bosnia-Herzegovina since 1995 - the recognition of three official but mutually comprehensible languages - and examines the way in which the international community's approach to it has impacted on broader peace­ building goals for the country. The originality of this thesis lies in the fact that it views post-conflict peace-building in Bosnia-Herzegovina through the lens of the language issue. Taking the Dayton Peace Agreement (1995) as the starting point I look at the way in which its provisions have largely dictated the international community's approach to the language issue and created the political environment in which language operates. Further, applying the concept of societal security I explain how the language issue is used by domestic elites to frustrate attempts at reconciliation by the international community; I argue that the international community's approach, based on the equality of the three languages, only feeds into the divisive ethnic politics of present-day Bosnia-Herzegovina and ultimately undermines the security and stability of the country. I also look in detail at two very different but complimentary areas of ongoing post-conflict reform in Bosnia-Herzegovina and analyse the international community's approach to language in each: refonn of the education system and defence reform. In the fonner the language issue cannot be divorced from the identity-fonnation goals of domestic elites in the education refonn. The international community's approach to language in this regard has been counterproductive and has only bolstered attempts to maintain segregation in schools. In the area of defence reform the focus of language policy is not on issues of identity but on the translation and interpretation policy of the international military force which is guided by locally-hired interpreters and trmslators. I use narrative theory (Baker, 2006) to explain how they negotiate issues of identity, loyalty and ethics and argue that through their influence policy has been more flexible and able to adapt to the requirements of the defence reform. Finally I contend that the international community has tended to view language as an unimportant element of its activities in Bosnia-Herzegovina. This study argues that far from this beiQg the case the international community's approach to language holds importai1t1t!Bh; for future peace­ building endeavours elsewhere. 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I thank my supervisor Dr. David Norris for his support, encouragement and wit and for making me a better writer than I was at the start. I am also grateful to the Centre for Russian and Central and East European Studies (CRCEES) at Glasgow University through which I received ESRC funding for the first three years of my research. I would also like to express my gratitude to all my interviewees, some I knew beforehand and some I did not. All of them gave generously of their time. I am particularly indebted to Anida Tabakovic-Pappenkort, Chief of the EUFOR HQ Linguistics Service, and members of the service who have taught me much more than I ever taught them. I would also like to thank Dr. Catherine Baker for 'getting me' Paddy Ashdown. I would also like to thank my readers for their various insights as regards different chapters of this study: Dr. Ivana Duric, Kate Fearon, Paul Thacker and Dr. Russell Whiting. lowe more than they will ever know to Vanessa and Mladen Pupavac for their regular and warm hospitality in Nottingham and very helpful advice and insights. I am grateful to Kate Fearon for her fabulous hospitality and fantastic DVD collection during field research in Bosnia-Herzegovina. I thank Ivana Durie for her support and encouragement over the last few years and invaluable last-minute assistance. I also thank my mother Jean Askew for childcare duties and being generally supportive and my sister Rebecca Askew who introduced me to the unlikely pair of Rowena Murray and Saban Bajramovic who in their very different ways have been useful while writing this study. Rather improbably, I would also like to thank my English-speaking Welsh mother-in-law, Daffrean Whiting, for sharing her own experience of language and ethnicity. Finally, though, most thanks go to my husband, Dr. Russell Whiting, who has been the epitome of the 'supportive spouse' throughout the research for this study but, more importantly, has been my advocate and my ally for much longer than that. This study is dedicated to my sons, Gabriel and Theo, in the hope that they now realise that girls can do clever things too. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION •••••..•••••••••••••...•••••••••••.••••••••.••.•••.••..•.••.••••.••.••••...•..........•.••.. 6 The Thesis ....................................................................................................... 6 Language and Ethnic Identity ......................................................................... 8 Language, dialect or variant? ..................................................................... 8 Language, ethnic identity and nationalism ............................................... 14 Methods ........................................................................................................ 19 Interviews with linguists ........................................................................... 21 Interviews with military linguists ............................................................. 22 Interviews with non-military linguists ...................................................... 24 Interviews with non-linguists ................................................................... 24 Other interviews ........................................................................................ 26 The language of the interviews ................................................................. 27 Presentation of interview material ............................................................ 28 Structure of the Study ................................................................................... 28 Chapter 1: Literature Review Introduction................................................................................................... 31 What do we mean by Language Policy? ....................................................... 33 Overview of development of general language planning and policy study .. 35 Motivations for language planning ............................................................... 39 Status planning.............................................................................................. 40 Corpus planning ............................................................................................ 44 Language planning models ........................................................................... 45 Evaluating the results oflanguage planning in Bosnia................................. 48 How to evaluate the language planning activities of the Bosniaks? ............. 53 Language planning by the Bosnian Serbs ..................................................... 59 Language planning by the Bosnian Croats ................................................... 61 Literature on the language policy of the International Community in Bosnia- Herzegovina .................................................................................................. 63 Conclusion .................................................................................................... 67 Chapter 2: Language and Politics in Bosnia-Herzegovina in a Historical Context Introduction................................................................................................... 70 Background to Hapsburg occupation............................................................ 71 The Nature of Hapsburg Rule ....................................................................... 80 Kallay's Language Policy ............................................................................. 82 Assessment ................................................................................................... 88 Language policy in the Independent State of Croatia 1941-1945 ................ 94 Language Policy in Communist Yugoslavia (1945-1990) ........................... 99 Conclusion .................................................................................................. 114 Chapter 3: The Dayton Peace Agreement, Language and Societal Security Introduction................................................................................................. 119 4 What Is Peace-Building? ............................................................................ 120 The Dayton Peace Agreement as a basis for peace-building ...................... 124 The institutional framework created by the Dayton Peace Agreement.. .... 126 What does the Dayton Peace Agreement say about the status of the languages of Bosnia-Herzegovina? ............................................................ 134 Decision of the Constitutional Court .......................................................... 139 Societal Security ......................................................................................... 143 Conclusion .................................................................................................