Page 8 - ARUBA TODAY

A8 WORLD NEWS
Saturday 6 OctOber 2018

Bosnia election seen as key for future of war-ravaged nation

Associated Press the latest protest over the
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herze- unresolved March death
govina (AP) — Elections in of a 21-year-old student.
Bosnia on Sunday risk ce- David Dragicevic's par-
menting the ethnic divisions ents allege their son was
of the country's brutal war, killed and police have cov-
as a pro-Russian nationalist ered up for those respon-
runs for the three-member sible. Police initially said the
presidency and politicians young man died acciden-
seeking other posts cam- tally and deny the allega-
paign on war wounds rath- tions of a cover-up.
er than reforms. Authorities have described
Some 3.3 million voters are rallies like the one held Fri-
being asked to fill the na- day as part of a plot to un-
tional presidency and oth- dermine the Bosnian Serb
er elected positions in the president.
complex network of institu- The United States last year
tions established in the ac- imposed sanctions on the
cords that ended the Bos- Bosnian Serb leader. He has
nian War. The 1992-95 war accused the U.S. and Britain
among Serbs, Croats and of funneling money to his
Muslims during the break- opponents to weaken the
up of Yugoslavia left more President of the Republic of Srpska Milorad Dodik waves during the final campaign rally in the Serb mini-state and even
than 100,000 people dead Bosnian town of Banja Luka, 240 kms northwest of Sarajevo, Friday, Oct. 5, 2018. threatened in a speech to
and millions homeless. Associated Press fire any worker from a pub-
Bosnia today consists of a lic company who votes for
Serb entity, a Muslim-Croat The vote is seen as a test be eligible for EU integra- sion has been one of the an opposition coalition.
entity and a central gov- of whether a place rav- tion. main political strategies for Russian President Vladimir
ernment that holds both aged by ethnic war and But campaigning in Bos- a long time." Putin has endorsed Dodik,
together loosely. Voters are unemployment will move nia has offered little hope The election's main focus who as a member of the
choosing the three mem- closer to European Union of change, with leaders in has been on Bosnian Serb presidency would likely
bers of the Bosnian presi- and NATO membership or both the Serb mini-state President Milorad Dodik's strengthen Russia's role in
dency, the president of the remain mired by historical and the Muslim-Croat part bid to win a seat in the mul- Bosnia and undermine the
Bosnian Serb entity, assem- resentments. of the country sticking to tiethnic presidency. Dodik country's already fragile
bly seats at all levels and Alarmed by mounting Rus- their divisive rhetoric. advocates the eventual multiethnic institutions.
cantonal authorities. sian influence, the West re- "The discussion is largely separation of Serbs from No reliable public opin-
The results could determine cently has renewed its push empty of any issues of con- the rest of the country, the ion polls exist to predict
whether Bosnia is strength- to encourage Balkan na- cern for the citizens," said same goal that helped fuel the election's outcome.
ened as a unified, multieth- tions to solve the disputes analyst Adnan Huskic. "In- the war. Campaigning has been
nic country or fragments stemming from the 1990s voking conflict or basically In a challenge to Dodik, marred by accusations of
again along ethnic lines. breakup of Yugoslavia to scaring people into submis- thousands of people joined irregularities.q

Ceaseless persecution marks the Yazidis' history

Associated Press trol in Syria and Iraq over escaped to Mount Sinjar,
BEIRUT (AP) — Over the past the past three years. where most were eventual-
centuries, the Yazidi com- An isolated religious minor- ly rescued by U.S.-backed
munity, one of Iraq's oldest ity, the Yazidis have been Kurdish forces.
religious minorities, has re- persecuted for centuries. In November 2015, Kurdish
peatedly been subjected Many Muslim sects con- militias with close support
to brutal attacks leaving sider them infidels; many of U.S.-led coalition aircraft,
thousands of its members Iraqis falsely see them as drove IS out of Sinjar.
dead. One of their worst worshippers of Satan. They Before IS rose to power, the
subjugations occurred four speak Kurdish and their tra- Yazidis were the subjects of
years ago with the rise of ditions are amalgamated, one of the deadliest single
the extremist Islamic State borrowing from Christianity, attacks after the 2003 U.S.-
group. Islam and the ancient Per- led invasion of Iraq. On Aug
IS committed genocide The sun sets as women visit a Yazidi shrine overlooking at Kankhe sian religion of Zoroastrian- 14, 2007, four suicide truck
and other crimes against Camp for the internally displaced in Dahuk, northern Iraq, in this ism. bombs targeted Yazidi vil-
the Yazidi minority in Iraq as Wednesday, May 18, 2016 file photo. In August 2014, IS militants lages north of the country,
their power in the country Associated Press swept into Sinjar, the ances- killing some 400 people
peaked in the summer of tral homeland of the Yazidis and wounding many more.
2014. led Nobel Peace Prize win- Sunni militant group took near the Syrian border, af- The attack was carried by
Hundreds of Yazidi women ner Nadia Murad who told control of Iraq's northwest ter capturing the northern out by the Islamic State in
were captured, taken as the world of the horrors she four years ago. city of Mosul and declaring Iraq, IS's predecessor.
sex slaves and subjected and her community experi- About 3,000 Yazidis still re- an Islamic caliphate across During the Ottoman em-
to horrific abuse by the ex- enced. main missing, most thought large areas of Iraq and pire, Yazidis were subjected
tremists. Some managed to About 5,000 Yazidi men to have been killed in the neighboring Syria. to several massacres in the
flee, including newly laurel- were killed by IS when the war that rolled back IS con- Tens of thousands of Yazidis 18th and 19th century.q