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Yet the magnitude of the fallout from last week's interview Bosnian Serb President Milorad Dodik gave RFE/RL, in which he said that Bosnia-Herzegovina is a failed international experiment and that the Serbs overwhelmingly support secession, sounds ominously familiar to the build-up to the Balkan country's 1992-95 war, which claimed 100,000 lives.
Dodik has also said that Bosniaks, whose origins coincide with the arrival of the Ottoman Empire and Islam in the 15th century, and who were recognized as a nation in socialist Yugoslavia in 1974, want to dominate Bosnia and marginalize and subjugate the country's Serbs and Croats.
The Open Society Fund–Bosnia and Herzegovina (OSF-BH) is committed to the development of an economically and socially sustainable country marked by tolerance; good governance; and an open, democratic civil society. The fund’s programs focus on government accountability, education, women, Roma, and youth empowerment.
In a country still scarred by war, OSF-BH seeks to build a local civil society that is responsible for guiding the country’s development policies. It also tries to restore a sense of community and future among the country's young people through a number of programs that promote civic engagement.
The fund’s other education activities focus on advancing social inclusion, overturning school segregation, and facilitating long-term education reform through initiatives such as the publication of new textbooks that reject ethnic stereotypes. It also promotes anticorruption and good governance. It has been particularly active in bolstering local governments, helping them to become more effective and participatory and furthering local economic development.
In addition, the fund has been a leader in promoting Roma inclusion and empowerment. It has assisted in monitoring local governments to ensure they address issues of importance to Roma, provided legal and governance training for Roma, and helped Roma participate in local elections that brought candidates from their communities to office.
The Fallacy
The fallacy of the Soros approach to the Balkans is a simple one: belief that the erection of "civil society" precedes and encourages the growth of capitalism, when, in reality, the opposite is obviously the case. The United States began as an entrepreneurial society based on investment, contract, and accountability, which gave it the resources, both economic and political, to establish a democracy. Every society that has grown into capitalist prosperity and stability begins on a sound economic base and proceeds to develop institutions embodying civility and commonwealth.