The Bosnian Tragedy and The Graphic Novels

 

Safe Area Gorazde, a Graphic Novel by Joe Sacco

 

 

Yesterday, on January 30th, 2015 the appeal of some of the Serbians convicted of the Srebrenica massacre in 1995, were denied and the verdict upheld
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31053503

The Bosnian war took place during my years of training. I had a peripheral awareness of it. Those days of residency and fellowship were the most ignorant of my adult life. I was almost completely unaware of the world affairs and politics. Vaguely remember realizing that there is a significant Muslim population in Europe and that they were mostly at the receiving end of the atrocities.Now years later, I know many Bosnians. I go to Ridgewood/Glendale section in Queens twice a month. There is a Bosnian community and has a beautiful mosque on Myrtle Avenue.

GRAPHIC NOVELS:
Earlier this month, my niece gave me two graphic novels for my birthday. It introduced me to a new genre of literature. Written like a comic book, but containing serious material, it is quite popular with the millennials. Now that they are older adults, hence the popularity of graphic novels these days.

The two books I got and read were both serious material and dealt with the life under conflict or autocratic rule. First was 'Pyongyang" by Guy Delisle, a French Canadian who now lives in France. He traveled to North Korea, as a representative of A TV company, it gives a rare peek into the life of the most secluded country of today. More on that at http://ghareebkhana.blogspot.com/2015/01/guy-delisle-pyongyang.html

The other book was on Bosnia.
It tells the story of the tragedy which befell on Bosnia through the eyes, ears and pencil sketches of Joe Sacco who as a journalists spend considerable time in Gorazde. With an introduction by none other than Christopher Hitchens it is an easy to read treasure of a book.

Gorazde was one of the 'safe areas' declared by UN during the Civil War. It was raided by Bosnian Serbs two times but largely survived the massacre. It however was home to many refugees from other areas which fell under Bosnian Serb rule.

A graphic novel tells you a lot more than what is written in it. Each page has three to six graphic sketches. One can spent a lot of time absorbing the details of each sketch: facial expressions, the background, the devastation and the pillage, the gloom and the tyranny, the hope and the resolve; all are marvelously expressed in black and white pencil work. It is a much under appreciated form of art.

 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:

First a primer on the background. For details one can reference may sites. One reliable timeline is http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-17212376

In short, in my words, I understand the history as follows. It is an oversimplification, however.

Bosnia was the most ethnically diverse part of the Republic of Yugoslavia. It had a majority of Muslims (descendents of Slavs who converted to Islam during Ottoman rule) and rest divided into Catholic Croats and Orthodox Serbs.
 

 Pre and Post WWI

This southern Slav area was under Austrian annexation when a Bosnian Serb killed an Austrian prince in Sarajevo leading to World War I. At the end of the WWI it evolved as the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. During World War II Croats sided with Nazis and committed atrocities against Serbs. The Serb resistance was divided in two main factions, the Chetniks who were nationalists and the Partisans. Muslims could be found on all sides of conflict during WWII; they were either in  SS under Nazis or part of various groups. After the war, the Partisans eventually prevailed pushing the Chetniks to the side. Tito was a Partisan and was half Serb, half Slovenian.


Tito's Yugoslavia

Tito formed this artificial country called Yugoslavia, which had Serbia (along with Kosovo as an autonomous region), Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia and Montenegro. He managed to maintain his policy of Brotherhood and Unity without letting the grievances of nationalists aired. They eventually blew up when Tito was gone.

When the Iron Curtain fell, the first to secede were Slovenia, Croatia and Macedonia. The other two were able to leave the union without much issue, but as Croatia had significant Serb population, there was unrest and Serbs created a state-let of their own in Croatia.

BOSNIAN INDEPENDENCE AND THE CIVIL WAR:
Bosnia, on a crossroad to either go separate or remain in the rump Yugoslavia, run by Slobodan Milosevic, eventually declared independence. Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats formed a coalition and the Bosnian Serbs wanted to secede. Their leader was Radovan Karadzic, a Columbia trained physician. Civil war broke out. Bosnian Serbs quickly took over most of the east of Bosnia, while the Croats had north east under their control. The Muslim areas were then declared 'safe areas' by UN, including Sarajevo, Srebrenica and Gorazde. The last two were on the Drina River, hence called Drina Valley. It was very close to the Republic of Serbia, and hence under heavy Serb influence.



 Safe Areas 1992

Looking at a map of that time, it was like three or more islands of these safe areas, and they were connected to each other by roads through Serb controlled areas. The roads could only be used by UN convoys who usually had blue caps, hence called Blue Roads. These roads were often blocked by Serbs and many a times UN forces had been held hostage by them.

THE BUTCHERS OF BOSNIA:


The Srebsinica Massacre


In 1995 Serbs overtook Srebsinica and took the Danish Peacekeepers hostage. They let the women and children leave and kept the men. Eventually the Peacekeepers were let go and they looked the other way. Around 8000 men were massacred, the highest toll in post WWII Europe. It was after that that NATO decided to have the air campaign. (including the 'accidental' bombing of Chinese Embassy). It let to the Dayton Peace Accord and Bosnia survived as a confederation of Republika Srpska of Serbs and the Muslim-Croat Federation with a rotating presidency. Gorazde is connected with Sarajevo though a wider corridor and stays in Muslim-Croat Federation.


Killing on Drina River


 A PLACE CALLED GORAZDE:
Back to the Book. Joe Sacco is a Maltese born American journalist, who spends quite a good time in the besieged safe area of Gorazde (Gore-aj-day or Gorr-as-dee). The city was attacked in 1992 and then in 1995. Just before the first attack, one morning most of the Muslims residents found that the Serb population has vanished overnight. They knew it coming and were forewarned to leave.  In those days it is a war torn city, besieged, where people cannot go anywhere, have to survive on their own.

It tells the stories of common people with normal aspirations: Silly girls still wanting the true label jeans from Sarejavo from Sacco on his visits to Sarejavo, the mutual dislike of rural Gorazde and the urban Sarajevo, the gradual tensions and breach of trust between life long neighbors ie Serbs and Muslims and the realization that they could not live together again.



ANALOGY TO PUNJAB:
I could not help draw the comparisons and analogies in my mind to what happened in Punjab or what could have happened in Punjab.



The Partition of Punjab

Consider, for a moment, the former Yugoslavia as united India. At the time of Partition, the rest of India breaks away into different countries or states, and Punjab, like Bosnia,is one of them. It has Muslim majority but has significant number of Hindus and Sikhs. For examples Hindus want to secede and be part of a greater India, and there is a civil war. It would have been on almost similar dimensions. Same breach of trust between communities, living side by side, centuries old unresolved tensions found their way to be expressed violently and mercilessly. In fact it happened, although the sequence of events was not exactly in 1946-48 as it was in 1991-1995 in Bosnia. Punjab saw ethnic cleansing and Balkanisation half a century before these terms were coined.

Slobodan Milosevic died mysteriously while in custody, Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic are where nobody would like to be.

Guy Delisle 'Pyongyang'

Finished reading a graphic book by 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Guy Delisle 'Pyongyang'.

A wry and witty comedy about the life in North Korea. Gives a glimpse of life in a totalitarian regime. It tells the story of the author who goes to Korea as an animation artist. It seems that North Koreans are interested in the foreign artists as a source of foreign exchange.

A few observations.

• Every visitor was given a bouquet  of flowers apparently as a gift and then the guide advises the guest to go to the highest place in the city for a view. There you see the hugh statute of Kim Il Sung and everybody is expect to place the flowers there. So you are duped into paying respects to the great leader
• Every visitor has to have a guide and cannot go anywhere literally without them
• People are constantly reminded of the Japanese and Korean war and the atrocities of Imperial Japan and USA
• Father and son Kims are present everywhere. On the walls, on the shirt pins, on the mountains, on the buildings and if you do not wear it, you are automatically a suspect.
• He did not see any handicap person during his two months of stay
• Entire highways are build to take foreigners to museums honoring the Kims.
• Kim Junior, ( now since deceased) had composed many songs and directed many movies.
• The neck tumor of Father Kim has been photo-shopped from him images
• The only Communist dynasty in the world is holding on to its power with a strong cult of the personality.

God is Beautiful and Loves Beauty: A Lecture by Ali Asani

Attended the lecture by Ali Asani, a Harvard professor on this topic on Friday, January 23rd, 2015


It was one of the Annemarrie Schimmel Memorial Lecture. I have mentioned another lecture earlier in a post silsila-i-jogiyan
 
While she was the professor at Harvard, Dr Schimmel was a consultant at the Met. As per her student, Ali Asani, she used to travel every Thursday to the Met in NY to work on manuscripts and artifacts.

What he chose as the elaboration of the topic was how the word of God, the Quran is expressed in Islamic art.

He picked an example of various forms of arts. Auditory/Sonic, Calligraphy, Architecture, objects of daily use, like water filters and outer garments. 

AUDITORY:
First was the example of art in the auditory sense. This was the way the Quran was experienced by the Prophet and the early Muslims. Written form was there to document it and preserve it. The actual Quran was the oral version and rendition of it. That is how it was experienced by the faithful and is still the mainstay of Quranic experience.

He played three different recitations of the Fatiha and elaborated how each rendition had a different effect musically on the listener. He gave the example of Caliph Omar and how he entered Islam after listening to Quran while on a mission to find how and why his sister converted to Islam

CALLIGRAPHY:
Second is the calligraphy and the written form of Book. He showed a few examples of the artistic calligraphy of Quran.

click here



ARCHITECTURE:
Then in architecture. Here is showed how calligraphy is a part of the interior decoation of the Mosques dome and its mosiac's work
 





click here

ARTICLES OF DAILY USE: UTENSILS
Then he showed an example of a water filter which has quranic inscription in it and the words of Quran itself become the filter. As if the water is purified physically while going through the small pores of the filter, it is at the same time is being spiritually purified by the words of God.

Could not find a picture of the filter

GARMENTS:
Garments. There was an example of Quran as a talisman. Weaved and written on a tunic, the whole of Quran. It was to be worn by the Sultan under the Armour as a talisman to protect the king from enemy. It was interesting to see something like this, as I thought printing of Quranic verses on clothes is discouraged in Islam. I was wrong.

Talismanic-shirt.jpg

Here is another example

MUSIC (AGAIN)
In the end, the music. He showed a video performance of Rumi by Farida Mahwash of Afghanistan singing the Sound of the Soul by Rumi (mathnavi maanavi), telling the story of the Reed, as it has been separated from the tree. Similar concept is expressed in some of the Pumjabi sufi lyrics.
Sound of Soul

Touring Multan, with Shakir Hussian Shakir

Revisiting the Past

In a City of Living Dead

گدا و گورستان

https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasirgondal/16232140776/sizes/c/in/photostream/
During the recent trip to Multan for APPNA Winter Meeting, I took a city tour arranged for APPNA members and their families. I have lived in Multan during my first years of medical school at age 18-20. It is a city with lot of influence on me. 

And for the last several years, almost for two decades, for various reasons, whenever I visit Pakistan I go to Multan. I spend a day or two visiting my class mate Shakeel Ahmed of Biochemistry in Nishtar. We remisnice on our old days, usually have a sitting with old comrade Salamatullah, now retired from Forensic Deptt.  Zafri Shah, from Khanewal is always gracious, visits Multan and then usually accompanies me to a trip further south to Bahawalpur and Yazman. 

So I go to Multan every year, but hardly visit the city. Just spend time with friends and move on. I never feel myself as Multani, but do feel a certain sense of allegiance. Taking the trip as a tourist with a guide is always interesting and now I had an opportunity to visit the streets of the past, so I jumped on the tour bus.

APPNA Winter Meeting was arranged by Haroon Durrani, whose family is a centuries old resident of Multan. His father in law, Late Umer Kamal Khan, has written a book on Multan's history and has been pivotal in restoring the Library of Multan. 

The local host committe headed by Ijaz Masood and team had arranged a great program, which was toned down due to the Peshawar massacre.

For the tour they chose well the guide. Shakir Hussain a lifetime Multan resident, a literary person with a deep sense of Multani Pride. His guidance made it all worthwhile.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasirgondal/16071916029/sizes/z/in/photostream/

Almost all of what I write here is what I learnt from him. 

We started off from the Hotel, which is on Abdali Road. It is called Abdali Road as it is believed that Ahmad Shah Abdali was born in Multan. He was soon returned to Afghanistan and never lived here as an adult. There is a monument to commemorate that.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasirgondal/16070684790/sizes/c/in/photostream/





Multan, Shakir said, is continuously inhabited for 3000 years by now, making it one of the oldest cities.

The road took us straight to Bohar Gate. The old city of Multan has six gates, Bohar, Pak, Haram, Dehli, Daulat and Lahori Gates. 

I remember Bohar Gate well. During my time as a student, somehow I got fascinated by the Beeri smoking and switched from Gold Leaf to Beeri Smoking. It is tobacco wrapped in the Beeri leaf, which is dried kachnar perhaps. The place to go for beeri was Bohar Gate.

Multan is a city of saints, The oldest saint in Multan was Moj Darya. I always thought that a place called Pul Moj Darya was perhaps a bridge on a vigorous river, since dried. I did not know that it was the name of a saint.

The second saint to come to Multan was Shah Gardez, from Gerdez of Afghanistan. His tomb is inside the Bohar Gate. It is believed that in those days, the wall of the city was flanked by River (perhaps Chenab) and every year it used to cause havoc to the city during flood season. The first miracle of Shah Gardez was to put his shoes in the rive and order it should never flood again. And so did happen.

We toured the city along the wall, on the outside. Next came Pak Gate. Here is the tomb of Musa Pak, a descendant of Abdul Qadir Gilani and forefather of the ex Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.  Then came Haram Gate. We always thought it is called Haram Gate as it is the red light area and many of my college friends entered manhood through these gates. Shakir Hussain told us that it is called Haram Gate as it was the exclusive entrance for the aristocratic ladies of the times. 

Similarly Daoulat Gate is called so for the reason of having the tomb of a saint Daulat Shah. 

My first encounter with Multan was at Daulat Gate. My uncle, Taya Afzal, used to live there. He was a professor of Physics in Emerson College. As a kid I was there when another uncle of mine, Mammo Munawar, got married in Fort Colony Multan, we had gathered at Taya Afzal's house to prepare for the Baraat Procession. And when I went to Nisthar, he was still there, although retired for a long time. I spend my first few days in his house before shifting to the campus.

Back to the tour. We had the traditional breakfast of the city, Aalo Bhi Chole Pura,  a mixture of Potatoes and a vegetable called Bhi with chick peas and a hard purra. Made at night by women at homes and then brought to the streets by men and sold hot or cold. 

Part of the old wall is being rebuild from a grant by an Italian organization. It will restore the old look to the part of the walled city. Next we saw the Khooni Burj, the  Bloody Bastion between Dehli Gate and Pak Gate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Bastion#mediaviewer/File:Khooni_Burj_or_Bloody_Bastion_Multan.jpg

Thought of as the place where Alexander was defeated and the Tower was all bloodied by the defending warriors. But perhaps the name is due to the war between Sikhs and British.

http://multan.uniconconsulting.com/monument/index/KHUNI_BURJ.html

Right on top of the Tower is the Students Tazia, Shagird ka Tazia. 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasirgondal/16258049065/sizes/z/in/photostream/

Multan, famous for its Muharram Shia processions, has two famous tazias Ustad and  Shagird, i.e. Teacher and the Student. Perhaps at some time the Student thought that he can make a better Tazia than his Teacher he made one and now this is the place from where its procession starts.  Interestingly, Shakir told us, that most of the licences to hold Tazia ( which total more than 100) are held by Sunnis and not by Shias. Shagird's Tazia is similarly owned by a Sunni. That is a unique example of Shia Sunni understanding in Multan. Skeptics say it is the way the sunnis exploit the situation financially by subletting the licenses to Shias. 

The Tazia of Shah Gardez, where I had attended some shia majalisis as a student, is not taken out and is buried at the end of the month. Perhaps there was a time of prosecution and it was observed in secret. Now the tradition continues. 

Shams Sabswari, sometimes wrongly assumed to be Shams Tabriz is another well known saint of Multan. Now there is a big park around the tomb. In our college days, there was a big mela on the urs of Shah Shams. That was the first time I had seen a live performance of dance girls. Still remember the famous song Mathe pay sonay ki bindya lagaai  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHzBCqA5H8s

Then the trip to the fort. It is in the center of the walled city and hosts the two main monuments Bahudding Zakaria and Shah Rukn Alam. There was a third building, that of the Hindu Temple Prahladpur. It is here that the Hindu custom of Holi, started here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prahladpuri_Temple,_Multan

In the aftermath of the destruction of Babri Masjid in 1992, almost all of the Hindu places of worship were destroyed, including this iconic temple

Said to hear that although there is Hindu and Sikh population in Multan, they do not have a shamshan ghaat to cremate their dead. Now they bury their dead, the same way as Muslims. The intolerance has gone up with time.

Now they have built a Damdama view point at the Qila, and one can get a great view of the city. It was quite foggy on the day, we were there and could not see much, except the birds and the misty sky.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasirgondal/16070521818/sizes/m/in/photostream/

The old shop Nigar Khana is still there and you can get the cheapest deals of artifacts there. Sajid and Rubina bought almost all of what was left by others, for their new house in Orlando.

The Tomb of Shah Rukn e Alam, is the top most location in Multan and every visitor goes there. I had the question of the six pointed stars in the inner wooden door which I noticed the first time I visited the Mazaar after being aware of David's star, and asked the question to Shakir Hussian. He thought the resemblance is coincidental and must have been the innovation of the artisans without knowing the Jewish connection.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasirgondal/16257223162/sizes/n/in/photostream/

In this city of saints, the more recent entry is of Molana Hamid Ali Khan, the religious leaders of Rohtak Hasar migrants to Multan.  

In the end, on the way to the renovated Library, which Umer Kamal Khan help renovate, but did not live to see it inaugurated, we did go past the Graveyard where Attaullah Shah Bukhari, the famous orator and Deobandi leader is buried, perhaps in an unmarked grave.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasirgondal/sets/72157649848175670