Lessons from Bosnia's Arizona market: harm to women in a neoliberalized postconflict reconstruction process.

• Author: Haynes, Dina Francesca

INTRODUCTION I. ARIZONA MARKET IN CONTEXT A. Postwar Bosnia B. The First Myth of the Free Market: Achieving Ethnic Harmony Through Market Forces C. Politico- and Socioeconomic Engineering: The Story of Brcko and Its Relationship to Arizona Market D. Human Trafficking at Arizona Market II. MAJOR FLAWS IN POSTCONFLICT RECONSTRUCTION A. Lack of Postconflict Doctrine Addressing Women B. Postconflict Reconstruction Is Too Reactive C. The Donor-Driven Reconstruction Process III. THE DEMOCRATIZATION/NEOLIBERALISM/GENDER TRIFECTA A. Democratization in the Postconflict Reconstruction Agenda B. Neoliberalism in the Postconflict Reconstruction Agenda C. Gender in the Postconflict Reconstruction Agenda 1. Failure to Consider Gender Issues in Bosnia 2. Lessons from Development Theory IV. THE IMPACT OF NEOLIBERALISM ON WOMEN A. Privatization of Business B. Welfare Reforms C. Other Social and Labor Reforms D. Privatization of Property V. USING HUMAN RIGHTS "BENCHMARKS" AS A VEIL TO ACHIEVE A NEOLIBERAL MARKET CONCLUSION INTRODUCTION

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, (1) there is a vast and sprawling marketplace that sprang up just as the peace accords were going into effect, bringing to some conclusion three-and-a-half years of bloody ethnic fighting. The place is called Arizona Market, and it was created, fostered, and supported by the international community (IC) (2)--hyped as a shining example of capitalism and evidence of the positive impact of the particular type of political and economic engineering that takes place with internationally assisted postwar reconstruction. But even while Arizona Market was supported by the IC, it was also a place where men from the region would bring women to be bought and sold like chattel alongside drugs, weapons, bootleg media, and knockoff athletic gear.

The proliferation of narratives about what Arizona Market truly represents belies the market's short and unglamorous existence--the market is a mere thirty-five acres in size, only fourteen years old, and host to thousands of flea-market stalls. Many of the internationals present during the early days after the Dayton Peace Accords--mostly military, diplomatic, and humanitarian actors--pointed to Arizona Market as the one place in Bosnia where Serbs, Croats, and Bosniaks (3) peaceably interacted. As they protected the market and funded its expansion, these internationals spun stories about their hopes for its ability to bring about peaceful relations between warring ethnicities through the neutrality of commerce, notwithstanding the fact that peace was hard to come by in the rest of Bosnia. The international actors then extrapolated from this perceived success, stating that the success of Arizona Market in achieving interethnic harmony was an example of how the free market could overcome ethnic disharmony in greater Bosnia and perhaps anywhere in the world. For quite some time, the IC ignored the fact that women were being sold in the marketplace, like slaves at auction, to be sent to brothels all over the region and beyond. The IC turned a blind eye to the trafficking, even though (or perhaps because) some of its members were themselves purchasing and selling women for sex and other indentured services. When stories began emerging outside of Bosnia about human trafficking emanating from the hub of Arizona Market, the narrative abruptly changed. Suddenly, Arizona Market was described as a dark and seedy place, full of corruption and hidden, nefarious criminal activity.

The narratives surrounding Arizona Market are conflicting, but perhaps they all hold some truth. Arizona Market was in fact a place to buy the goods necessary for daily survival when there were none to be found elsewhere in decimated postwar Bosnia, but it was also a place to buy human beings to satisfy the sexual demands of the internationals. It remains a dark place, laden with black market activity and organized crime, even after the eventual taxation of goods passing through Arizona Market funded the democratic success story of Brcko, the town in whose shadow Arizona Market sits.

This Article employs the example of Arizona Market to illustrate some of the harms that emanate from the politico-economic engineering that takes place in early phases of postconflict reconstruction, in particular the harms that befall women. Part I examines the creation of Arizona Market, exploring the intentions of the various actors involved. Part II analyzes the activities that took place in Arizona Market and how the market's evolution was affected by local, regional, national, and international politics. Part III examines the negative impacts of those activities on women, the emergence of human trafficking, and the general disregard for women in the peacemaking, peace-building, and reconstruction processes in Bosnia. It also looks more deeply at the effects of neoliberal policies and projects on women. Part IV concludes with some observations about the problems inherent in postconflict reconstruction and internationally assisted economic transition. It also questions the soundness of practices that assume capitalism and free market ideology as necessary or inherent components of democratization, human rights, and the rule of law, especially when one result is the disempowerment of women and the creation of a market for trafficking in human beings.

1. ARIZONA MARKET IN CONTEXT

   As the war ended and the IC descended upon Bosnia, the country was not only transitioning from war to peace; it was also transitioning from communism to democracy and from a socialist to a privatized, capitalist (some would say neoliberalized) economy. (4) Admittedly, this combination of circumstances is somewhat rare in the postconflict reconstruction context. Nonetheless, this Article illustrates the risks of assuming that democratization and market liberalization are de facto the best postconflict transitional options, regardless of what the preconflict political and economic systems were.

   1. Postwar Bosnia

      The war in Bosnia formally concluded in December 1995 with the signing in Dayton, Ohio, of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina. (5) The Framework is a document reflecting the modern interventionist prescription for peacemaking and postconflict reconstruction. It set forth not just the conditions for securing peace but also specified the programs deemed essential to sustaining peace. (6) It went far beyond a mere cease-fire agreement, creating roles for the short- and long-term involvement of the IC in the litical, legal, and economic institution building of the country after the conflict.

      The four-year war in Bosnia decimated its fledgling economy, which had begun making the economic transition from socialism to capitalism after the death of Tito, (7) before the war began. In 1990, two years before the siege of Sarajevo began, Bosnia had a GDP of $11 billion and per capita income of $2400. (8) By 1995, at the time of the cease-fire, GDP had fallen to $2 billion and per capita income was estimated at $500. (9) By the end of the war, between seventy and eighty percent of the population was unemployed. (10) Those who did work were employed by governmental entities (e.g., police, schools, and municipal governments)--jobs awarded according to political party affiliation and ethnicity. (11) Of the unemployed at the conclusion of the war, some were fortunate enough to find employment with international organizations over the following few years. But reliance on the IC for employment created an extremely polarized economy and labor market in which most people worked either for the local government or the international administrative government. (12) It also created an economy falsely supported and driven by the international presence.

      The black market had thrived during the war, with black marketeers selling illegal arms, cigarettes, food staples, and identity documents, and engaging in all types of smuggling. It was not dismantled after the Dayton Framework was signed. Rather, the black marketeers and smugglers employed the same skills and smuggling routes they had devised during the war (13) and simply began dealing in different goods--from flour, track suits, and cigarettes to drugs, weapons, and human beings. (14)

   2. The First Myth of the Free Market: Achieving Ethnic Harmony Through Market Forces

      [The Arizona Market] became the model for the rest of Bosnia for stimulating economic activity and establishing a potential for economic reintegration.

      Colonel Greg Fontenot, U.S. Army (Ret.) (15)

      At the Arizona Market, stall owners and patrons come from all of Bosnia's ethnic groups, and even across borders from neighboring Croatia and Serbia to sell goods and find deals.... On a daily basis, Bosniaks, Serbs, and Croats interact, socialize, exchange information and sometimes discover how similar they really are.

      U.S. Agency for International Development (16)

      The ethnic hatred all share is put aside in the interests of need and economic gain, both powerful counteractive agents when it comes to prejudice.

      Charles G. Boyd, U.S. Air Force (Ret.) (17)

      In this atmosphere--with black market activity rampant--Arizona Market sprang to life, fueled by a need for the goods necessary for daily survival and by the economic, political, and legal vacuum that existed in the days and months after the cease-fire. At first, the market consisted of a handful of ramshackle stalls situated along a road known by the international military as Arizona Route. Named by the American unit of the international Stabilization Forces (SFOR) who primarily used and patrolled it, (18) Arizona Route linked the towns of Doboj in the Serb entity (the Republika Srpska) (19) and Tuzla in the Bosnian-Croat entity (the Federation), where the U.S. forces were headquartered. (20)

      While the IC may or may not have actually created Arizona Market, (21) it certainly emboldened the marketeers who were setting up shop there. The...