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Understanding Yugoslavia (Part II) | Balkan Diskurs
Marion Pineau
May 29th, 2015
]Marion Pineau continues her exploration of Yugo-nostalgia, exploring its emergence in multiple forms across the former Yugoslavia.
In the northern province of Vojvodina in Serbia, one man has set up Yugoland, a place dedicated to Tito and Yugoslavia — a replica of sorts that serves as a memorial and pays homage to the former republic in an effort to re-create the “old, happy days.” To Blasko Gabric, the owner and founder of Yugoland, Yugoslavia meant “peace.” He states, “We had peace. We had brotherhood. They said we had artificial brotherhood and unity. I say, ‘I like artificial brotherhood and unity hundred times more than the war between brothers!’ No Bible can describe a more beautiful heaven than the one we had in our Yugoslavia. We had the most wonderful country in the world.”
In Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Caffe Tito is a nice place to relax and meet young people. The place exhibits a communist-era bronze bust of Tito and ancient typewriters and telephones. A large red star is painted on the floor; framed articles about Tito are hung on the walls; and the clock is stopped at five past past three — the time of Tito’s death. “In a way, we are all Yugo-nostalgic. We all feel like Yugoslavians, at least the people I know do,” says 23-year-old Nikolina, “and we know that we have the same roots. Only the name of the language and the name of the country has changed.” Her friend, Branko, 21, agrees, “When you ask people here if they would like to return to the time of Yugoslavia, 99% will say yes.”
The personality cult of Tito is also evidenced by the statues and streets that have been named after the former leader. In 2004, when the authorities in Sarajevo proposed to rename a section on the main avenue of Marsala Tita after the late Bosniak leader Alija Izetbegovic, it provoked a public outcry, forcing the municipal administration to keep the avenue’s current name. Hundreds of people gather at Tito’s statue in Sarajevo every year during a ceremony commemorating the anniversary of his death. Thousands more from throughout the former Yugoslavia gather each year in Tito’s birthplace of Kumrovec in Croatia and at his grave in Belgrade. Every 25 May, many former Yugoslavs continue to celebrate the Relay of Youth (Stafeta Mladosti), an annual relay race, which has commemorated Josip Broz Tito’s birthday since 1944. Such is the centrality of Tito’s cult of personality.
Even on the internet, you can find plenty of Yugo-nostalgic websites. The “.yu“ internet domain name remained quite popular on the Web until 2010. One of the most humorous is certainly Tito’s Home page, created by two young Slovenians. Here you can read, “Josip Broz Tito: [born in] Kumrovec [on] 7 May 1892 – [dead in] Ljubljana [on] 4 May 1980 – [on] internet [since] 22 July 1994.” The entire website is written in first person and you can send Tito an e-mail at [email protected] (he will most certainly respond). You can find archives of rare pictures, communist songs, and Tito’s biography, along with his entire bibliography and filmography.
Also on the internet is the Leksikon of Yu Mitologije (Lexicon of Yugoslav Mythology), an ongoing internet-based project, which is accompanied by a hardcopy edition. The massive tome of nearly 500 pages, edited by a team of Serbians and Croatians, amasses various artifacts of Yugoslav culture and everyday life between 1943 and 1991. The authors argue that popular culture was a completely unexplored and unacknowledged aspect of life in Yugoslavia. Instead of convening a panel of experts, the project was designed to involve all citizens who wished to be involved, believing that they were all equally qualified to identify and comment on Yugoslav popular culture.
According to Iva Pauker from the University of Melbourne’s School of Social and Political Science, Yugo-nostalgia and its cultural manifestations could provide an opportunity for reconciliation in the region: “While reconciliation certainly cannot be achieved in the arena of popular culture alone, it might be wise to broaden the focus of reconciliation research to also include popular culture as both a tool for reconciliation and as a barometer of its progress.”
Indeed, rational or not, justified or not, Yugo-nostalgia is present throughout the former Yugoslavia, and understanding why allows us to understand a lot about the region and its people. Tito’s Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia certainly had its flaws, but it was more than just a communist dictatorship. It was a real way of life.


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“Comrade Tito, to You We (Still) Pledge Our Allegiance” | Balkan Diskurs
Clara Casagrande
May 30th, 2015
On 25 May 2015, Balkan Diskurs joined the Dan Mladosti (Youth Day) celebrations at Cafe Tito in Sarajevo. Clara Casagrande and Marion Pineau explore attendees’ impressions of the event.
For 43 years, the last being 1987, the annual event of Dan Mladosti commemorated Josip Broz Tito’s birthday. It would draw youngsters from each Yugoslav republic for a three week relay in which a stafeta, or ceremonial baton stuffed with birthday wishes for Tito, was carried across all of the Yugoslav republics on the way to its final destination in Belgrade. The event culminated in the Yugoslav People’s Army Stadium, where the final runner would present the baton to Tito. Yugoslavs actively participated in the ritual each year for 43 years, writing birthday messages, carrying the baton, or cheering the runners along their route to Belgrade.
Today, 25 May still presents an opportunity for youth to celebrate around the region. In 2015 people gathered at Caffe Tito to listen to the Still Crazy concert and watch fireworks in honor of Comrade Tito, the much-loved leader of the former Yugoslavia.

source: news-balkandiskurs

license: Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

author: Clara Casagrande


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Kosovo: Exodus and Independence | Balkan Diskurs
Genta Nishku
June 2nd, 2015
“Anywhere from 25,000 all the way to 100,000 have been reported to have emigrated since last fall. Why are all these people desperate to flee the country that only years ago they ached to see free?”
Seven years after the country’s declaration of independence, decades after the struggle against Serbian hegemony reached its zenith, Kosovo is left with little to celebrate. Pristina, a city which should have been filled with people commemorating the day’s significance, saw instead the familiar scene of mass exodus by Kosovar citizens (most of whom are ethnic Albanians) to Western Europe that has been the year’s refrain. Albanians are the major ethnic group in Kosovo—they comprise 92% of the popul
ation, while the remaining 8% is made up of Bosniaks, Serbs, Turks, Ashkali, Egyptians, Roma, and Gorani. People crowded at the bus station hoping to board a bus to Belgrade, where they can continue the arduous journey through neighboring Hungary into Germany or Switzerland, aided by human smugglers and traffickers. Estimates vary wildly and anywhere from 25,000 all the way to 100,000 have been reported to have emigrated since last fall.
Why are all these people desperate to flee the country that only years ago they ached to see free?
Part of the answer can be found in streets of Pristina, Gjakova, Peja and throughout the nation, where mingled with the footsteps of the emigrants echo sounds of recent protests. Earlier this year, thousands of protesters, led by Lëvizja Vetëvendosje (Movement for Self-determination) and other groups have taken the streets to demand justice and accountability from the government. At the center of many of these demonstrations was Aleksander Jablanovic, a minister representing the Serbian minority, whose blatant racism and dismissal of Serbian war crimes roused the discontent of a people tired of being controlled and put down by Belgrade.
At the start of this year, Vetëvendosje and other groups (including a group of mothers of victims in the Kosovo War) organized an action to protest the annual pilgrimage of Serbs traveling to celebrate the Orthodox Christmas liturgy in Gjakova. Tensions were especially high since it was known that suspected war criminals were attempting to make the journey. Shortly after this episode, Jablanovic was quoted in the media calling the protesters epithets like “beasts” and “savages,” loaded words especially when considering its targets in this context: mothers of those killed precisely because they were deemed ethnically inferior, whose dehumanization by similar rhetoric made their deaths justifiable. Even in his attempted apology, which came after various protests against him, Jablanovic continued to mock those offended by claiming he was sorry, but he did not know any murders had occurred in Gjakova.
The protests that were sparked by his comments spread from Gjakova to the whole country and people rallied not only to demand Jablanovic’s sacking (which did come earlier this month), but to make their discontent known about the sad state of affairs in the country. A major demand concerned plans to privatize the Trepça mines. Though the mines are an invaluable natural and economic resource for Kosovo, pressures from the Serbian government have sought to crush attempts at nationalization, signaling an intense support for privatization. Thanks to the public outcry, those plans are currently halted, but the fate of Trepça remains unclear.
In some ways, the valuable but neglected mines represent the wasted opportunities and resources in Kosovo. Unemployment rates are at a staggering high— over 40% of the population is out of work, with rates for youth as high as 56%—leading to 30% of the country living under poverty. There is also little progress in education. Though the number of universities has steadily increased, they possess little expertise and offer no haven for learning or the fostering of independent thought. Social services are lacking as well, with public health being a real concern. As the country sinks deeper into this depression, those ostensibly tasked with protecting the interest of the people continue partaking in shameless and total corruption. Just last fall, the UN rule of law mission in Kosovo (EULEX) faced serious accusations of bribery and misuse of taxpayers’ money—once again proving its inefficiency. Meanwhile, Kosovo’s own fraudulent officials continue being the biggest obstacle to economic prosperity.
It is fitting that the most visible sign of the seventh year anniversary of independence was seen in Pristina’s NEWBORN monument, erected as a symbol of Kosovo’s status as Europe’s newest country. The letter “E” was painted over in black: “E” which stands for exodus, exile, emigration, economy, EULEX, EU and for a country mourning its fate.
How painful it is for Kosovo that the commemoration of independence has taken this shape—its people fleeing in masses, the same imagery seen during the genocidal war resurfacing in the media, its youth languishing without hope, its mothers insulted in their grieving, its resources squandered by mobsters disguised as government officials and corrupt Western agencies. When the people rise up to say enough to all this, they are dismissed as troublemakers, violent agitators, and radicals. Yet, hope does exist. It lies with the people taking to the streets week after week, demanding to be heard, working against the highest odds to make the vision of a truly independent Kosovo a reality one day.
This article was originally published at Warscapes, an independent online magazine that provides a lens into current conflicts across the world. Genta Nishku is an Editorial Assistant at Warscapes magazine. She works at Make the Road New York, a community-based organization working to advance social justice in New York City. She grew up in Tirana, Albania and holds a BA in Classical Studies and English literature from Hunter College.

created: June 2nd, 2015

author: Genta Nishku


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Stup: A Portrait of Bosnian Society | Balkan Diskurs
Clara Casagrande
June 4th, 2015
Clara Casagrande explores the Sunday flea market in Stup, reflecting on the social and cultural paradoxes found in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Bosnia-Herzegovina has undergone significant change since independence and the end of the Bosnian war. The society, however, is still in transition and is struggling to find its place in the world. Sunday’s Flea Market in Stup, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Sarajevo, is a perfect representation of current society and symbolizes the essence of Bosnian culture
The market map summarizes the divisions and inequalities that exist within the country. Bosnia’s ethnically diverse society consists of three constituent groups: Serbs, Bosniaks and Croats. In Bosnia, rights are given based on ethnic affiliation, but these three groups are the only ones that enjoy full rights. Discriminatory political structures and social biases prevent minorities such as Jews and Roma from full representation within the government and society at large.
On your way to the market, do not be fooled by the profusion of sellers on the side of the road – those are the latecomers who were not able to get a more coveted spot inside of the market. These outsiders sell all kinds of things, but memorabilia from a more prosperous Yugoslav era overwhelms the road to the market.
The more affluent vendors are at the entrance, selling a plethora of brand new Made-in-China products. Amid this vast diversity of products and the colorful array of clothing, the struggle to earn one’s daily bread continues. Along the aisles of the market, you can witness Bosnian creativity in all its splendor – from roasted lamb to cheap cevapi; from vintage bags to old-fashioned bikes, you can find everything you are looking for in Stup.
Passing the Islamic tombstones, you cross an imaginary line to arrive on the edge of the market. As is the case in Bosnian society, the Roma vendors are found on these outskirts. With their trinkets from a futuristic past, and their knick-knacks of unknown origin, these outsiders are always willing to bargain all the way to that final sale.
If you ever go to Sarajevo, witness, experience and enjoy a trip to a market rife with culture and heritage!

created: June 4th, 2015


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Mothers of Srebrenica: An Ongoing Fight for Truth and Justice | Balkan Diskurs
Chloé Gaillard
June 9th, 2015
“I could never foresee something this horrible happening in Srebrenica. I was living peacefully alongside my neighbors until someone was granted the right to take everything from me.” – Zumra Sehomerović, Mothers of Srebrenica – By Chloé Gaillard and Marion Pineau.
In July of this year, Bosnia-Herzegovina will commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide. The Balkan Diskurs team had a unique chance to talk to Zumra Sehomerović, member of the Mothers of Srebrenica association. She agreed to share with us her sad, yet inspiring life story about her 20-year-long battle for truth, justice and ending impunity against the perpetrators of genocide.
“The toughest times are behind me, but it still hurts and it always will. I don’t have the words to express my pain,” says Zumra who lost her husband, brothers and many close family members in the 1995 genocide. Originally from Srebrenica, the tragically notorious city located in the eastern part of Bosnia, she now lives and works in Sarajevo.
“Life was good before the war. We had dreams,” recalls Zumra.
In 1993 through its Resolution 819 (1993), the United Nations (UN) Security Council established a safe zone in Srebrenica. However, in July 1995, General Ratko Mladić and his army overran and captured the town without any intervention from the peacekeepers, resulting in the deaths of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys.
“We have been sold out by the UN,” declares Zumra in cold anger.
After regaining her composure, she explained to Balkan Diskurs how, in 2007, the Mothers of Srebrenica filed a civil action before the District Court of The Hague to demand compensation from the UN and the Kingdom of the Netherlands by alleging that both are responsible for the failure to prevent the genocide in Srebrenica. After years of legal battles, the Supreme Court maintained the decisions of the District Court and the Court of Appeal of The Hague, confirming that the UN enjoys immunity from prosecution; a decision upheld in June 2013 by the European Court of Human Rights.
Even though, in July 2014, The Netherlands was ruled accountable for the deaths of over 300 Bosniak men and boys, Zumra still hopes that the case will be reopened and that the UN will also be held responsible.
“Unfortunately, I will no longer be here to see this happen,” says Zumra.
The Fight for a Genocide Memorial in Srebrenica
Despite the difficulties, the Mothers of Srebrenica won its fight to establish a memorial for Srebrenica in Potočari. Founded in May 2001 as a nonprofit organization, the Srebrenica-Potočari Memorial Center and Cemetery is dedicated to the 8,372 civilians murdered from 11-16 July 1995. This number represents the victims officially recognized by the Special Commission for Srebrenica established by the government of Republika Srpska in June 2014. The Mothers of Srebrenica association estimates that more than 10,000 civilians were murdered during the genocide.
The cemetery was not yet officially dedicated to the victims of Srebrenica when the first 600 burials took place on the 31 March 2003. On 20 September 2003, former United States President Bill Clinton formally opened the memorial to the public. Since that time, thousands of people gather on 11 July each year to bury what remains of their recovered loved ones. Although the majority of the victims were male Bosnian Muslims and Croats, burials include all religions and both sexes.
An Unfinished Process of Seeking Missing Family Members
“Twenty years on, families are still waiting for their missing loved ones to be identified. Unfortunately, finding and identifying all victims will probably not be possible,” explained Muhamed Duraković, head of mission of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) in Libya and Srebrenica survivor.
Thanks to DNA profiling, the ICMP has uncovered the identity of 6,838 persons. However, the process of identification remains extremely complicated. Many bodies were dismembered when Karadzić’s troops tried to hide their crimes by reopening mass graves to rebury bodies in secondary and tertiary graves.
He explained to Balkan Diskurs how, by using heavy machinery and transporting a mixture of dirt and body parts via trucks, the Army of Republika Srpska destroyed the integrity of the victims’ bodies.
“Moreover, many will never be found and some victims won’t be identified, as there are no more family members to provide DNA samples.”
Nevertheless, as of July 2013, 6,838 victims have been identified through DNA analysis, and 6,066 have been buried.
The Right to Return
The Mothers of Srebrenica association also encourages and helps survivors to return to Srebrenica, but this is also an extremely difficult task. “There is no coexistence, tolerance, or harmony between the different ethnic groups. There is high level of denial. Many Serbs in the Republika Srpska are proud of what Karadzić and Mladić’s army did in Srebrenica, and they are often celebrated as heroes,” says Zumra.
According to the Mothers of Srebrenica, much remains to be done in order to achieve their goals of finding and identifying victims, bringing justice to survivors and reclaiming a city that was once their home. Their mission is of crucial importance for the country’s future, as recognition of the Srebrenica genocide, by all actors involved, would be a monumental step towards reconciliation.

created: June 9th, 2015

author: Chloé Gaillard


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Watch Out - Car | Balkan Diskurs
Chloé Gaillard
June 19th, 2015
Vehicle accidents are a major concern in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as drivers speed and drive recklessly. In the last two months alone, at least three people have been killed and many more seriously injured on Sarajevo’s streets.
Vehicle accidents are a major concern in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as drivers speed and drive recklessly. In the last two months alone, at least three people have been killed and many more seriously injured on Sarajevo’s streets.


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Unemployment and Boredom as a Reason to Drink | Balkan Diskurs
Emir Redžić
June 22nd, 2015
Why are more and more young people turning to alcohol? Emir Redžić speaks with young people in Vitez to find out.
An increasing number of young people in Central Bosnia-Herzegovina are consuming alcoholic beverages, with unemployment, insecurity and boredom often cited as potential reasons.
“The more you drink, the better the party,” is a sentence often used by youth from Vitez and its surrounding areas to describe a well spent Saturday evening and a good time.
After sobering up, young people exchange their experiences and talk about who had more to drink, which bar was full, which singer was at which place and where people ended their night.
In addition to adults, minors often get drunk, and they buy alcohol in supermarkets without being asked for their ID cards.
Asmir Đelilović, President of the Fountain of Youth association from Vitez, said that youth unemployment is one of the key reasons why more and more young people are deciding to turn to alcohol.
“Considering the current situation facing the youth in our country, we should be happy if this trend does not expand significantly, because that would mean complete chaos and disorientation among our younger generations,” said A.R. (26) from Vitez.
Đ.S. (22) has a similar opinion, believing that the only way to prevent alcoholism among young people is to open new workplaces, such as factories, where youth can seek full-time employment.
Places that do not serve alcohol are not attractive to young people and they will avoid them.
“I don’t drink and I don’t approve of alcohol, but in an environment where most people do drink, I often realize at the end of the party that I don’t really belong there. On the other hand, those are my friends and I cannot so easily dismiss them because I too like to have fun and I like dynamic outlets,” said T.Z. (22).
According to T.Z., young people use alcohol to forget their everyday lives, which are filled with mass unemployment.
From October 2014 to February 2015, the Center for Youth Education from Travnik conducted research in schools in the Central Bosnia Canton entitled “Knowledge is next to Godliness.” The objective of the research was to examine the opinions of school staff and management, students and parents from Vitez, Bugojno and Kiseljak regarding the need to promote healthy lifestyles in schools.
Amela Mrakić from the Center for Youth Education said their results revealed that students do not have adequate knowledge about living healthy lifestyles, and that 4.25% of children aged 11-14 regularly consumed alcohol.
Mrakić said that the biggest issue is the easy access to alcohol at cheap prices, and the possibility to buy alcohol in almost any store.
In March of this year, the Center conducted a survey entitled “Mystery Shopper,” where three minors entered three supermarkets in Travnik to buy alcohol. Mrakić said that they were able to get alcohol in two of the supermarkets without being asked for an ID or being warned about the Law on Internal Trade, which prohibits the sale of alcohol to minors.
The situation is a serious cause for concern: data from Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Central Bosnia Canton lists alcohol as one of the main causes of premature death in the region. Over the past year, there were 60 cases of domestic violence, 201 traffic accidents and 195 cases of public disturbance, all of which were due to alcohol consumption by minor and adult perpetrators alike.

author: Emir Redžić


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Society Shuns Young Alcoholics | Balkan Diskurs
Erna Duratović
June 23rd, 2015
Why do young people in Prijedor drink? Erna Duratović explores.
When young people encounter difficulty they often lack the support to address it and do not know where to turn for help. They end up turning to vices, the most common of which is alcohol. They try it for the first time around 15 or 16, and sometimes even earlier. They continue to consume it when they go out and it becomes a way of relaxing. Some of them continue to drink heavily without thinking about possible addiction.
Stefan (19) tried alcohol for the first time four years ago at a friend’s birthday party. Today, he drinks two or three times a week when he goes out with his friends.
“I feel better when I drink, I am in a better mood and am more relaxed. The single most common reason is to amplify the party, but I think it is a serious problem as more and more youth are trying alcohol at a very young age,” said Stefan.
Milica tried alcohol out of boredom when she was around 13 or 14 years old. Today she is 19 and says she drinks every time she goes out at night. Sometimes she even drinks at home.
“When I drink I feel good, less anxious and burdened. The most common reasons why I consume alcohol are boredom, anxiety and dissatisfaction with some things in my life and with life in general,” said Milica, emphasizing that alcoholism is widespread, but that bigger problems exist in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Dajana (23) drinks with her friends in the park because it is cheaper. She drinks because she likes it and alcohol relaxes her.
Milica (23) consumes wine and beer four to five times a month. Her reason is just to party with friends. “I drink moderately, not to get drunk,” adds Milica.
Almost all interviewees felt that modern forms of communication made them feel alienated and alone, and considered this to be part of the reason contributing to why they drink. The expectations that they have of themselves, but also of others, have changed in relation to past generations, because life moves at a faster pace and everything is available to the youth. One example is that underage youth can buy alcoholic drinks, often without an ID, though that is not in accordance with the law.
Marko started drinking when he was 13. He liked it so much that at 26 he is drinking in larger quantities every day.
“As I grew up I became increasingly attracted to it. I would wake up with the desire to drink alcohol. As time went on, I realized there were fewer and fewer people around me, some even warned me I had a problem with alcohol, but I didn’t listen,” said Marko, adding that he eventually sought professional help.
After prolonged therapy he managed to control his need for alcohol. According to him, if it were not for his friends, alcoholism would lead to his death.
In conclusion, poverty, the poor condition of the country, violence and family problems are just some of the issues driving young people to drink. Each and every person has their own story about why they started consuming alcohol, but the consequence for those who become addicted is the same: they are shunned by society.

author: Erna Duratović


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From Curiosity to Addiction | Balkan Diskurs
Ognjen Todorović
June 24th, 2015
Ognjen Todorović speaks with young people in Laktaši about when and why they first started drinking.
Stefan is 18 years old and did not want his identity revealed when speaking about the drunkenness of his past, or the drinking that he currently engages in several times a week. He tried alcohol out of curiosity when he was just 14 years old. Curiosity about alcohol showed him a way to escape everyday problems, but he ran into a considerable obstacle: his parents.
“My parents are against alcohol. They were the reason I learned how to say stop, because I didn’t want to disappoint or anger them,” said Stefan, who, while not identifying himself as an addict, does consume alcohol several times a week.
According to Stefan, alcohol is viewed as a way to relax. Still, he does not allow himself to consume it to the point where he is unaware of his actions.
Young people often start drinking to fit in with their older friends. Others say they started drinking alcohol for fear of rejection or with the aim of maintaining popularity among their peers.
Student Kristina Aničić from Laktaši recalled that her consumption of alcohol began at a birthday party where alcohol was the sole method of entertainment among the people present, all of whom were older than she.
“My reasoning behind going out today is to relax and drink alcohol. I simply don’t want to think about anything. I just want to sing and dance. There is no reason or occasion for going out, and with time, it becomes a habit,” said Aničić, adding that she sometimes feels ill due to excessive consumption of various alcoholic beverages.
According to her, she would sometimes go out with the intention not to drink but when she sees that everyone around her is intoxicated, she would start to feel uncomfortable and like an outsider in her social setting.
Mlađen (26) from Banja Luka believes that children who grew up with alcoholic parents are trying hard to avoid a similar fate considering all the problems they experienced as a result of addiction.
“I consumed alcohol for the first time at a friend’s party when I was 15 or 16. After that, I drank everything I could get my hands on because I was young and it was an important part of having fun,” remembers Mlađen, emphasizing that he no longer drinks alcohol in large quantities because he wants to preserve his sanity.
Mlađen used to see alcohol as a way to solve problems, but he now recognizes that alcohol in and of itself is the biggest problem.
“Alcohol is a part of our everyday lives whether we are celebrating or mourning. It is an inevitable part of every party,” said Mlađen.
The Center for Mental Health explains that anxiety disorders are most commonly found among young people who consume alcohol, second among youth who have suffered abuse and third among addicts.
An increasing number of young people are reaching out to the Center for Mental Health in Laktaši, which is encouraging and enabling doctors to become more proactive regarding prevention.
“When it comes to alcoholism, the ratio of men to women used to be 2:1. Today the gap is becoming smaller as more and more women are taking the wrong turn,” explained Dr. Jelena.
Patients who reach the acute stages of alcoholism are no longer capable of making the appropriate judgment when it comes to stopping their alcohol consumption and changing their way of life. Dr. Jelena explains that the detoxification process alone can last 21 days, followed by 6 to 12 months of therapy dealing with the motivations behind the drinking and other associated problems.
“I would advise young people to think carefully about their actions because short-term satisfaction often opens the door to self-destruction. The greatest reward for us as doctors is when we manage to raise the awareness of even one person. When we are able to achieve this, we feel that we are doing a good job. That person will then inspire awareness among their family members, friends, neighbors, coworkers and the like, so that circle is continuously expanding,” concludes Jelena.

author: Ognjen Todorović


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Reasons for a Glass of Alcohol | Balkan Diskurs
Sara Velaga
June 25th, 2015
Sara Velaga speaks with young people in Jajce to explore when and why they first tried alcohol.
Barbara is a 20-year-old student from Jajce. She first tried alcohol when she was 13, and had gotten drunk by the time she was 16. She says that she drinks on weekends or at parties, pointing out that it feels good when she drinks. She is used to the effects of alcohol: drinking allows her to have fun and forget about her responsibilities.
Like Barbara, a lot of young people in Jajce drink in bars and at private parties on weekends. This begs the question, has alcohol become synonymous with a good time?
Asja is 23 years of age. She tried alcohol when she was 17 and now drinks a few times each month. She says alcohol makes her feel good, but she also knows her limits and does not cross them.
“I consume alcohol to relax,” explains Asja, although she points out that many others drink and then drive cars, endangering others’ lives.
Valentin is 22 and a student. He says he drinks every weekend. He does not need a reason to drink, and neither does 23-year-old Boris. They both drink because others around them do it, and they say it is harder for them to get drunk today than it was in the past.
“We are Balkan men. We drink. It is impossible to change that,” explains Boris.
Anamarija, 21, first tried alcohol when she was 16. She drinks when there is something to celebrate and when she wants to relax. She thinks young people drink too much and become addicted at too young an age.
The Medical Center in Jajce does not have an exact record of the number of young people who have been admitted for alcohol poisoning, but staff noted an increase in alcohol-related cases during holidays and on weekends; times when youth aged 16-25 typically go out and drink.
Nevertheless, the Center for Social Work in Jajce says that it has five or six middle-aged persons registered as addicts. The Center’s Director, Indira Mehić-Čejvan, said they provide assistance to these people, but not in the form of material assistance that could be spent on alcohol.
To address this problem, rehabilitation centres should be opened for people suffering from alcoholism, where their respective conditions could be treated through a series of workshops and the provision of assistance.
What is really alarming in Jajce and across the rest of Bosnia-Herzegovina is young people’s apparent need for alcohol as a source of fun, happiness and fulfillment. Since the vast majority of young people interviewed drank alcohol before the age of 18, the question arises: Why are cafes and clubs not complying with the statutory rule that “selling alcohol to persons under the age of 18 is prohibited?”
It is impossible to eradicate the habit of alcohol consumption among young people, but it is certainly possible to respect the age limit and, thus, try to reduce the development of these unnecessary habits.

author: Sara Velaga


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One Million Bones: The Road to Srebrenica | Balkan Diskurs
Leslie Woodward
June 29th, 2015
Leslie Woodward, Co-founder and Project Director of the Sarajevo-based Post-Conflict Research Center, explains the organization’s planned activities for the 20th anniversary of the genocide in Srebrenica.
“One death is a tragedy. One million is a statistic.”
-Joseph Stalin-
11 July 2015 marks the 20 anniversary of the genocide in Srebrenica that claimed the lives of more than 8,000 Bosnian men and boys. On this occasion, the victims’ families gather to mourn the loss of their loved ones and to bury those unearthed from mass gravesites discovered throughout the country each year. Such enormous tragedy can be difficult to visualize for those who did not directly experience it, but the Post-Conflict Research Center (PCRC) in Sarajevo has stumbled upon a project that can help address this issue.
On June 8 2013, the world watched as thousands of volunteers from across the United States gathered on the National Mall in Washington DC to lay out 1,000,000 handcrafted bones. This symbolic mass grave was part of the “One Million Bones” project and served as a collective protest against ongoing genocides and mass atrocities in places like the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and South Sudan, Burma and Somalia. Word of the project soon reached the PCRC where the organization’s team began to contemplate: “What if we brought this project to Bosnia-Herzegovina?”
From 8 – 11 July 8, PCRC will gather more than 100 Bosnian, regional and international youth to lay 100,000 handcrafted bones in a location where thousands of Bosnian civilians were held against their will, starved and brutalized. These bones will occupy the very place where many Bosnians saw their family members alive for the last time in 1995.
“We want the ‘Laying of the Bones’ to not only serve [as] a way to connect the youth to the experiences of the victims and survivors, but to also serve as a platform, which will allow survivors to share their pain with the world,” explains Velma Šarić, Founder and Executive Director of PCRC. “This will be a difficult and emotional event, but we hope it will be something that our participants will always remember.”
In addition to this collective volunteer action, PCRC has planned a series of activities centered on increasing the youth’s involvement in the peacebuilding process and educating participants on topics related to moral courage, inter-ethnic cooperation and genocide prevention. The youth will then attend the 20th Commemoration Ceremony together on the 11th.
“We also have long-term plans for these bones,” explains Velma. “PCRC will be working with the Srebrenica Municipality, the Srebrenica-Potočari Memorial Center, victim’s associations, local and international NGOs, and artists to develop the plans for a permanent art installation and memorial that incorporates the handcrafted bones into its design.”
Velma adds, “PCRC is continuously working to bring young people to Srebrenica and I am always sad to see that there isn’t enough content to help people fully understand the gravity of what happened. This project elicits an undeniable visual and emotional impact on the viewer, and our plans to create an educational component as a part of the permanent memorial can help remedy this issue.”
The effort to bring the bones to Bosnia has not been an easy one for PCRC. Many donors saw the project as either too sensitive or too risky to support. The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the Council of Europe (CoE), the Swiss Embassy in Sarajevo and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) were among the few that saw this project’s potential and have played a key role in making the initiative possible. In addition, the Office of the High Representative (OHR) has provided in-kind support. PCRC has also set up an online campaign to raise additional funds to help support the participation of the project’s youth participants. PCRC’s greatest accomplishment to date, however, was gaining the support of Srebrenica’s leading stakeholders, including Mayor Čamil Duraković and the (civic association) Mothers of Srebrenica.
Mayor Duraković stated, “Many projects related to the Srebrenica genocide have been done, but very rarely do initiatives come along that have long-lasting impact and plans for future sustainability. This is a historical project that has the power to visually present the consequences of genocide, not only during the commemoration, but also in the years to come. This event marks the beginning of a memorialization project that solves an issue we’ve had about how to adequately relay the message of such an atrocity to future generations. We are honored that a local organization has brought this project to us and is willing to donate these bones in an effort to leave behind tangible results.”
Hatidža Mehmedović, Founder of the Mothers of Srebrenica who lost her two sons and husband to the genocide, tells PCRC that she deeply supports its initiative to bring young people from across the region and the world to commemorate the lives lost alongside the victims. “When we victims are gone, we want young people to know what took place here and we want the world to forever remember our sons, fathers, husbands and brothers that were lost to this senseless atrocity. I believe this project will help keep their memory alive.”
The Art of Revolution
The organization behind the creation of the One Million Bones initiative is the US-based Art of Revolution (AofR). Located in Albuquerque, New Mexico and founded in 2011 by Susan McAllister and Naomi Natale, the organization uses art to transform public opinion and aims to inspire creative action towards social change.
Natale, the Artistic Director of AofR, explains that the idea for One Million Bones came as a result of her work on The Cradle Project, a community based arts practice designed to visually represent the plight of the estimated 48 million children who have been orphaned by disease and poverty in sub-Saharan Africa.
“It was during this work that I recognized the power of combining education with the physical act of creating an artwork. It was an approach that could change people’s beliefs and motivate them to action,” Natale explains.
Shortly thereafter, One Million Bones was initiated with a series of awareness-raising campaigns and activities, including two preview installations of 50,000 bones in Albuquerque and New Orleans, Louisiana. Following these installations, AofR began its Road to Washington campaign, which enlisted volunteers in the making of the bones and the hosting of mini installations in capital cities across the US. School children, college students, artists, activists and citizens all took part in hands-on art making workshops to generate the 1,000,000 bones that were eventually displayed on the National Mall.
“We view the One Million Bones project as a way to address an issue almost impossible to fathom. The overwhelming nature of genocide often leads to hopelessness and the belief that one person’s efforts can’t make a difference. This project shows that many small efforts can add up to a profound statement, and this has become one of the guiding principles of our work,” expresses Natale.
“When we were approached by PCRC in early 2014, we knew that Srebrenica was the Bones’ next call to action. We believe the world ought to mourn with the Bosnian people, and it is our belief and hope that the presence of this artistic installation of bones will bring attention from the wider world to the anniversary,” explains Natale.
Balkan Diskurs would like to thank Danica Radisic, Central & Eastern European Editor of Global Voices, for her editorial assistance in the publication of this article.

author: Leslie Woodward


text:
In Search of Truth: Perspectives on Fact-Checking | Balkan Diskurs
David Schafer
July 2nd, 2015
David Schafer reports on WARM Festival’s ”Fact Checking Challenges” program, which discussed the role and technical challenges of fact checking in conflict reporting.
On 29 June, the second day of the 2015 WARM Festival, WARM Foundation hosted a program entitled “Fact Checking Challenges,” which featured an array of speakers from around the world discussing both the role of fact checking in conflict reporting and the technical challenges of fact checking photos and videos. Separated into two discussions, experts noted the importance of not only getting the facts correct, but, on a deeper level, verifying images and claims made by interviewees.
After a brief introduction by Robert Holloway from the AFP Foundation, Louis Jacobson talked about the origins of his organization, PolitiFact. Dedicated to fact checking the statements of politicians, the US-based organization emerged both in response to the large number of unsubstantiated claims and charges raised during election campaigns and the pleas of voters for a referee-type body to verify claims in the political arena. Owned by The Tampa Bay Times, PolitiFact conducts an average of 5-6 fact checks a week. Every aspect of a statement is checked, with a three-editor panel rating the statement anywhere from “True” to “Pants on Fire,” which is reserved only for the most incendiary remarks.
Following Jacobson, Peter Cunliffe-Jones of Africa Check discussed the origins of his organization, which, he notes, was borne largely from an almost “universal demand from people in all different contexts for the truth.” Africa Check, currently in its third year of operation with offices in South Africa and Nigeria, covers claims made in public debates. Cunliffe-Jones noted that any claim made in the public arena, but especially those unsubstantiated by fact or verification, can have deadly consequences. Africa Check seeks to promote a culture of accuracy in public spheres by calling out journalists and news sources for manipulating facts or misrepresenting information.
To provide a Bosnian perspective on fact checking in the media, Darko Brkan discussed the role that his organization, Zasto Ne, plays in holding politicians accountable to their constituents and election promises. Started in 2010, and borne from a desire to positively influence the election that year, Zasto Ne both conducts fact checks and tracks the election promises of public officials to see how much of their initial platforms were implemented. The organization has sought to engage the cooperation of different news outlets, while also publishing a bi-monthly newsletter on its findings. Its popularity has been newly bolstered, too, through a section on its website, “Unbelievable,” which highlights over-the-top claims made in the public arena.
Rounding out the first half of the seminar was Amr Sobhy of Egypt, the co-founder of MorsiMeter, an online platform created immediately after Mohamed Morsi’s victory in the 2012 Egyptian elections. Designed to track the progress of Morsi’s campaign promises, the site quickly went viral due to Egypt’s political polarization and the newfound ability of citizens to participate in the democratic process. The website is no longer monitoring Egypt’s political scene – it was only ever designed to monitor Morsi’s first 100 days in office – but its influence is still widely felt. Sobhy noted that, by seeking to hold Morsi accountable through promise tracking, MorsiMeter transformed the mentality of the average voter from merely feeling satisfied for participating in the electoral system to more readily engaging with the facts when making decisions.
Following a short break, the second half of the seminar began, with a focus on the technical challenges behind fact checking photos and videos. First to offer his input was Eric Baradat of AFP Photo, who discussed how photographs are easily subject to distortion and manipulation. He stressed the importance of paying attention to the picture’s caption, as mislabeled captions are one of the most common means to fake an image. Providing a different perspective on the fact checking of photographs was Roger Cozien of eXo maKina, a forensics expert with the Appellate Court of Paris who analyzes the forensics of photographs to detect the presence of fakes. He designs, produces and sells scientific software that exposes digitally altered pictures.
Slightly removed from photo forensics was Rasa Nedeljkov from the Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability in Serbia. Rasa spoke of the truth-o-meter his organization has started, inspired by PolitiFact, to promote political accountability in the Balkan country. Nedeljkov noted that the Center’s goal is three-fold. It seeks to: 1) Hold politicians accountable as individuals, accomplished though the truth-o-meter; 2) Fact check the statements of politicians in parliament; and 3) To analyze and subsequently publish findings on how politicians are spending tax money. To end his talk, Nedeljkov noted the importance of persistence and the need to constantly follow stories.
Ending this symposium was Margo Gontar of StopFake, who talked about her organization’s struggle to identify and stop the spread of fake information in Ukraine. This issue of fake information is compounded with the increasing popularity of social media and various networking sites, as people often “like” or “share” pictures without verifying their accuracy. Overall, the symposium on fact checking was engaging, interesting and important, especially for aspiring journalists and those who seek to dedicate their time and energy to conflict work and aid.
This article was published in collaboration with Warscapes. The WARM Festival took place in Sarajevo from Sunday 28 June to Saturday 4 July 2015. Run in collaboration with the Post-Conflict Research Center, the WARM Festival in Sarajevo brings together artists, reporters, academics and activists around the topic of contemporary conflict.

created: July 2nd, 2015

author: David Schafer


text:
Maydan: A Revolution in a Hundred Portraits | Balkan Diskurs
Marion Pineau
July 6th, 2015
A new exhibition in Sarajevo uses protesters’ faces to show another face of the protests at Maidan square during the revolution in Ukraine.
On 1 July 2015, the exhibition ‘Maydan – Hundred Portraits‘ opened at Duplex 100m2 gallery as a part of the WARM Festival in Sarajevo. Two days later, a discussion with the photographer, Emeric Lhuisset, took place at Kino Meeting Point.
Lhuisset grew up in France and currently spends his time between the Middle East and Paris. Across Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and Colombia, Emeric Lhuisset combines his background in geopolitics with his talent for visual arts, questioning representations of conflict and our perceptions of it. When asked to describe his work, he replies, “I am not a photojournalist. I would more define myself as a visual artist.”
With the exhibition ‘Maydan – Hundred Portraits’, Lhuisset introduces us to the Ukrainian revolution of February 2014. The main square in the center of Kiev, Maydan, is the site on which thousands of Ukrainians united in protest against government corruption and Russia’s grip on their country. The situation quickly escalated when protesters were fired upon by the authorities, leading to the deaths of more than 100 people, now referred to as the “Heavenly Hundred”.
“When I saw what was happening in Ukraine, when I saw that the government opened fire on the demonstrators, I couldn’t watch the events on television without taking action,” says Lhuisset. “So I decided to go there and see for myself what was really going on, to witness what was taking place,” he adds.
Lhuisset did not know what he was going to do when he hurriedly left for Ukraine. When he arrived in Kiev, former President Yanukovych had fled and his government had just fallen, the police had disappeared from the streets and, for a few days, the power belonged to the people. Everything seemed possible.
He started to compile a series of 100 portraits of activists and demonstrators of the Maydan movement. “The 100 portraits are in fact a deliberate choice,” explains Lhuisset, “in honor of the 100 people who were killed on Maydan.”
Lhuisset set up his material in front of the charred door of the City Hall, and photographed passersby without any selection or bias. Before taking the pictures, he asked just two questions, which people answered on a sheet of paper: “What would you like to see happening now?” and “what do you think will happen?”
“I could have taken pictures of the demonstration itself and people on barricades,” Lhuisset explains, before adding, “But I think this project shows better what’s happening in Ukraine, who these demonstrators are and what they expect and desire.”
Indeed, Lhuisset does not believe that you need to be “a photojournalist” or to “collect snapshots of action” to cover a conflict. In this project, Lhuisset wanted to both witness and understand the motivation of the protestors.
He then gathered the pictures and answers in a book, which was printed on newspaper stock “in order to match with the urgency of the situation.” The book and the exhibition consist of the same basic material: a tabloid sized printed newspaper of 224 pages. The 100 portraits are included, together with a reproduction of hand-written statements transcribed in Ukrainian, Russian, English, French, German and Dutch.
Lhuisset also chose a form of bookbinding that allows anyone to easily remove the pages so that they can be glued on a wall, thereby allowing everyone to make their own exhibition. He explains, “I wanted to give back the voices to the people and to do a democratic exhibition.”
The exhibition was first displayed in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. Lhuisset posted the portraits on the streets, “in order to counter [the Russian] propaganda and show to the population who the people of Maidan really were.” When he put the portraits in the streets of Sloviansk, one of the focal points in the early stages of the conflict in 2014, he was surprised and happy to notice that almost everyone stopped, read, discussed and sometimes even fought or debated the pictures and answers. “I think the project had a real impact on the city of Sloviansk,” says Lhuisset.
The complete exhibition, featuring all 100 photos, was later presented in Amsterdam in September 2014 and then in Kiev as part of the International Media Meeting. The conference discussed the topic of freedom of press in post-Soviet countries, but also in France, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and in Aleppo, Syria.
Interestingly, when questioned about the reaction of the visitors to the exhibition in the countries where it was presented, Lhuisset explains that the strongest reactions were actually in France. There, the National Front accused him of spreading the ideology of Ukrainian neo-Nazis and fascists, which is, according to him, “kind of ironic.”
Looking to the future, Lhuisset’s main goal is to travel further afield with ‘Maydan – Hundred Portraits’, so that it can continue to have an impact on people and show them a different representation of contemporary events in Ukraine.
This article was published in collaboration with Warscapes. The WARM Festival took place in Sarajevo from Sunday 28 June to Saturday 4 July 2015. Run in collaboration with the Post-Conflict Research Center, the WARM Festival in Sarajevo brings together artists, reporters, academics and activists around the topic of contemporary conflict.

created: July 6th, 2015

author: Marion Pineau


text:
Photojournalism’s Changing Relationship with Conflict | Balkan Diskurs
Chris Much Bermudez
July 8th, 2015
Chris Much Bermudez explores two examples of forensic and imaginative war photography, as well as the problems each encounters.
“The Forensic Turn” and “Media and Myth: Mass Media and the Vietnam War” exhibitions, curated by Paul Lowe, Monica Alcazar-Duarte and Ziyah Gafić, explore different angles on war journalism and the stories told by depictions of conflict. On 30 June, as part of the 2015 WARM Festival, the Post-Conflict Research Center’s (PCRC) Velma Šarić joined the curators for a tour of both exhibitions and a panel discussion on contemporary depictions of conflict and the role that art plays in reconciling a violent past.
This article will first explore the content and message behind “Media and Myth”, which was briefly touched upon during the panel discussion, but mainly expanded on by Alcazar-Duarte during her tour of the exhibition, before covering the panelists’ views on “The Forensic Turn” and its exploration of the role of art in remembering conflict.
Alcazar-Duarte’s “Media and Myth” examines how aspects of the Vietnam War have become ingrained in popular culture. One piece visualizes the ‘iconization’ of the AK-47 by laying out hundreds of thumbnails of the weapon from a Google Image search. Why is the AK-47 iconic? First of all, because it symbolizes the Vietnam army’s resistance to the better equipped US Army. But mainly, according to Duarte, because of the influence of popular culture. The AK-47 is a classic example of the glorification of weaponry and the seamless integration of this phenomenon into the media and modern society.
Another section of the exhibit is dedicated to Stanley Kubrick’s film Full Metal Jacket and its depiction of Vietnam. This section explores how Kubrick’s attention to detail in set design allowed him to make parts of London look like Vietnam. For example, Kubrick used explosives and a wrecking ball to turn the disused Beckton Gas Works in London into something resembling a war-torn Vietnam.
When speaking about this work, Alcazar-Duarte placed a particular focus on Kubrick’s “perforating mythology”. In other words, how the actual production of Full Metal Jacket explored the myth that was established about the war and consequently spread by the media. Kubrick showed how easy it was to transform London into Vietnam, simply with the use of explosives and careful placement of palm trees. He transformed one thing into another, artistically recreating a conflict.
Thus, the exhibition aims to re-contextualize Kubrick’s work, underlining the power that art and the media have in telling a story, showing how easy it is to mythologize a war and obscure particular narratives. In doing so, it also highlights how we should always be wary of information received from mass the media. These were the kinds of issues that inspired Alcazar-Duarte and the artists behind the exhibition to investigate the intersection between media, journalism, art and conflict. Alcazar-Duarte added that because much of the work was unable to be explained by captions alone, the artists crafted essays to further explain parts of the exhibition and the motives behind each piece. These served to confirm the idea that there is a lot more to be said about the artworks, but also war, than media often allows.
At the same panel discussion, Paul Lowe introduced his work “The Forensic Turn” with a number of probing starting questions: “How should you photograph the un-photographable?” and “how do you represent the past?” War photography often utilizes graphic imagery that incurs many ethical implications. For example, victims of violence or torture may not want a photograph of an injured, mutilated or deceased relative or themselves to be published because it may reawaken traumas of the past. Furthermore, being repeatedly exposed to explicit imagery may actually desensitize the audience to the conflict, dampening their emotional response and running the risk of them no longer internalizing the gravity of the scene being portrayed. Such a phenomena is of particular concern given that pictures of traumatized people and war-struck towns or cities are becoming commonplace in modern media coverage.
In response, Lowe’s exhibition aims to portray conflict without the explicit imagery to which we are becoming accustomed. Instead, it aims to portray conflict through the presence of absence. The exhibition focuses on artistically showing the audience the forensic element of conflict. One of the pieces, for example, lines up a multitude of pictures of shoes and sandals of missing persons, while another large print eerily portrays the empty bedroom of a missing person.
As Lowe explained, the forensic turn in photography aims to avoid victimization and ethical issues by focusing on “giving the banal a story”. By focusing on ordinary objects instead of people, the audience is invited to think about the conflict and the people affected by it, without having to see the kinds of suffering, destruction and gore of more graphic war photography. The forensic turn is a type of imaginative photography – it portrays what remains of a conflict in order to stimulate the audience to engage with what is missing.
After showing how imaginative war photography was born in the twentieth century and how it was developed by photographers such as Roger Fenton, the panel discussion turned to the problems that this kind of photojournalism encounters. Ziyah Gafić, who photographed parts of “The Forensic Turn”, stressed that though forensic and imaginative photography are seen as more independent and less of a ‘propaganda tool’ than other types of photography, they struggle to remain attention-grabbing and publishable. The mainstream media prefer graphic (i.e. explicit) war photography, because it paints a sensationalist, crude and violent picture of conflict that sells, even though the same images only give a single perspective on the conflict.
Forensic war photography frees itself of just telling that one story, but faces several problems. Firstly, it is less demanded by the media, or, in other words, those that employ photographers. Gafić bluntly added that photography like that contained in “The Forensic Turn” is often deemed to be ‘boring’, exactly because it is not as sensational as other kinds of photography, thus making it even less desirable to those looking for war photography. Secondly, forensic photography fails to fully escape the ethical problems that plague more graphically explicit photography. For example, Gafić did not consider how relatives would feel about him publishing images connected to a deceased or disappeared loved one when photographing the belongings of victims from the Yugoslav Wars. However, he found that the same experience also highlighted a positive ethical element to forensic photography. He explained, “once these [forensic] objects served their purpose, the forensic anthropologists lose interest, and the families do not claim them. And, in a way, photography preserves the objects’ value. Though they have lost their forensic or anthropological purpose, they still have historical or personal value.”
Velma Šarić, Executive Director of PCRC, then added to the debate through stressing the importance of war photography in post-conflict scenarios. She noted that photojournalism is an excellent way of sharing information in public spaces, emphasizing that art and media are crucial in proliferating that information. Šarić discussed how PCRC uses the power of photography, permanent art installations and documentaries to visually present Bosnia-Herzegovina’s recent war-torn history to the current and future generations.
She also explained how photography, along with other forms of media, is capable of generating change and moral courage in times of adversity and rebuilding. Šarić explained that this was the motivation for PCRC and PROOF’s exhibition “My Body: A War Zone”, which opened on Wednesday 1 June in front of the BBI Centar, Sarajevo, adding how it is crucial to share stories, information and photographs about genocide and other atrocities in order to get closer to the truth about the past. In essence, only by understanding the past can we prevent similar actions from occurring in the future.
The floor was then opened to questions, with the ensuing discussion focusing on whether the story told by a picture can ever share what happened within the actual conflict, in addition to whether reconstructing atrocities is a manipulation of the audience and of the facts. Lowe commented that photojournalism theatrically “plays around” with the conventions of truth. Photography can be understood as a form of testimony – not a manipulation as such, but rather a reconstruction of events from the perspective of the photographer.
Alcazar-Duarte then closed the panel discussion by highlighting how projects such as “The Forensic Turn” and “Media and Myth: Mass Media and the Vietnam War” are examples of how photography is constantly trying to reinvent itself. There is no doubt that photojournalism is going through a scary, but exhilarating phase due to the ever-growing influence of social media and the Internet, and is becoming increasingly ethnically and artistically complex. However, discussions such as these both highlight how the field is responding to these challenges in ever more creative ways and remind us that the importance of good photojournalism is a matter of both artistic and social concern.
This article was published in collaboration with Warscapes. The WARM Festival took place in Sarajevo from Sunday 28 June to Saturday 4 July 2015. Run in collaboration with the Post-Conflict Research Center, the WARM Festival in Sarajevo brings together artists, reporters, academics and activists around the topic of contemporary conflict.

created: July 8th, 2015

author: Chris Much Bermudez


text:
Human Rights Watch: Telling the Story to Make a Difference | Balkan Diskurs
Anna Idzinga
July 14th, 2015
Anna Idzigna explores the history and everyday work of Human Rights Watch, an international NGO that conducts research and advocacy on human rights.
On the fourth day of the 2015 WARM festival, members of the Post-Conflict Research Center attended the Human Rights Watch conference with Peter Bouckaert, a member of the Emergency Team of Human Rights Watch, Emma Daly, the Communications Director at Human Rights Watch, and Klaartje Quirijns, an independent documentary maker.
Human Rights Watch was founded in 1978 under the name Helsinki Watch. In the 1990s, the organization was operating in the Balkans during the Yugoslav Wars – a conflict that would have a fundamental influence on its work. Before the conflict, the main task of Human Rights Watch was to document the facts brought forth by investigators and later write reports about their findings. However, the horrors of the Balkan Wars were deemed to necessitate immediate international attention. Thus, while documenting facts remained an important task of the organization, it shifted its focus to facilitating the flow of information during conflict as a means of helping people.
Today, Human Rights Watch fieldworkers gather facts in order to both inform the writing of reports and engender immediate media attention. In particular, as many people do not have the time to read its detailed analyses, the organization tries to disseminate these facts and gain the attention of policy makers through as many channels as possible, such as press releases, blogs and social media channels.
To demonstrate the importance of providing information about conflicts to the public, Bouckaert showed the audience a video about the conflict in the Central African Republic. Bouckaert first arrived in the Central African Republic in 2006, by which point hundreds of thousands of people had fled their homes. He, together with his Emergency Team, then travelled throughout the country and talked to local communities as part of a fact finding mission designed to uncover, document and report the true horrors of the conflict. In 2013, after the anti-Muslim rebel movement Anti-Balaka emerged in same country, Bouckaert again went to local villages to talk with them about the actions they were undertaking.
Both cases are examples of how Human Rights Watch goes about its everyday work. The organization believes in the power of telling stories. Staff also believe that if they do not tell the story then no one else will. By putting people in the field, while working together with people who experienced the conflict, they aim to accurately publish facts with the goal of stopping human rights abuses. In this way, they try to put pressure on governments to intervene in conflicts. In September 2014, this worked in the Central African Republic, as a United Nations peacekeeping team was sent and the worst of the violence stopped.
Yet with all the media attention Human Rights Watch attracts, one might view the organization’s staff more as journalists than as criminal investigators. However, Bouckaert and Daly explained that this is a misconception. According to them, the task of a journalist is to tell a story, but the task of Human Rights Watch is to both tell the story and make a difference by putting pressure on the international community to intervene through the documentation and publication of factual evidence.
The panel cited several examples to underline this point of differentiation. Firstly, as opposed to simply checking the facts when visiting a site, Human Rights Watch fieldworkers also focus on gathering detailed information about the victims. Secondly, they try to find physical evidence that confirms the story, such as discarded documents or emails to superiors referencing their actions. Finally, fieldworkers also help people living in conflict areas to relocate to safer places.
The panel also discussed how the organization negotiates the challenges of reporting on the condition of human rights in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide. In each of these countries they cover both conflict-related cases and human rights abuses in general, but, due to security reasons, it is not always possible to have fieldworkers on the ground. However, this does not mean that they are not able to provide accurate reports. For example, the Syria Investigator at Human Rights Watch has conducted research through trained local contacts and activists for the last 10-12 years. In addition, recent advances in technology have increased the possibilities of ‘remote reporting’. The Syria Investigator at Human Rights Watch is also supported by a video expert who analyzes YouTube videos and satellite images to create a better picture of what is happening on the ground.
Finally, the panel also explained how a range of qualified experts support the work of Human Rights Watch’s criminal investigators and fieldworkers. One of the experts’ main roles is to check fieldworkers’ reports, verifying facts and asking the authors critical questions about the sources of information. This ensures a level of accuracy that enables the documents to be used in legal cases or by policy makers and governments. In addition, experts based at a regional level also help to decide which countries or conflicts should be considered as a priority.
Although it seemed Bouckaert loved every part of his job with Human Rights Watch, he admits that is by no means an easy one. Over the years he has found that, not only is it sometimes difficult to see all the horrors that happen in the world, it is also hard to lose so many friends through conflict.
This article was published in collaboration with Warscapes. The WARM Festival took place in Sarajevo from Sunday 28 June to Saturday 4 July 2015. Run in collaboration with the Post-Conflict Research Center, the WARM Festival in Sarajevo brings together artists, reporters, academics and activists around the topic of contemporary conflict.

author: Anna Idzinga


text:
Terror in the Central African Republic | Balkan Diskurs
Akvile Zakarauskaite
July 14th, 2015
A new exhibition depicting life during the conflict in the Central African Republic opened in Sarajevo last week. Akvile Zakarauskaite reports.
On Thursday 2 July, the exhibition ‘Terror in the Central African Republic’ opened at Java Gallery in Sarajevo. Part of the 2015 WARM Festival, the photographs by Marcus Bleasdale depict life in the Central African Republic during the 2012-2014 conflict. Bleasdale and Peter Bouckaert, the Emergencies Director at Human Rights Watch, covered the conflict through a fact-finding mission to determine whether or not human rights abuses were being committed.
The conflict in the Central African Republic began in 2013 when Seleka rebel forces (predominantly Muslim) seized Bangui, the capital. Even after former president, Bozize, fled and Seleka leader, Michel Djotodia, took power, his forces continued committing abuses against civilians. In revenge, the Christian Anti-Balaka rebel group initiated attacks against Muslim civilians. This cycle of violence continued until recently when a peace accord was signed by several rebel groups and the Central African Republic Defense Ministry (of the Catherine Samba-Panza transitional government) on 10 May 2015.
The work done by Bleasdale and Bouckaert was not simply an effort to document the conflict, but to bring the issue to the attention of the international community. During the opening of the exhibition, Bouckaert stated that they “didn’t want the international community to be able to say once again that “we didn’t know what was happening.” Though many doubted that their mission would amount to any action, Bouckaert credits the presence of over 10,000 peacekeepers in the Central African Republic and the opening of an International Criminal Court investigation on the crimes committed during the conflict in part to the photographs and videos taken by Bleasdale and others during the conflict.
This article was published in collaboration with Warscapes. The 2015 WARM Festival took place in Sarajevo from Sunday June 28th to Saturday July 4th, 2015. Run in collaboration with the Post-Conflict Research Center, the WARM Festival in Sarajevo brings together artists, reporters, academics and activists around the topic of contemporary conflict.

author: Akvile Zakarauskaite


text:
Decency in Times of Evil | Balkan Diskurs
Nevena Medić
July 15th, 2015
Maksim Marjanović, a retired teacher from the village of Skelani, risked his life to help his colleague Jakub Abdurahmanović and Jakub’s family. Jakub was murdered during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina and, 20 years later, Maksim reunites with Jakub’s wife Šehida for the first time. Their emotional meeting accompanied by the memory of Jakub tell the story of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Maksim and Jakub met each other when they studied together in Tuzla. Soon after, they began working together as teachers in Srebrenica.
When the war began, Šehida remembers how Jakub didn’t want to leave their apartment, insisting that he wasn’t guilty of any wrongdoing. She distinctly remembers her husband’s words: “If they kill me, they kill me.” Šehida recalls how she did not want to be separated from him because, in her words, life would mean nothing to her without him. Thus, they remained in the building, alone.
Maksim took special care of them during that time. When the phones were still working, Šehida remembers Maksim calling and saying: “Listen my Jakub, things are getting worse outside. Get your children Šehida ready. I am coming to get you.”
Šehida remembers those days vividly and fleetingly comments that “it doesn’t matter who or ‘what’ you are. All that is important is that you are human.”
“Maksim arrived as darkness fell,” Šehida explains. “At first I didn’t recognize him because it was dark. Then he said to us: ‘Let’s go downstairs.’ We put what we needed into backpacks and went to Maksim’s apartment.”
“My children were so scared,” she remembers. “Whenever the doorbell rang they would jump up and ask: ‘Are they going kill us?’ I will never forget when we were in Maksim’s room and he took out a gun and said: ‘Listen, sweet Zijada, don’t cry. See Uncle Maksim’s gun? No matter who comes to our door, they cannot harm us. It’s just like in the cowboy movies, Zijada.’”
“She then hugged Maksim, feeling protected,” Šehida tells us.
Jakub’s Determination
According to Šehida, Maksim went to the town center to check on the situation. When he returned, he was visibly shaken. As he has passed through the town by car he had witnessed shootings all around him.
“The thought that someone would come to the apartment to make problems for Maksim, led Jakub to decide that we must return to our own home. Nothing could change his mind,” recalls Šehida. “My Jakub was known for setting his mind to something without any further explanation.”
Maksim reluctantly agreed to escort the family to their apartment.
“The days passed in fear and anxiety,” Šehida recounts. “The stores were looted. We were never sure what kind of evil awaited us just outside. At this point, a possible departure was out of the question.”
One morning, Maksim called and told Šehida to make coffee. “As soon as he arrived, he began crying,” remembers Šehida. He spoke with her husband, saying, ‘You know what, Jakub? I am a decent man. I taught my children a different set of values. I am ashamed to be seen in this uniform. This would only be an honourable uniform, if I were at least able to protect you and the people with whom I have spent my life. I have decided that I must go back to my village of Brežani. If I must, I will die there.’
Maksim offered Šehida the key to his apartment. He told her: ‘If you feel more protected there, then go, but I have to leave.’ He embraced Šehida’s children and cried. “He probably sensed the evil that was to come,” adds Šehida as she recounts that moment.
She remembers Maksim telling Jakub: “If we stay alive and meet again, we will know who was truly responsible for all this. I really have to go now.” He then left and Šehida, who followed him across the playground, recollects how he put his hand over his face and cried.
A few days after the separation, Šehida remembers how Arkan’s “Tigers” entered their apartment to search it. “They opened everything in the apartment, but found nothing. One of them yelled: ‘Everybody get up!’ My son Zijo, who was in his second year of high school at the time, let out a distinct cry. Then, they removed my Jakub. In a Serbian dialect, one of the Tigers said: ‘You! Sit with the children!’ So, we stayed behind in the apartment.”
Shortly thereafter, Šehida received the news that Jakub had been killed.
“I hadn’t bathed in 10 days. When I took off my clothes to take a bath,” she explains, “I saw that my thighs were covered in bruises. I realized that my child Zijada had pinched my legs out of fear and I didn’t even notice it. It was then that I understood the trauma she was going through.”
Šehida had not seen Maksim since 1992 but explains that they still knew everything about each other. “Maybe he is fishing on the Drina,” she mused.
When Šehida told us her tragic story, we decided to find Maksim and contact him. When we found him, he was happy to hear from us. He asked us to bring Šehida to him because he didn’t want to return to Srebrenica. He believed that the people he spent the good parts of his life with no longer lived there.
We Never Wanted This
As we approach Maksim’s house, I hear Šehida breathing heavily. Maksim is waiting for us out front. He says: “Look at my Šehida, she is the same. You are just as I left you, you haven’t changed one bit.”
During Maksim and Šehida’s first coffee after all those years, they begin to recount tales of child’s play, first loves, and fights. They mostly speak of their sons Zoran and Zijad. “Those kids were inseparable,” they say.
Šehida also remembers the letters Zoran sent to Zijad. She comments that these letters can be a lesson to younger generations.
“Once we received a letter from Zoran via the Red Cross,” she tells us. “I was surprised by the fact that some messages were not censored. They used to cross out what they did not approve of with black ink. Zoran told my Zijo: “I am sending you this letter, but I don’t know if you will read it. If it does reach you, know that I am the old Zoran. I haven’t changed. I know that you and I never wanted this.’”
The duo sits together motionless. Their eyes are full of tears. For the first time, Maksim listens to the story of how his friend was killed. Šehida describes the night Jakub was murdered. She and the children spent the whole night on the roof of a school in Srebrenica. They didn’t sleep all night. In the early morning, they went to the hills above Srebrenica. They found accommodation in the first village they came to. Accommodation was easy to acquire, according to Šehida, because everyone knew Jakub.
“Something kept me restless. I had to go. I had to find him and try to bury him. I couldn’t stop thinking that dogs would rip him apart,” she says.
Šehida remembers that when she returned to Srebrenica it was “abandoned, without birds, and without people”. She says she did not feel any fear or sorrow when she buried her husband because she was in shock.
“I was going down the street and there were no birds or plants. Nothing existed. Cars were parked on the road with all of their doors open. All the Serbs had fled when Goran Zekić [Member of the Bosnian Serb Republic and the Personnel Commission of the Social Democratic Party] was murdered. I thought my Jakub was killed in front of Srebrenica’s department store, but people told me that he was murdered in a basement.”
“We went to the police station. Muniba told me to go down the stairs and I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I reached for the door but I couldn’t open it. It was locked. I turned around and told Muhamed, the man who had been helping us, “I can’t open the door, but I can see Jakub’s shoes.” He opened the door. At first, I couldn’t look. Then I quickly turned around. What I saw was a relief – he hadn’t been butchered,” says Šehida.
She explains to Maksim that after she buried him, it was easier for her. However, as she recalled these memories, there was a moment when she was not able to speak or get enough air. Šehida believes that, if it hadn’t been for her children, she could have never gone back to the village. She tells Maksim that she probably would have thrown herself off of something.
Maksim and Šehida remember more than just the bad times, though. They begin reminiscing about the good times as well. They speak of school days and hanging out. While on the subject of school, Maksim comments that teachers should never be nationalists or chauvinists. “Back then, it never occurred to me to make distinctions between children,” he says.
Maksim goes on to explain the internal pull he felt to help Šehida’s family. “I thought helping others was the human thing to do. Once, when I saw Jakub at the police station, I told him I would keep him safe. I told some police officers nearby to call me if those bastards came through. Even today, I remember their fingerless gloves. I later realized they were just ordinary criminals,” recalls Maksim.
As Maksim describes the war in Bosnia, he states: “War is like a flood. When it hits, all the trash floats to surface. All the decent people retreat. The trash stays afloat and, as long as it surrounds us, we cannot wash our hands of it.”
According to Maksim, everyone could anticipate that there would be a war. Even his students, who often asked silly questions, could feel that something was coming. “Children see everything,” Maksim says. “My student Sabina asked me: ‘Teacher, will there be a war?’ Although I knew the answer, I told her: ‘No my children, there will be no war. If, God forbid, there was a war, I only ask that you do one thing—take care of and support each other. Don’t allow national interests to create rifts between you. Help one another. This is what is most important. Only in this way will you be able to save yourselves and others.’”
This piece was recently awarded an honorable mention in the Post-Conflict Research Center’s “Srđan Aleksić Youth Competition“, which challenges young people in Bosnia to discover, collect, and share stories of peacebuilding, moral courage, and interethnic cooperation from their local communities, and is kindly funded by the National Endowment for Democracy. Through the competition, the center hopes to inspire youth to take an active role in the promotion of positive examples of people who are making a difference in the lives of others in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

author: Nevena Medić


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You Know What You See: An Interview with Monica Alcazar-Duarte | Balkan Diskurs
David Schafer
July 17th, 2015
Monica Alcazar-Duarte’s latest project aims to transform the general public’s perception of her home country of Mexico. David Schafer and Zuzana Pavelkova speak with her to find out more.
Monica Alcazar-Duarte’s eyes light up as she begins to discuss her most recent photography project, “Your Photographs Could Be Used By Drug Dealers.” She finds herself in Sarajevo after being invited by the organizers of the WARM festival to participate in several panels on media and myths, as well as contemporary photography and photojournalism. Speaking quickly, her remarks on the new project are interspersed with tangents and asides on the abstractness of art and on her desire to inspire interaction amongst her audience.
Alcazar-Duarte’s work was born from the fatigue she felt at constantly seeing her home country of Mexico represented in foreign media as a place of widespread violence. Determined to change what she perceived as a one-sided view, and passionate about transforming the public’s perception of her home country, for her latest project she embarked on a journey to document life in two neighboring towns on the Pacific coast of Mexico, Ixtapa and Zihuatanejo, in the state of Guerrero.
The title “Your Photographs Could Be Used By Drug Dealers” is essential in playing on the expectations of audience members, invoking their perceptions of the country shaped by the media.
She began the project with three objectives in mind. First, to positively influence the charged images that audiences have of her country; second, to use familiar formats and mediums of expression – photography and photo books – in an unfamiliar manner; and third, to question the way that we construct knowledge from images.
Alcazar-Duarte stresses that the work is “less about the photographs, [and] more about the experiences” of both the subjects and the audience, explaining that “you know what you see; you know it from what you [yourself] have seen in the past.”
The project itself focuses on the daily lives and activities of the two towns’ residents, featuring images from families swimming in the ocean at dusk, to moviegoers enjoying a film. The normality of these images is designed to stand in stark contrast to the project’s title and its evocation of the country’s ongoing trouble with drug-related violence, purposefully playing with the audience’s expectations and existing perceptions of Mexico.
The everyday nature of the photographs means that they successfully represent a “certain dignity, certain strength [inherent] in daily life.” Indeed, Alcazar-Duarte does not want to hide the fact that locals are concerned with the rising number of security and police personnel in Guerrero tasked with protecting residents from the drug cartels. The people of the region, she notes, are scared by the violence.
Yet, to truly appreciate them, one should not quickly scan the photos and simply move on. A second, or even third, look is required to appreciate their subtleties. Many of the pictures, for instance, either show or at least imply that something significant is happening outside of the frame, engaging the viewer’s imagination.
By using a photo book where each viewer can change the order of the pages and hereby re-create the story, a fixed understanding or single meaning is discouraged, while subjectivity is stressed.
Key to Alcazar-Duarte’s desire to portray the strength of Mexico and its people is the format of her project – a simple photo book. As an artist she is passionate about the fluidity of meaning, and her work seeks to provide a space for audiences to form their own interpretations of the pictures and to engage with each other.
By using a photo book where each viewer can change the order of the pages and hereby re-create the story, a fixed understanding or single meaning is discouraged, while subjectivity is stressed. As Alcazar-Duarte explains, “a person coming after you would see your version of the book. And that connection is exactly what I am interested in.” Indeed, by removing herself from a position of authority, she allows viewers to be the architect of their own experience and hopes to encourage discussion among viewers on the pictures. At times, when she is present at the exhibit, Alcazar-Duarte will also participate in discussions with audience members: “My presence adds another extra layer of information that the people are missing when I’m not there.”
From the work’s title and images, to the exhibit’s format and open forum for discussion, “Your Photographs Could Be Used By Drug Dealers” is an important piece of work for challenging contemporary perceptions of Mexico. At present, Alcazar-Duarte’s major focus is to grow this project and help it to expand throughout Latin America. The wider implications of her work cannot be ignored, and its success in consciousness-raising can serve as a model for future exhibits portraying the numerous sides to the struggles we face in our daily lives.
More importantly, if used in conflict and post-conflict environments, similar approaches also bear the potential of raising awareness and mutual understanding of different perspectives on contentious issues. Mutual acknowledgment by each of the opposing sides is often key to reconciliation processes. As Alcazar-Duarte concludes, this work emphasizes that though “perspectives can be contradictory… it does not need to mean that they oppose each other.”
This article was published in collaboration with Warscapes. The WARM Festival took place in Sarajevo from Sunday 28 June to Saturday 4 July 2015. Run in collaboration with the Post-Conflict Research Center, the WARM Festival in Sarajevo brings together artists, reporters, academics and activists around the topic of contemporary conflict.


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Alcoholism: The Socially Acceptable Disease | Balkan Diskurs
Lejla Bečar
July 26th, 2015
Lejla Bečar speaks with young people from Visoko about their views on alcoholism.
I am certain that everyone in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and probably everyone in the Balkans as well, have heard there is nothing healthier than to drink a shot of rakija first thing in the morning. This mantra, one that most children grow up with, has left its mark. I wonder: Will listening to alcohol being presented as a cure such as this, rather than a vice, result in a new generation of alcoholics?
Young people in Visoko divide themselves into three groups: Those who drink alcohol, those who hide their drinking and those who do not drink at all. If you talk to young people, you will find that almost all tried it for the first time when they were 13-18 years old.
Although selling alcohol to minors is forbidden by law, young people can buy it in most stores in Visoko without any problems. Nor will they have any issues ordering it in the most popular cafes.
Psychologist Nejra Dlakić cited the negative influence of young people’s surroundings as a cause of underage alcohol consumption, saying adolescents are “bombarded” with phrases such as “solace is in the glass,,” “drink-relax” and “drink to forget.”
“Song lyrics, regardless of whether they come from turbo folk, punk, rock or some other music genre, are full of calls to consume alcohol, glorifying the effects of beer, vodka or brandy. In that period of life, when young people are trying to find their place in the world, belonging to a certain group is something that everyone longs for, though in many cases this is unfortunately conditional upon a willingness to consume alcohol,” said Dlakić.
According to Dlakić, young people who have not yet reached maturity often fold to peer pressure, adopting drinking as a prerequisite to having a good time.
“Regardless of whether we’re referring to men or women, insecure people are vulnerable to pressure from their surroundings, but they are also inclined to reach for alcohol of their own accord, because they are convinced it is a solution at any given moment,” said Dlakić, adding that only a small number of people change the habits formed during this period of life.
The main reason given for those who have tried alcohol and stopped is often religion.
“When I was a teenager I was curious and impressionable and I consumed alcohol to fit in with others. However, I was raised in an Islamic family and was always aware that alcohol was forbidden. It gets you drunk and you lose your common sense,” said a student who considers himself to be a mature person and no longer drinks alcohol.
Adisa (24) also tried alcohol, but did not like it and does not drink it.
“Among my friends almost everyone drinks alcohol, mostly on weekends. I am there with them, but don’t see the appeal of alcohol, so I don’t drink it,” said Adisa, adding that she has no problems fitting in despite not drinking.
However, Nermin (21) admits that he started drinking to fit in with his friends, even though he did not enjoy it at all in the beginning. Today he thinks that there is no good party without alcohol.
“We usually ‘warm up’ with [a] few beers in Visoko, sometimes in the park, sometimes in bars, and then we go and party in Kiseljak, Kakanj or Sarajevo, because Visoko is dead after 11pm,” he said, emphasizing that no good story begins with drinking tea.
In regard to young people who do not drink, Nermin said: “They don’t know what they are missing.” Although he says he cannot imagine a good time without alcohol, Nermin is not worried about becoming an alcoholic. “I don’t drink as much or as often as alcoholics do, and even if I wanted to, I don’t have enough money for it,” he explains.
Most young people we talked to in Visoko typically consume alcohol two or three times a week and on holidays. When asked, “what does drinking represent for you?,” they typically answered, “relaxation and self-confidence.”
Many of those who consume alcohol and hide it are girls who are trying to maintain a certain public image and are striving to meet the expectations of their parents. They explain that they drink only in certain surroundings and in places where no one can see them. On weekends their routine is to drink wine in a park or at home when their parents are not there, then go to bars and drink soft drinks. They think that their parents would make a fuss about their alcohol consumption for religious reasons, claiming that they like drinking alcohol because it relaxes them and breaks the monotony of living in a small town.
Ajla (19) said that, despite having strict parents and a religious upbringing, she sees alcohol as the best solution for relaxing when she is nervous and has stage fright.
“There is always a hidden bottle of cherry brandy in my room when my exams start. It is the only solution to kill the jitters,” said Ajla, emphasizing that she does not drink socially, except for on some special occasions. She is aware that reaching for alcohol is not an ideal solution, but she hopes to get rid of this habit once she finishes studying.
What was common among all interviewees, regardless of whether they drank alcohol or not, was that they had contact with a person suffering from alcoholism. Everyone had at least one example of an alcoholic in their family or neighborhood.
So do young people think they can become alcoholics? Surprisingly, most still feel that it will not happen to them. Young people do not approve of alcoholism, but they also view it with a large dose of humor. Only those that were actually living with alcoholics saw alcoholism in its truest form – as comparable to an addiction to hard drugs.
Alcoholism is now a socially acceptable disease that will be inherited by the new generations who are unconsciously plunging into the abyss of excessive drinking, not realizing the chain reaction that is triggered. Creating a myth about alcohol as medicine and making it a socially acceptable disease is opening the door for young people to experience the hell of addiction without knowing that the risks are increasing every time they decide to take “one more’’ drink.

author: Lejla Bečar


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Youth Unite for Reconciliation | Balkan Diskurs
Erna Duratović
July 27th, 2015
The platform “Youth for Reconciliation” was recently formed with the goal to overcome prejudices and create a space for young people to express their opinions and contribute to the development of community while simultaneously gaining respect and appreciation.
Projects done by the Youth Center “KVART” from Prijedor, in collaboration with “Čisto srce” (“Pure Heart”) and “Optimisti 2004” (“Optimists 2004”), who belong to the platform have thus far contributed to better relations between the youth, as indicated by the large number of young people that have been included in the organizing and implementation of various events.
“In general, one major problem is the expectation of significant breakthroughs in a short period of time, especially in a society where lethargy, passivity and a lack of confidence among the youth is such a pressing issue,” said Branko Ćulibrk from KVART.
He views the increased number of cultural activities for youth, along with their increased active social engagement, as a significant result of his work and the actions of the Youth for Reconciliation group.
During its first year, young people involved with the group underwent an intensive training related to methods for establishing and managing a youth organization.
The group also organized “Street Art” workshops led by the famous Belgrade graffiti artist Artez. All participants had the opportunity to learn more about street art techniques and other forms of artistic expression. To conclude the workshop, all participants contributed to a communal wall painting, which was presented as a gift to the town of Prijedor. In addition, a workshop was held on paper recycling where participants were educated about proper waste management and how to use paper waste in creative and useful ways to create new paper products.
On the International Day of Peace youth from Prijedor and Kozarac decided to paint over insulting graffiti to show that symbols and messages that promote ethnic hatred in public spaces are unacceptable. In addition, they painted a small mural in Stari Grad, Prijedor, which promoted a clear message of peace and tolerance.
Representatives of Youth for Reconciliation are aware that these activities cannot completely change the current mindset, but they can provide positive steps towards improving young people’s lives. They point out that through sincere friendships and fresh ideas, at least a little light can be shed on a harsh present.
In the future, they will be working on cultural events, such as concerts, workshops, public performances, theatrical plays, and exhibitions.
This piece was recently awarded an honorable mention in the Post-Conflict Research Center’s “Srđan Aleksić Youth Competition,” which challenges young people in Bosnia to discover, collect, and share stories of peacebuilding, moral courage, and interethnic cooperation from their local communities, and is kindly funded by the National Endowment for Democracy. Through the competition, the center hopes to inspire youth to take an active role in the promotion of positive examples of people who are making a difference in the lives of others in Bosnia-Herzegovina.