Problems in the Balkans are complicated...darn

After getting the chance to do mostly touristy stuff yesterday today my prof through us right back into the mix with 4 meetings and an hour or so of class discussion to remember why we're actually here. Research? Oh yea.

First thing this morning we met with a representative of the Muslim community in Sarajevo (Sparknotes history of Bosnia: war and ethnic cleansing in the 90s, atrocities committed by and against the three ethnic groups - Bosniaks [Muslims], Croats [Catholics], and Serbs [Orthodox] after the Dayton peace process the country remains ethnically divided). So meeting with religious leaders, since religion became a divisive tool in the conflict is imperative to the peace process. He emphasized the challenge of multi-leveled identities here in Bosnia your ethno-religious affiliation defines your history and your place in society. He said that the 20th century was the bloodiest of all of human history and to move forward we must learn how to live in harmony and tolerance or we will perish. There is no third alternative.

It is frustrating after meetings like this to know that intolerance and hatred is not coming from the religious community, after meetings like yesterday's with students and professors from Sarajevo to know that hatred is not coming from civilians, to meet with politicians and hear that intolerance does not stem from them and then to realize how stuck the society is, to see that ethnic divisions are written into the Bosnian constitution and no one seems to have the power combined with the political will to stop it.

Later when meeting with a representative from the Office of the High Representative in Bosnia we looked at the policy surrounding Bosnian license plates. Like in the U.S. where license plates are printed by state, Bosnian plates used to show the municipality of the owner. But after the ethnic cleansing of the 90s it is easy to look at a municipality and know a persons ethno-religious affiliation. This further institutionalized ethnic divisions, instigated violence, and hindered the freedom of movement of the people. It is crazy that such a silly thing as license plates that we do not think twice about in the states (aside from the DMV being annoying) played such a huge role in Bosnian society. To change the policy surrounding the license plates took years of political maneuvering.

We later met with the director of an NGO who's goal is to create "civic courage" and empower Bosnians to change their society for the better from within. Their slogan is "Imam petlju!" or "I have guts!" It was refreshing to finally talk to someone who, at the grassroots level, is promoting empowerment and positive change, but frustrating again to hear of the organizations limitations, the lack of response from the government, and the silent majority of society, and the lack of funds to do more widespread work.

I just got back from a meeting with a center that focuses on the identification of victims of the atrocities of war and information sharing with survivors about their own past. In schools each ethnic group is taught a different history with their people as the victims and never the aggressors. But the point here is to disseminate real, "fact-based truth." It was not until I came to Bosnia that I learned that some must distinguish between "truth" and "fact-based truth." The center has created one of the only databases of victims, sites of mass murders, graves, and destroyed buildings in the country. They teamed up with Google Earth (google is totally taking over the world) to impose the database on a map where you can see the GPS locations of all of the atrocities.

When we were being shown the database and the Google Earth tool the discussion seemed fairly technical until Viego (probably the cutest old man ever and our translator and guide for the trip) raised his hand and asked the presenter to type a name into the database, to search for the dead son of a friend of his. Immediately, the database came up with a result - a picture, a description of the shelling in a local Sarajevo market, and a tag on the Google map of where this kid died. Pinpointing locations on a map is one thing, but understanding the people and the tragedies behind it is shocking.

Walking down the streets of Sarajevo I have to keep reminding myself that the war I studied in D.C., the horrors that I hear about in meetings and discussions, they took place here, on these streets, to actual people.



A "Sarajevo rose" - when Sarajevo was under siege the city was being shelled by Serbs everyday and each time a shell left an indent on the sidewalk artists would follow when they could and fill the indents with red wax, to signify that someone died. It is an amazing public art project and also a little chilling to see when you're just walking down the street on your way to lunch.