BalkanThemes Volume 1: Issue 2 – Roma

November 3rd, 2014

Roma family stands behind a broken window of their house where they were attacked by the local population in Osenik, which is located 20 km west of Sarajevo (Credit: Midhat Poturović)

The second issue of BalkanThemes examines the rights of Roma and other minorities in the countries of former Yugoslavia.

Minorities Roma

The Humanity of Perpetrators: Reflections on Joshua Oppenheimer’s “The Act of Killing” (Part I)

How do we heal when the past is wrought with violence while the present offers perpetrators impunity and survivors little to nothing? Joshua Oppenheimer’s two films, "The Act of Killing" and "The Look of Silence", each offer some insight into helping answer not only this question but the many questions that linger after incidents of genocide.

November 17th, 2017

Katarina van Alebeek

Ferhadija Mosque Reopening: A test of tolerance in a divided city

Twenty-three years to the day since it was demolished by Serbian nationalists as part of an ethnic cleansing campaign, Banja Luka’s grand mosque, Ferhadija, was reopened on 7 May. Despite continuing tensions between the Serbian and Bosniak population of Banja Luka, the ceremony passed off without incident and marked an important date in the city’s troubled history.

May 24th, 2016

Lidia Kurasińska