First as an informal group of citizens and later as an association, members of ADOPT Srebrenica created a neutral space where they can freely talk about the past, the events of the war, its consequences, and current affairs. Their aim is to foster sustainable coexistence, a more promising future, and mutual reconciliation.
The third edition of the Srebrenica Youth School, which was held as part of the 27th anniversary of the genocide in Srebrenica, was characterized by participants as a useful and educational experience.
During the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, many religious buildings and structures were demolished, and items, including Holy Books (the Qur'an, Bible, Torah, and Haggadah), were burned or displaced. Numerous families of different ethnicities have preserved some of these items and once they got the opportunity, they returned them to where they belong.
In Višegrad, which was subjected to one of the most ruthless ethnic cleansing campaigns during the war, Bosniak returnees we visited claim that interethnic relations are currently friendly, but that if there was no tourism around the famous Mehmed Pasha Sokolović Bridge and the Višegrad hydroelectric power plant “the city would be dead.“
The “Love Tales” project allowed our correspondents to tell ordinary people’s stories through research and fieldwork. Despite the obstacles society has unfairly placed before these interethnic couples, they have prevailed in telling their stories.
Adisa and Vehid Ahmedović have been married for 27 years. They say it feels like they have been married for at least twice as much. Because they work together they are always next to each other. They were both born in Kakanj, where they still live today. They got married at a young age. Vehid, known as Crni, was 23 at the time, and Adisa was 18. They got married during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in 1993.