In an interview with Balkan Diskurs, Sofija Todorović, a young activist from Belgrade, says: “The biggest problems of young people in Serbia, and the whole region, are ignorance and fear.”
Sister Blanka and Mualima Šejla traveled on quite different paths through life, but those two paths left them with the same desires and motivations. Sister Blanka’s journey began in flat Slavonian County. Mualima Šejla, along with her mother and two sisters were forced out of Bratunac, a town in eastern Bosnia near Srebrenica, during the war. Eventually, these paths came together in Livno.
This story is about people, from a small town in central Bosnia, making an effort to provide children with disabilities the support they need to grow up, receive a proper education, and socialize.
Amidst the few civic initiatives that have succeeded in transforming themselves into popular centers that thrive and expand upon the demand of citizens from different ethnic groups is the Mitrovica Rock School.
Daut Tihic, a former soldier of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Dane Vasic, a former soldier of the Republika Srpska Army, met on the Skelani frontlines near Srebrenica in the fall of 1992. Daut shot Dane and, for 14 years, lived with the belief that he had killed him. That was until they met again and under completely different circumstances.
“You see a lot of human rights practices and norms under assault all over the world. In our region especially, we are witnessing the forces of nationalism and populism and there’s a growing perception that the US isn’t as engaged as a steward for human rights as it once was,” says Cooley.