November 29, 2017

Bosnia still struggling to overcome ethnic divisions

located:	Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia
editor:	Maria João Morais

Although more than 20 years have passed since the end of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, many signs of conflict remain visible in cities such as Sarajevo or Mostar, as reconstructed buildings stand alongside the bullet-shattered skeletons of structures ruined in the 1990s conflict.

However, not only physical damage maintains fresh and open the wounds of a conflict that caused the death of over 100,000 people, but also stark divisions still plague Bosnian society today.

In the meantime, international justice has been doing its job, as last week Ratko Mladic was sentenced to life in prison. The former Serb warlord, known as the “Butcher of Bosnia” was convicted of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Military Commander of the Bosnian Serb forces, Mladic was found guilty of atrocities committed during the Balkan, such as indiscriminate shelling, mass executions, sniper attacks or imprisonment in camps.

The verdict made by the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia was immediately greeted as a victory for justice, applauded by survivors of the mass-murder in Srebrenica and praised by human rights activists. However, even though one of the goals of the court in the Hague has been to promote reconciliation in the Balkans, harmonious coexistence between Muslims, Serbs and Croats is still a long way off.

From 1992 to 1995 Bosnia was the scene of one of the most violent ethnic conflicts after World War II on European soil. Despite the cessation of conflict, divisions among communities have deepened, in a country still embroiled in the legacy of war. The signing of the Dayton accord, an agreement that helped forge peace in the region, divided the country into two territorial entities, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina primarily inhabited by Bosnian Muslims and the Republika Srpska by Serbs. This split results in even greater separation of the communities, rather than bringing them closer together. Today, schools are still segregating according to ethnicity, enforcing the divisions of society from an early age.

Two decades after the ceasefire, the Hague Court’s verdict is an important step against impunity. Nevertheless, in order to ensure peacekeeping, efforts to improve reconciliation and coexistence between the different communities need to be stepped up.