‘When you look at such terrible misfortune, you become overwhelmingly aware that first of all you are a human being, that your nationality is secondary. Humanity unites us in misfortune, in experiencing it. If only people understood that.’

 

-Tadeusz Mazowiecki

UN Special Rapporteur on the former Yugoslavia

 

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*This isn't really my story as such, more a bit of prose to try and explain to you why the charity Most Mira does the work it does in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

 

Many of you will know of Bosnia-Herzegovina and some of you may have even been there and I hope agree with me that it is an extremely beautiful country; a real hidden gem of Europe. Bosnia-Herzegovina and the surrounding region is an unbelievably fascinating part of the world historically, geographically and culturally. It effectively where the Western world meets the East and has done so since human civilisation began. During the early modern period, the city of Sarajevo (now the county’s capital) was the most ethnical diverse city in the northern hemisphere, second only to Jerusalem. This melting pot of ethnical diversity remains very much in existence in present day Bosnia-Herzegovina where Catholics (Bosnian Croats), Orthodox Christians (Bosnian Serbs), Muslims (Bosniaks) and a handful of Jews live amidst each other. There are few places in the world that these major world religions and cultures collectively meet together. 

 

Many of you may have also heard that Bosnia-Herzegovina went through a major civil war during the 1990s (1992-1995) where the melting pot of ethnic diversity was first severely fractured by the rise of nationalism in Bosnia and all over the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia was one of a handful of former republics of the Yugoslavian Federation up until 1992) between Serbs, Croats and Muslims. When Bosnia was part of socialist Yugoslavia, all ethnicities lived under the banner slogan ‘Brotherhood and Unity’ meaning that everyone was a Yugoslav citizen, had rights as a citizen, and that their religion and ethnic origin was irrelevant for they all belonged to the same country and one nation. This banner, which debatably held Yugoslavians together since the Second World War, was obliterated, catastrophically shredded up, when the this rise of nationalism  in the 1990s essentially exploded into all out civil war between Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) which lasted from 1992 to 1995.  Some of the worst crimes against humanity were committed by all fractions during this war where we saw concentration camps, rape camps, sieges of cities (Sarajevo, the longest in modern history), scores of massacres of innocent people and an official genocide in the town of Srebrenica which stands today as the largest mass murder in Europe since the Holocaust (more than 8,000 civilians systematically killed in just a few days). 

 

Today, Bosnia-Herzegovina is being to regenerate itself superficially, but as you can imagine, the repairing and rebuilding of homes and cities has far from healed the wounds of war. Bosnia-Herzegovina remains very much a scared country full of memory and negative energy amongst the former warring parties. There are many things to be told to what happened to this country and its people during the war, but the one fact that will always stay with me is that many of these crimes against human life were not committed by strangers, but where carried out by people they did know many of whom where neighbours and friends. It is still very common in Bosnia-Herzegovina that the victims and perpetrators continue to live side by side as neighbours. Bosnia-Herzegovina is today a splintered region. This is not only very dangerous for a relapse of conflict, but more importantly, what future is there for the young people who will grow up in country full of xenophobia and racism? How could a countries harrowing experience civil war ever be relinquished? What is need, so desperately, are mutual understandings between all ethnicities and national reconciliation. However, this possibility is so much easier said than done and is arguably a naïve suggestion to make for the social reality of what now exists in Bosnia-Herzegovina is so vastly complex and difficult. I myself have spent some time in Bosnia-Herzegovina in places like Sarajevo, Mostar and Srebrenica and I can tell you that this reality of what the country has become is alarmingly and sorrowfully real. I remember thinking, after I returned to the UK from a conducting fieldwork, that we should count ourselves unbelievably lucky that our children and future generations don’t have to grow in a country ripped apart socially by war for it is an overwhelming depressing experience to endure as a human being. For what it is worth, I have self-philosophy which is that is takes so much less energy to be good, to love and to care for others than it does to be bad, to hate and to find the very worst people. A happy life is all about having positive energy and this is so desperately needed in Bosnia-Herzegovina today. 

 

Be this as it may, there is always hope and this hope very much exists in the form of the British/Bosnian charity called Most Mira. Here is a little bit of information about what this extraordinary charity does for children in Bosnia-Herzegovina in the very real hope that these young people will grow up in a country where war and hatred are not the first thing they learn about their ethnically different neighbour, but love and long lasting human friendship:  

  

Most Mira was founded in 2005 and means “bridge of peace” in Bosnian. Our work uses the dynamism of the arts to support young people to create new friendships and become leaders in their community, which we believe is fundamental for building peace across the region. 

 

Most Mira holds a youth arts festivals each year for 500 school children, building leadership and friendship through arts and play. Every spring nearly 100 volunteers, including students, artists, performers, musicians and other professionals from around the world gather in northern Bosnia to facilitate workshops that offer new experiences for children to discover talents and develop skills. These arts workshops culminate in a Festival Day for the local community including parents to showcase the creativity, friendships and diversity of the children.  

 

Most Mira’s aim: to promote understanding and a peaceful shared future among young people from all ethnic groups in Prijedor and Bosnia-Herzegovina. 

  

On the 20 of June 2011 Most Mira was awarded the coveted ERSTE Foundation Award for Social Integration 2011 in Prague. 

 

You can find out a great deal more on Most Mira's website: http://www.mostmiraproject.org/

 

 

I am aiming to complete the half-marathon (21 km) in 1 hour and 50 minutes and am training almost everyday whilst also training to be a history teacher!