LOCAL PRESS

 

Vucic meets with UNMIK Head Tanin; Security Council on Kosovo on 16 August (Tanjug/RTS)

 

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic met today with the SRSG and UNMIK Head Zahir Tanin.

Vucic and Tanin examined the current political and security situation in Kosovo and Metohija on the eve of the United Nations Security Council session on 16 August, where the quarterly report on UNMIK’s work will be presented. The two interlocutors agreed that the presence of the UN Mission is very important for maintaining stability in Kosovo and Metohija both through consistent implementation of UNSCR 1244 and through engagement to realize the agreements reached within the Brussels dialogue. The UNMIK Head pointed to the necessity of continuing the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue. Vucic and Tanin also underlined the importance of introducing an internal dialogue on Kosovo and Metohija. They also examined the manners on how UNMIK, within its mandate, can contribute to resolving concrete issues towards improving the daily lives of the Serbs, Albanians and others in Kosovo and Metohija. They noted in the talks that cooperation between Serbian state institutions and the UN Mission is good.

 

Dacic and UNMIK Head on political and security situation in Kosovo and Metohija (Tanjug)

 

Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic received today the SRSG and UNMIK Head Zahir Tanin within his regular visit to Belgrade on the eve of the upcoming United Nations Security Council session on UNMIK’s work. They assessed in talks the current political and security situation in Kosovo and Metohija, the perspective of the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue and UNMIK’s performance. They underlined the importance of further unreduced engagement of this mission in areas vital for survival, normal and dignified life of the Serbs and other non-Albanian communities in Kosovo and Metohija. Dacic voiced gratitude for the invested efforts in the implementation of UNMIK’s mandate, along with the expectation that the mission will continue in the following period with its implementation in accordance with UNSCR 1244.

 

Zukorlic: RS issue opens Sandzak issue (Danas)

 

“Firstly, I am very much interested in the dialogue on Kosovo and I welcome and strongly support this initiative by Aleksandar Vucic. I think that all structures, all representatives of institutions and prominent citizens, as well as Bosniaks, should be included in this dialogue. The issue of Kosovo is not only a Serbian-Albanian issue, but also a regional and security issue,” the leader of the Bosniak Democratic Community and Serbian MP on the Serbian Progressive Party list Muamer Zukorlic said. He points out that the inclusion of the issue of the Republika Srpska (RS) in that dialogue would unpack the entire region. “There should be no talk of the RS in Serbia without Sarajevo. I want to say that if there was talk about the RS it would have to include Sarajevo but also Sandzak,” Zukorlic told Danas. “That issue opens the issue of the Sandzak, i.e. we would have to be involved as well as all important players in the entire region. A partial opening of the issue opens the door to the destabilization of the entire region,” Zukorlic said.

 

New and old proposals on resolving the Kosovo problem (Blic)

 

The invitation of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic for an internal dialogue on Kosovo has caused contradictory and rather turbulent reactions. Some welcomed the invitation, confirming they will take part in the talks, but some refused the possibility of dialogue or requested an urgent suspension of the Brussels agreement. Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic was most specific, by saying that delineation of what is Serbian and what is Albanian is the solution. The opposition is divided. Some, such as the Liberal-Democratic Party, announced their participation in the dialogue, others expect to see Vucic’s plan, after which they will decide, while there are also those, such as the Serbian Radical Party or Dveri, who do not wish to be part of all that. The Serbian Orthodox Church has announced participation in the dialogue.

Vuk Draskovic – Accept the reality

Serbia needs to accept and recognize the Kosovo reality and Martti Ahtisaari’s plan from 2007 as the foundation for continuing the Brussels dialogue. The reality is that Kosovo’s independence is recognized at present by a vast majority of UN and EU member states, that the International Court of Justice concluded that the declaration of Kosovo’s independence did not violate the UN Charter, international law, UNSCR 1244, that around 90 percent of the population is Albanian, and less than six percent is Serbian. Serbia’s sovereignty over Kosovo exists only in the preamble of the Constitution. Serving this norm beyond reality, the state is suffering great losses, political, development, democratic, demographic and financial. Even with delay, let us accept Martti Ahtisaari’s document.

Ivica Dacic - Delineation

I will examine with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic the possibility of delineation in this region. “In agreement with the Serbs and Albanians this is the only possible lasting compromise solution, along with a special status for our churches and monasteries and with the Community of Serb Municipalities in southern Kosovo. If this turns out to be impossible or unacceptable, I will not be sad, but I will try to contribute towards looking for a lasting and realistic solution. The dialogue on Kosovo and Metohija gives an answer to the question of how mature we are. Kosovo is our value, but only to the extent to which we ourselves treat it. We are the ones who determine its value and significance on one condition only, the condition above all conditions of our future. It must not be bloody and it must be our red line. Everything else will be a matter of our wisdom and thereby of our capability to negotiate. And dialogue on this is the first step.

Sanda Raskovic Ivic – Freezing negotiations

My stand is that the state of Serbia and the Serbian government should never have signed the Brussels agreement, this way pulling out state institutions from Kosovo and Metohija, since this is detrimental and it will yet turn out to be. Since the agreement has already been signed, I would now freeze the negotiations. Brussels and the Albanians have been all along haggling Belgrade, which has been only giving non-stop and making concessions. They have handed over courts in Pristina, state property, the dialing code…The result is that the Serbs have not received one single thing from everything, while the list of what had been given is impressive and there is no end to this. Opening chapters with the EU is no gain, especially in view of concessions made by Serbia with its state territory. This is reckless and dangerous.

Dragan Sutanovac – Nothing over Serbs’ backs

The Democratic Party has been persistently calling during the 1990s for a peaceful resolution and political dialogue, without national hysteria, that would lead to a sustainable solution, that would guarantee the rights of all citizens in Kosovo and that would end the security crisis. Since 2001, and since the mandate of late prime minister Djindjic, we have been insisting that the only right way is protection and improvement of catastrophic living conditions of all citizens, primarily the Serbs and other non-Albanians, and that talks with the international community and Kosovo Albanians are the key factor for security and quality of life of the Serbs in the territory of Kosovo. The DS stand concerning the Kosovo issue is statehood, meaning that Serbia needs to cut the Gordian Knot that is burdening its history and future, however, not over the backs of the Serbs who live in Kosovo. The foundation is dialogue, while the issue of geography is the last floor of this house.

Slobodan Samardzic – Opportunity for high treason

In the dialogue with Pristina there is no favorable solution for the Serbs. Serbia, i.e. its leadership, is not the one deciding here at all. This policy has been long since conducted by Brussels on behalf of Berlin and Washington. Especially successfully over the past nine years. This is a policy accepted by Tadic, and continued by Vucic much more successfully. I think that Vucic will end it, since the West cannot find in Serbia a better executor for finishing the recognition process. Asking presently for the “best solution”, when the Serbian governments have in continuity finalized 99 percent of recognition of Kosovo, borders with good taste.

Theoretically, this one percent is possible to thwart with interruption of the so-called Brussels dialogue. Let everybody estimate what are the chances for that at present. But, this doesn’t mean one should not point with a finger at this final act, as an act of personal historical responsibility. Diplomatically, this act has the weight of the previous 99 percent, because it’s not over until it’s all over. If you will, here is a chance both for high treason and for a heroic act.

Boris Tadic - Before the final act

I presented my four-point plan five years ago. Following the signed Brussels agreement, this plan is probably non-applicable now, so that now it is probably late for some solutions that have been possible until then. Aleksandar Vucic and Tomislav Nikolic have been deceiving citizens in the 2012 campaign by promising they will annul everything that the previous government had negotiated. By signing the Brussels agreement, we have been unable to fight for what has been possible until then. Now we are before the final act and every talk on this topic serves only to share responsibility and smear the eyes of the public that there is any kind of dialogue with this government. This government has allowed the establishment of a legal system of independent Kosovo throughout the territory of Kosovo and Metohija, including the north. We didn’t accept that during the time of my mandate.

 

REGIONAL PRESS

 

Sarovic confirms certain progress was achieved in talks with Tolusic (BHT1)

 

B&H Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations Mirko Sarovic confirmed in a statement to BHT1 that he had talks with Croatian Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Development Tomislav Tolusic on Tuesday and that certain progress was achieved in negotiations. He stressed that the amount of taxes and the place of meeting with other ministers in the region are yet to be agreed. “We did not agree on all things but I think that we have good chances to avoid the process of the announced introduction of the counter-measures, as well as to reach a solution through common interests. We reached an agreement on the key issue related to certain level of decrease of taxes and we are yet to define this agreement in the next few days,” Sarovic explained.

 

Dodik: Aim for national unity where possible (Srna)

 

Republika Srpska (RS) President Milorad Dodik says that pogrom was committed against Serbs in the previous century and that in this one they should promote their national unification wherever possible because Serbia and the RS have the right to fight to decide their status. “Something like that is not irregular or contrary to anything,” said Dodik and cited the example of West and East Germany, the two countries that united once the historical circumstances allowed. He said that the announced declaration between Serbia and the RS about the survival of the Serbian nation was the result of a recent meeting of regional Serb representatives in Novi Sad, who reached a conclusion that they should try and see what was important for the Serbian national identity and operations of national communities. “No state or its territorial integrity is brought into question by that, only the policies aiming to ruin the Serbian national community and its rights are brought into question,” Dodik told reporters in Banja Luka. He recalled that it had been agreed for the RS and Serbian parliaments to vote once the joint declaration was made, which is planned for November. Dodik noted that the authorities in the RS had not yet formed a team to work on the declaration. This will be the topic of meetings after the summer holidays. It will be useful, he said, to show that the Serbian national communities have not been abandoned. Dodik cited the examples of the statuses of the Serbian community in certain countries such as Slovenia where the Serbs are not recognized the status of a national minority. The number of Serbs living in Croatia has been reduced to around 186,000, and only 56,000 of them dare say they speak Serbian. The Serbs’ status in Montenegro is described as “identity genocide against the Serbian national community” while Macedonia puts into prison a bishop who is a representative of the Serbian Orthodox Church, said Dodik. “In B&H, Serbs have their own state, but there are problems concerning its status and aspirations for its abolition. According to the 1991 census, Sarajevo had over 157,000 Serb inhabitants while the latest census shows there are only 1,333 left,” said Dodik. This all proves that pogrom was committed against Serbs in various places in the 20th century, said the president. “The Serbs suffered a lot in the past century, and with the disintegration of Yugoslavia, they were scattered around the world and their rights were diminished,” Dodik said. According to him, the declaration does not aspire to restructure the states but does aspire to say that the European convention permits that the Serbs in Slovenia be given the national minority status, and that the use of the Cyrillic script, which is systemically defended, be allowed in Croatia. This also means, he added, allowing adherence to the Constitution of B&H, which is not observed by the international community. “We should add also Albania, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary and see what the challenges our national community in those countries faces and try to generate all this as our goal,” Dodik said and pointed out that the rights the Croatian community enjoys in Serbia are much bigger than the rights the Serbs have in Croatia.

 

Opposition parties in RS express their support to development of joint declaration of Serbia and RS (EuroBlic)

 

Opposition parties in the RS gave their support in principle to the initiative of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and RS President Milorad Dodik on the joint declaration of the RS and Serbia on preservation of Serbs, but only if it will define ways in which young people will be prevented from leaving the area. SDS leader Vukota Govedarica told the daily that this is the crucial question because nobody can force Serbs to leave this area but the RS government with its current politics. Govedarica added that there are 20,700 less elementary school students in the RS not thanks to the politics of Bakir Izetbegovic and Dragan Covic, but only thanks to the current politics of the RS authorities. Govedarica also said that the declaration will produce no results unless the RS government develops some kind of an action plan to implement it. Govedarica does not expect opposition parties to be included in the process of drafting of the declaration, since it will be prepared by the two presidents, but he supported the cooperation of Banja Luka and Belgrade no matter who officially represent them. Vice President of NDP Zdravko Krsmanovic assessed that Dodik cannot hold the exclusive right to create this document and said that opposition parties too should participate in it. “Opposition in the RS represents authorities at the level of B&H and it must be included in development of this document,” Krsmanovic said. PDP leader Branislav Borenovic noted that the announcement of Vucic is a move in the right direction because of which he is willing to participate in it. “Based on his messages, which are messages of peace and appreciation of regional cooperation, I think that Serbs in the region can define certain strategic activities and, in this context, we are willing to define strategic activities together with Vucic,” Borenovic noted but he avoided answering the question whether he is willing to cooperate with Dodik as well.

 

US Embassy, EU Delegation: Support to territorial integrity and sovereignty of B&H (Dnevni avaz)

 

The US Embassy to B&H stated for the daily, responding to statement by RS President Milorad Dodik about secession of the RS and its merging with Serbia, that B&H is a democratic, multiethnic, sovereign and independent country, with unquestionable territorial integrity, which guarantees and respects rights of all constituent peoples and other citizens. The Embassy’s Public Relations Office said that the stance of the USA on this matter is well-known and it remains unchanged. “We support the principles of the Dayton Peace Agreement (DPA), Status of B&H as a state is not a matter of opinion but the fact established by the international law. Territorial integrity and sovereignty of B&H are guaranteed by the DPA. The DPA and the Constitution of B&H do not allow a possibility of secession of any entity. Any step towards dissolution of B&H means violation of the DPA,” reads the Embassy’s answer.

The EU Delegation to B&H shares similar opinion. “Integrity of B&H borders remains the fundamental principle for the European Union”, said EUD Spokesperson Jamila Milovic-Halilovic, adding that the EU supports sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of B&H. “Statement of commitment from 2015, agreed by the Presidency of BiH and signed by leaders of political parties, which got support in the B&H parliament, and B&H’s request for the membership from February 2016 are clearly grounded on this principle,” she emphasized and concluded that only B&H has an offer for membership in the EU.

 

Plenkovic wants import tax dispute resolved as soon as possible (HRT/Hina)

 

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Tuesday that he instructed Tolusic to find a solution this week to remove the problem with neighboring countries over the increased duties on the imports of fruit and vegetables. "Minister Tolusic was given a direct order from me to find a solution in the shortest time in talks with ministers and services in accord with international agreements which will resolve the problem and prevent any talk of a trade war between Croatia and neighboring countries,” Plenkovic told HRT. He said he expects a solution to be found this week, Hina reported. “Tolusic’s idea, when he introduced the rules was more efficient control of imports of fruit and vegetables and it seems at this moment that the assessment of him and his services of the level of duties paid for the inspection was too high,” Plenkovic said.

 

Nobody supports Tolusic’s trade war (Jutarnji list)

 

It seems like the trade war of Croatia with its neighbors may stop this week. The information was confirmed for the daily by Croatian Minister of Agriculture Tomislav Tolusic, who stated that the problem will be solved to mutual benefit. The daily learns that this emerging trade war has led to political earthquakes in the state leadership and that, for now, Tolusic dodged possible dismissal. According to the daily’s source, Tolusic passed the new regulations without anyone in the government, including the Prime Minister, knowing about it. Best proof to these allegations, the daily reads, is the fact that nobody defended Tolusic even after trade ministers of the region set open ultimatum to Croatia to revoke the decision. The daily’s (unnamed) source, close to PM Andrej Plenkovic, said that Minister Tolusic was lucky to avoid the dismissal, because the issue is likely to be solved. Another (unnamed) source from Croatian Presidency says Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic was not glad that Croatia entered the trade war with neighbors, while she is trying to stabilize relations with Serbia and is inviting Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic to visit Zagreb. The author(s) argue(s) that Tolusic probably had best intention to protect Croatian producers but nobody gave him support and even he understands his mistake now. Asked if the disputable regulations will change, as announced by B&H Minister for Foreign Trade and Economic Relations Mirko Sarovic, Tolusic said for the daily that communication with neighborly countries is ongoing and that the challenges are likely to be solved. “Once I have details, you will know about it,” he added.

 

VMRO-DPMNE blocked the rostrum and the session on Zvrlevski’s dismissal (Meta)

 

Less than 10 minutes after the beginning of the seventh continuation of the sixth session of the parliament of the Republic of Macedonia, the session was interrupted because MPs from VMRO-DPMNE came out onto the rostrum after a brief argument between parliament speaker, Talat Xhaferi, and Antonio Milososki, who came out onto the rostrum. Xhaferi urged security to intervene, but MPs from VMRO-DPMNE went out onto the rostrum and after the Speaker of parliament’s appeals to leave the hall failed, Xhaferi declared a ten minute break. The government’s proposal for dismissal of the Attorney General of the Republic of Macedonia, Marko Zvrlevski, should be discussed at the session. Firstly, Ilija Dimovski from VMRO-DPMNE spoke, who reiterated his party’s views that it was an unlawful dismissal and asked for the session to be interrupted. Dimovski at one point told Xhaferi that he was doing an illegal job, and since he started to solve this, he should start and determine the price of electricity. MPs from VMRO-DPMNE asked the Commission for Preventing Corruption to clarify whether the procedure for the dismissal of the Attorney General should continue, although it is unclear why the commission, whose members are on vacation, should give their opinion. SDSM called VMRO-DPMNE’s request to postpone Zvrlevski’s dismissal after local elections absurd. The ruling party said that the procedure for dismissing Zvrlevski is completely legal and transparent.

 

Kanceska-Milevska: Zaev signed the agreement with Bulgaria to change the name based on the Greek model (Meta)

 

The Agreement for Good Neighborly Relations with the Republic of Bulgaria, which was signed by the Government led by Zoran Zaev, goes against the Macedonian state and national interests, and the Macedonian side is the loser in this process, said the former Minister of Culture and current MP from VMRO-DPMNE, Elizabeta Kanceska-Milevska. “In Article 2, paragraph 2 of the Agreement, Bulgaria says it will agree to the decision that will be made by the leadership of NATO. With this article, Zoran Zaev has literally obliged that the Republic of Macedonia receives support from the Republic of Bulgaria to join NATO, when they receive Greece’s blessing, that is, when we change the name of our country according to the Greek model. If Zoran Zaev wanted to a fair position for the Republic of Macedonia, the agreement should have included the ruling from the International Court in the Hague regarding the name dispute with Greece, which according to all norms of international law, ruled that the Republic of Macedonia could join NATO under the provisional term”, says Kanceska-Milevska. The MP from VMRO-DPMNE says that the Macedonian people can punish the Social Democratic Union for their attitude towards the local elections on 15 October.

 

Xhaferi – Glavchev: Agreement for Good Neighborly Relations is a start of the new history between the two countries (Meta)

 

With the Agreement for Good Neighborly Relations, friendship, and cooperation between Macedonia and Bulgaria, starts the new history in the mutual relations between the two countries, said in Skopje parliament speaker Talat Xhaferi and his Bulgarian colleague, Dimitar Glavchev. Xhaferi, as informs his cabinet, has thanked for the support that Bulgaria is providing for Macedonia and its aspirations for a NATO and EU memberships, and has greeted the wonderful cooperation between the presidents and MPs of both parliaments in all subsequent mandates. He has also expressed hope that in the future this cooperation will intensify especially in the light of the signed agreement. Glavchev, who is having a brief visit to Macedonia, has marked that with the signing of the agreement, new horizons for cooperation in all domains is opening up including both parliaments on a level of committees and groups of collaboration concerning subjects of mutual interests and subjects of interest of the Republic of Macedonia and the fulfillment of the criteria for its Euro-Atlantic integration. The Bulgarian parliament speaker, in the spirit of the good neighborly relations, has invited Xhaferi to be present during the ratification of the agreement at the parliament of the Republic of Bulgaria.

 

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

 

Mostar, Bosnia's Most Divided City (RFE/RL, by Gordana Knezevic, 8 August 2017)

 

Mostar is flooded with tourists at the moment. Ignoring temperatures of over 40 degrees Celsius, people from all over the word have been flocking to the Bosnian city in record numbers to see the Old Bridge, a masterpiece of 16th-century Ottoman architecture. There is nothing to indicate to the visitors whether they are on the Muslim or the Croat bank of the Neretva River. That imaginary dividing line only exists in the hearts and minds of the people of Mostar. It corresponds to the front line that ran through the center of the city and next to its main high school during the war of 1992-95. In the immediate aftermath of the conflict, the high school was given a Croat name and was reserved exclusively for ethnic Croat youth. Under pressure from the international community, in 2003 the Croat and Muslim high schools were formally integrated. However, that move only led to a form of apartheid that is becoming common throughout Bosnia-Herzegovina. It's a system of two schools under one roof. On the surface everything appears normal, with Croat and Muslim kids attending classes in the same building. In reality, they follow different curricula, have different teachers, classrooms, and school officials.

 

The Narcissism Of Minor Differences

At least the school building itself has been renovated. The beautiful neo-Moorish structure built in 1902 has been restored and repainted in its original vivid colors. According to Syracuse University professor Azra Hromadzic, the newly "unified" high school does not simply reflect the ethnic divisions in Bosnian society, but rather reproduces them. She was in Mostar to attend the launch of the Bosnian translation of her new book, Citizens Of An Empty Nation, which is focused on the main high school as a symbol of a divided city. "Divisions are unavoidable -- we have a problem only when divisions are overdetermined by a particular form of identity," says Hromadzic, who teaches anthropology at Syracuse. In her book she analyzes how the narcissism of minor differences has become the dominant feature of post-war Bosnian society, in which ethnicity annihilates all other identities -- and in the process denies Bosnian history and tradition.

 

Toilets As Common Ground

Life in post-Dayton Bosnia is determined by the constitutional idea of two nations living side by side but never coming into contact with one another. It is a model that goes against the grain of Bosnia's history of ethnic pluralism. "Divisions did not cause the war -- they are the result of war. But the reason why divisions remain in society is related to the way how differences are being managed," says Hromadzic. Pointing out that there is no shared public space where people of different ethnic groups can come together, Hromadzic goes back to her case study, the Mostar high school. ​"The only place where students of different ethnicities come across each other is the school toilet." "That is the place where they come for a secret cigarette. I just discovered that by accident while I was doing my research at the school. There were no professional guidelines on how to conduct an ethnographic study in a toilet." Not only in the Mostar high school, but in Bosnia as a whole, public space has been reduced to ethnic space. After school each student goes to her or his bank of the Neretva River -- a daily reality replicated throughout the country. "Interaction between people of different ethnicities has been banished to the smelly toilets," Hromadzic told an international forum in Mostar on August 2.

 

'Afraid To Cross The Bridge'

The school is educating young people who do not identify with the Bosnian state -- only with their ethnic group. "I was a student in the Mostar high school that is part of that unfortunate project -- two schools under one roof," says Lana Prlic, now the vice president of Bosnia's Social-Democratic Party. "Bosniak kids in one class," she says, referring to Bosnian Muslims. "Croat kids in another." "While we separate our children," she notes, the top floor of the school houses the United World College Mostar, where around 150 young people from across the world gather to learn about differences. Two years ago, a student from the Mostar high school appeared on "Perspektiva," a program produced by RFE/RL and NED (National Endowment for Democracy), and made waves in the region by stating that he had never crossed Mostar's famous Old Bridge. The boundaries of his world are the boundaries of the Croat part of the city. "The whole world knows Mostar for its Old Bridge, and I -- a Mostar native -- had never set foot on it, because I'm afraid," the young man explained at the time, adding that he dreamed about studying at the Faculty of Traffic and Communications in Sarajevo, but that he was apprehensive about being in an environment where ethnic Bosniaks were in the majority. Known to the public only by his first name, Ante, he expressed anxiety over what might happen to him on the other side of the river, where "the others" live. In one of the later episodes of this youth-oriented show, Ante was filmed by a TV crew as he finally crossed the river and had a coffee on the other side.

 

'Sniffing Warily From Behind The Bushes'

Another student, reflecting on Ante's experience, made the following comments on the "Bljesak" portal: It would be hypocritical of me to say that when I first came into contact with those from 'the other side' -- when I was 15 -- I did not have any prejudices. We were among the first classes to have the courage to attend that school. That's what it took -- courage. A decade or so ago, the old high school had a terrible reputation. It was still bullet-ridden and full of shrapnel holes, and stood on the dividing line, seen as the place of constant clashes and disturbances. It was attended by both Bosniaks and Croats. Classes were small, because few wanted to go to such a school.

We observed each other from a distance, sniffed warily from behind the bushes, and then we slowly approached one another and saw that we were the same. There were no fights or riots. Only some minor provocations when the football matches were on, mainly in the form of some graffiti in the toilets. Ironically, it was precisely in the toilets where we came together and interacted. Yet another reminder of Bosnian fractured society. It appears that, as long as ethnicity is the only way of expressing identity, rebuilding a 16th-century bridge was easy compared to the task of rebuilding broken relations between ethnic groups.

The views expressed in this blog post do not necessarily reflect those of RFE/RL.