Bosnia and Herzegovina: an ethnically divided country | DW Documentary

Kamala mu Yan ovitch is outside her old school in travnik Bosnia she often used to look at the boys on the other side of this fence but one thing she knew for sure she wasn't allowed to fall for anyone over there yes via a channel Humana be true I was told not to go out with Catholics or those of the Orthodox faith my own faith prescribed that beyond a screen at the podium yourself I'll be honest I thought before I fall in love with one of them and get into trouble at home I'll leave it be who told you that my mother [Music] the school is right in the center of traveling the right hand side is very nicely refurbished and largely attended by children from Catholic families families from a Muslim family the East children still attend the GRA left hand side there's a fence between the two erected after the end of the war to keep the conflicting parties apart it's a symbol of separation every wall is disunion discord separation all of these things the fence used to seem bigger to me maybe they've made it smaller that would be an improvement but now there are these concrete pillars that didn't exist before they're on their way to building a proper wall I was bothered by this fence when I went to school here and long afterwards too you feel silly sometimes you think they're keeping away from you because they think they're better than you on other days you think they're doing it because they're scared of you what why are they scared of us that's what Amala went to the school here 17 years ago at the time the war had been over for just five years partitions schools were commonplace with the war so fresh in everyone's mind living together was harder these days this separation shouldn't exist anymore the Catholic and the Muslim sections don't just differ from the outside the students also get different history lessons what caused the war in Bosnia between 1992 and 95 when Serbs Croats and Muslims fought bitterly against each other Yasmin Le bigovich is Muslim he attends the state-run Muslim part of the school I think there's only one history everyone learns the same history the difference is how that's interpreted Beck was thought that will give Toto you can reach one conclusion or a different one but we all learn the same thing one country different interpretations of his history the teacher doesn't want to comment further on that the curricula are set by the Bosnian State you can see the Catholic part of the school from the Muslim part it's run by the church and was renovated with church funds [Music] the history teacher here presents the Croat view of their history gabriella raditch attends 12th grade she's a Bosnian Croat and was raised a Catholic her family lives in a predominantly Croatian suburb Gabriella tells us that peace love and understanding really isn't on the curriculum our country has three presidents to three different perceptions of history cronuts Muslims Serbs everyone wants to tell their own version of our history we can't agree on one version especially not on the wall the teenagers from the Catholic school invite us to visit them in the evening [Music] amela is having a chat with muslim students in the schoolyard they're bothered by the fence - we're not animals killing each other this scandal isn't necessary and it harms the children am Allah and the Muslim students go to their favorite cafe just a few streets away [Music] bosnia's home to bosnian muslims Bosnian Croats and Bosnian Serbs but they tend to live in different neighborhoods most of them say their ethnic backgrounds hardly play a role in their everyday lives anymore but mixed families are still rare [Music] the main thing separating the three ethnicities in Bosnia is religion Bosniaks a Muslim The Crow it's a Catholic and the Serbs are Orthodox there seems to be no way to bridge the divide [Music] Amala always used to go to this cafe with her friends too amylum may identify with her religion but like the students she feels like a Bosnian the genome cathode yo when people in our country say they're Serbs or Croats I think that's strange my friend here says he's a Croat which is fine but what's he doing in Bosnia then I think it would be good if we all saw ourselves as Bosnia and your religion should be a project it shouldn't be an obstacle when it comes to friendship or love we cling onto these differences because they're hangovers from the war as soon as you talk about a different nationality or religion many think of the war he doesn't belong to me I should keep away from him it's hard to influence that thinking it's still wore the warm make romantic relationships between Muslims Bosnian Serbs and Croats impossible even two decades later amela says there are such couples she tries to get a friend of hers who's in a mixed relationship to talk about it on camera but she won't I think people always struggle to talk about it the reason for that could be that we've not really confronted our past at all nobody bears any guilt for the war were all victims but on the other hand we're all perpetrators too unlike the Germans we don't have a Serbian Croatian or Muslim Billy blunt who got down on his knees and accepted all the blame Amina is a bookkeeper at the University she lives in the center of town with her family a predominantly Muslim neighborhood that hasn't always been the case before the war her parents lived in the suburbs of travnik [Music] on the way to her former parental home even the road signs show which ethnic group is in the majority where [Music] the town's name written in Serbian Cyrillic script has been crossed out Bosnian Croats and now the dominant group here most of them are Catholic during the war in 1992 Emily and her parents fled to Germany she was eight at the time after the war they decided to go back in 1997 we wanted to return home we didn't know if it was still standing or whether it had been destroyed maybe someone else was living in it when we arrived everything was fine my father spoke to a man who was living in the house at the time [Music] it needs a leader this is where we arrived and parked the car my father got out people were sitting here one of them introduced himself and said that he was the owner of the building quiet dr. Zorba Dave last Nick coochie he went indoors and came out again with a gun he pointed it at us and said that if we didn't leave he'd shoot at us said no edema the chiller salute said no boys I'm not fearful maybe I'm naive just like my parents were before the war but it was an ugly situation I don't know how or where we were of it or as children in 1997 we thought it was strange that our parents started crying blotchy [Music] twenty years after this encounter she rings the bell again hello my name is Amelia I used to live here I wanted to see who lives here today and if we could look around if that's okay how do you want to look around we'd like to come in we bought the house 10 years ago we lived up there and because we didn't want to pay rent anymore we bought it back Wilson were adopted that's what my parents thought at the time - they were tenants but in 1990 they bought the plot my sister was born in the living room here she lives in Turkey now the woman doesn't know the previous occupier the man who threatened Emily's father with a gun she doesn't want to talk about the war years either it's best to forget she says but she acquired the house legally although they did get financial compensation her parents still haven't got over the loss of their house people say they've dealt with a lot of the past but when probed even a Millau shows they haven't really forgotten [Music] [Applause] amel is waiting for her husband Adam [Music] [Music] Emily's parents wanted her to marry a Muslim and they were happy with Adam [Music] Adam is an imam in travnik he prays five times a day it's his job the two have been married for seven years Faris was born five years ago somewhere it was obvious to my parents that I'd marry a Muslim I can't say I was happy or unhappy it was just taken for granted it was also clear to me that I'd marry a Muslim his father and grandfather were amounts to [Music] Thursday's market day in travnik but amela rarely manages to shop here she has to work six days a week the average wage in Bosnia is 400 euros a month but few people in travnik earn that much she says amela says we should visit the military cemetery behind the market while she does her shopping [Music] the headstones there all tell the same story the dead were all in their mid-twenties when they died four hundred and seventy eight of them are buried in this cemetery alone war veterans meet here regularly this is neverold in smudge he's a 41 year old Muslim who lost almost all of his friends in the war he was just 16 when he joined the Bosnia forces we were still untouched somewhat with our neighbors during the war we met up when there was no fighting we drank coffee and then we all picked up our guns and took sides again the war wasn't about ordinary people it was for the politicians this Muslim man married a Serbian Orthodox woman shortly after the war much to the annoyance of his father-in-law who fought on the Serb side he shot at me I shot at him and that doesn't mean I have to hate it I don't hate anybody but when the time comes such a man points a gun at you the time comes when you have to point one back at him and kill him normal people can't imagine that until they're in that situation themselves to them seriously we visit Mvula din at home he lives just a few minutes from the cemetery together with his wife and their seven-year-old daughter [Music] meperidine has no contact with his serbian father-in-law he's only ever seen him once when he picked up his wife there's been radio silence ever since [Music] before the war mixed families were normal there weren't any straights that didn't have at least one mixed couple we never paid attention to that in Bosnia back then I couldn't tell Croatian and Serbian names apart the war may be in the past but it's still a big problem for mixed couples they still fear they could have to choose sides if a conflict between the ethnic groups flares up again we're back with a mullah outside her school she believes that Bosnia could become one country even if the ethnic groups don't intermarry we like to say unity in diversity we have our differences and we have to tolerate them what about the students in the school today it's evening we've agreed to meet Gabriella and Natalia all the students go to the same bars and clubs they all know each other but do they ever fall in love or even marry back at the school Gabriela and Natalia had already said it was normal for every ethnic group to have his own view of history in the evening they tell us how difficult it can become when friendships become more serious I have a friend she's Catholic she's been with a Muslim for 8 months but they have to hide because of their families it's not about whether they love each other but about what people will say that's the biggest problem in bosnia-herzegovina and i think that will continue for many years boys join the girls it's a normal evening this cafe doesn't serve alcohol because it's mainly frequented by Muslims if you spend a bit of time here you get to recognize each other you know right away who's what ethnicity and who's what faith that's why it's unlikely you'll fall in love with someone of a different one if that happens you'll risk losing your family's trust over a boy never mind how strong your feelings are you have your family that's how we were raised we tell them that we can be friends but nothing more anyway after an evening in the bar word would have got round among the families it's the Sunday service in the village of Gooch Agora which is largely inhabited by Bosnian Croats [Music] this is the way Gabriela wants to preserve her Bosnia she intends to stay with her own and avoid any romantic entanglements with Muslims which is exactly what her mother wants to [Music] Oh when we look back at the old Yugoslavia the state's goal was to integrate the Christian Muslim and Serbian communities they wanted to create a nation of Yugoslavia jected it a divided school in a divided country what does the future hold for amylase son Ferris will his parents tell him who he can marry what if your son wanted to marry a Catholic you won sir I wouldn't allow it our faith says she has to be a Muslim a Mela there's no be wondering if they wanted to meet up and go out I wouldn't mind but if they wanted to get married I wouldn't want that he shouldn't marry someone with different values to us he could have a lot of problems in his marriage I see that all the time would the child be baptized I want my child to get married and I want grandchildren one day there would be a lot of conflict at the very latest over the baptism question I don't want him growing up with problems like that the school fence bothers amela moo-hyun ovitch but the wolves live on in private lives - the war changed people who knows if love will ever transcend Bosnia's ethnic divisions [Music] you

Channel: DW Documentary

Views: 1,964,108

Keywords: Documentary, Bosnia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Herzegovina, Balkans, Europe, Balkan, Bosnian, Travnik, Bosnian Muslims, Bosnian Croats, Bosnian Serbs, ethnic groups, Deutsche Welle, DW, DW Documentary, Bosnia documentary, BnH, b&h

Id: lHSO0RQFRe8

Length: 25min 59sec (1559 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 14 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/juliosmacedo]

I had the same feeling when I went to Malaysia. Chinese, Muslim and Malay live side-by-side, but not together in any way.