Young, Bosnian, and searching for a future

"What happened, happened," he says with a shrug. "My friends are here. I love this place."

Still, other young people say they want to leave their country – although travel abroad is almost impossible for Bosnians because of strict visa requirements placed on them by almost every country in the world. But faced with unemployment that hovers at around 40 percent, and living in a country still struggling with the bitterness of a war marked by ethnic cleansing and widespread destruction, some young people dream of a better future elsewhere.

"I want to leave," says Danko Kukic, an architecture student who spent the war as a refugee, moving to several different countries. "I don't want to raise a son or a daughter here and try to show them things that don't exist anymore. I don't want to raise them with nostalgia."

Among some young people who do want to stay in Bosnia, there is a tangible sense of taking hold of the recent past and making their own commentary on it.

When Danis Tanovic, 31, returned to Sarajevo in early April, with an Oscar for his film about the war, "No Man's Land," young people turned out in throngs to cheer him and to celebrate a victory which many saw as proof that a young person had something valuable to say.

On April 6, which marked the 10th anniversary of the beginning of the war, young people again put their own signature on the past, holding a standing-room-only midnight fashion show in which runway models sported items of clothing worn or used by famous Bosnians during the war, including a sleeping bag which belonged to Mr. Tanovic.

And in recent months, more than 5,000 people have gone to see another film made by local directors, three young men who created a documentary using home-video footage of the 1,325-day siege of their city by Serb forces called "Do You Remember Sarajevo?"

For Sead Kresevljakovic, 29, one of the film's creators, the war yielded surprising lessons. Although some war correspondents and diplomats have explained the barbarism of the war as proof that evil exists in man and can erupt at any time, Mr. Kresevljakovic came away with a different perspective. Living through the siege, he says, and experiencing extraordinary acts of human caring and compassion, taught him that good exists.

"I got proof that even in such an evil situation, goodness exists. It was like a sign from God, that there is a universal goodness," says Kresevljakovic, a devout Muslim. "If I talk about the future now, I know that no matter what happens, I know that goodness will exist."

There are also signs that other young Bosnians are rallying to a different view of their country and their role in it. Seven months ago, a group of some two dozen Sarajevo teenagers and 20-somethings joined together to form a chapter of Rotoract, the youth branch of the Rotary Club. So far, they have initiated two projects, one aimed at raising environmental awareness and the other at equipping two playrooms for children with special needs. "If we don't take a step forward, nothing is going to change," says 20-year-old Nadja Jaganjac, who joined Rotoract two months ago.

Even former councilman Amar Prasovic hasn't given up on his country. He now works with a Norwegian NGO that promotes conflict resolution through seminars and conferences held around the country.

"I can promote dialogue," says Prasovic. "I can promote peace."

Page: 1 | 2 | 3