During the last year of Bosnia’s War, I had to interview several people to understand and report the population’s feeling regarding the ongoing conflict.
Regardless of the ethnic group, age, gender or social condition, the population had had enough of the war. They all recognized the disagreements between the different ethnic groups, but that war was simply too much and it had to stop.
A female interpreter told Alex that she had had three different boyfriends, but she had never broken the relationship with any of them; neither had them … it had been the war that broke all those boys … into small pieces! That girl had serious relationship issues, because she didn’t want to get involved with anyone else, fearing he might not return home that very evening.
A young ABiH soldier confessed that he would like to get married, but he wouldn’t do it in a country that could jump so easily into an armed conflict. He also feared that one of the members of the couple might not return home at the end of the day.
Every family has lost someone fighting the other ethnic group. Retaliations on top of retaliations for about four years.
For all that resentment to calm down, and eventually go away, it would be necessary at least one full generation to live without having the experience of conflict with the other ethnic groups. Only those that were going to be born after the end of that war could become future leaders and take inclusive decisions that would benefit all parties.
It has been 25 years now. The “Dayton babies” (Bosnian youngsters born after the war) are starting to reach the echelon of power in all three ethnic groups.
OPen samento 