International Justice/ICTY: Dec ‘10/Jan '11

The organisers of an award for those who promote ethnic tolerance in Bosnia have short-listed an ethnically-mixed village after it was featured in an IWPR article.

In April last year, IWPR published a report on the village of Baljvine (Bosnia: The Village Where Hate Never Triumphed), one of the very few places in Bosnia which escaped the ethnic violence that tore apart the country in the early Nineties.

Its villagers boast that Baljvine is the only place in Bosnia in which Serbs and Bosniaks have never fought each other - neither during World War Two nor the 1990s. The local mosque is believed to be the only one in Republika Srpska, RS, the Serb entity in Bosnia, which was not damaged or destroyed during the 1992-95 war.

Thanks to the IWPR report written by Sarajevo journalist Marija Arnautovic, this village was recently short-listed for an award established this year in Banja Luka, which will be given to groups and individuals who promote ethnic tolerance and co-existence in Bosnia. The award is called Brave Heart and will be given annually.

The award is sponsored by the Banja Luka-based security firm the Sector Security agency, which itself is a model of ethnic tolerance (IWPR published a report on this agency in August last year,  Bosnian Security Firm Breaks Mould on Coexistence).

Ninety per cent of the Sector Security’s staff are former combatants who fought each other during the conflict of the mid-Nineties.

Established ten years ago, Sector Security is today a thriving business with 1,000 employees and thousands of clients all over Bosnia. The company hires Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats who took part in the conflict, but no longer view one another as enemies.

Many of the employees say they serve as an example to the rest of Bosnia, especially to politicians who claim that the three groups cannot live together after all that happened during the war.

The director of the Sector Security agency, Slavisa Krunic, said his company has always been involved in humanitarian work. Instead of spending money on public relations and marketing, they have been supporting minority returns and inter-ethnic tolerance in RS. In addition, they’ve provided scholarships to Bosniak, Serb and Croat children and repaired houses of a number of Croat families who returned to the entity after the war.

Krunic says the setting up of the Brave Heart award stemmed from a determination to do something special this year to mark the company’s tenth anniversary.

“The village of Baljvine is our absolute favourite for the Brave Heart award, because its villagers not only stayed together during the World War Two and the recent Bosnian war, but also protected each other during hard times,” Krunic said.

He added that he first found about this village when he read IWPR’s report posted last April and was immediately impressed by the courage the villagers showed during the war and the respect they have for one another.

“This is a great example of how humanity can prevail in the hardest of times,” Krunic said.

He added that before he read IWPR’s article he had never even heard about Baljvine.

“The local media do not pay much attention to positive stories like this one, and these stories can be incredibly inspiring for all of us living in this country,” he said.

“I was truly moved when I read Marija Arnautovic’s article describing the determination of the villagers to protect and help each other, despite all the risks. Through their own example, they showed us that Bosniaks and Serbs can live together. This is why they have been short-listed for this award.”

A jury consisting of prominent Bosnian journalists will announce the winner of the Brave Heart award at a ceremony which will be held in Banja Luka in November this year.