On February 27 in Gorazde, the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network of Bosnia and Herzegovina, BIRN BiH, the Srebrenica Memorial Centre, and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports of the Bosnian-Podrinje Canton, BPK, signed a memorandum of cooperation according to which the Database of Judicially Established Facts about the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina will be used in teaching in this canton.
In the Memorandum, the emphasis is put on the methodology for studying the war in Bosnia, which primarily relies on judgments of international and domestic courts as well as contemporary pedagogical principles, and such an approach allows teachers to present educational content based on factual and judicially established facts.
The Minister of Education, Culture and Sports of BPK, Adisa Alikadic-Heric, stated that history in Gorazde was not an abstract term from textbooks but part of family stories, personal memories, and collective experience, and that it was the responsibility of the education system to enable younger generations to learn about the past based on judicially established facts, professional standards and pedagogical sensitivity.
“Education must be a space of truth but also a space of empathy. Talking about the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina means talking about suffering, loss, and injustice, but also about human strength, solidarity and dignity,” he said.
“Teachers participating in this programme today bear a great responsibility to teach young people to understand the past without hatred, but also without crime relativization. Our goal is not to burden future generations with the burden of the past, but to empower them with knowledge,” Alikadic-Heric added.
With the support of the United Nations Secretary-General’s Peacebuilding Fund, BIRN BiH together with the Srebrenica Memorial Centre and the Forgotten Children of War Association, is implementing the project “Building Long-Term Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Investing in the Future”.
This aims to transform the way young people learn about the war in Bosnia, using facts, empathy, understanding and a multimedia approach. As part of the project, a database was created that served as the basis for a manual on “How to Learn and Teach about the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina”.
Denis Dzidic, Executive Director of BIRN BiH, recalled that the Database of Judicially Established Facts, which was already used by some cantonal ministries, had been supplemented with domestic and regional judgements in addition to Hague judgments.
“This is a unique platform that enables us to teach history according to a unique methodology for any of the municipalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. And it really gives us a certain platform to try to devise a way in which we can work in an equal manner,” Dzidic said, adding that the Memorandum marks the opening of a partnership process to enable the teaching of history in a structured way.
“This is the most important part of our work. The future of this country is built on sound education,” Emir Suljagic, Director of the Srebrenica Memorial Centre, said.
For the purpose of creating the Database, several hundred final court judgments were analyzed, including decisions of the Hague war-crimes tribunal, ICTY, the Bosnian state court and other courts from Bosnia as well as in the region relating to war crimes committed in the period 1992–1995.
A panel discussion in Sarajevo shed light on three decades of transitional justice in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as panellists reflected on the achievements, shortcomings and steps still needed to ensure justice for the victims of the 1992–95 war.
A panel discussion held in Bosnia’s capital, Sarajevo, on Tuesday focused on the transitional justice efforts that the country went through since the end of the 1992-95 war, which took more than 100,000 lives.
The discussion brought together representatives of victims’ associations, international organisations, legal experts and EU officials, all of whom agreed that while some progress has been made, the burden of seeking justice has largely fallen on victims themselves rather than on the state.
Bakira Hasecic, founder and president of the Association of Women Victims of War, warned that many survivors remain excluded from legal protection and basic rights. She said that civilian victims who survived torture and abuse are not recognised under existing laws if they no longer hold Bosnian citizenship.
“Survivors who went through those ordeals are not recognised under this law and cannot exercise their rights because they are not citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Hasecic said, adding that although authorities have promised to correct this injustice, months have passed without progress. “It is obvious that this is a political issue,” she said.
According to Hasecic, such legal barriers have far-reaching consequences. “In this way, we are losing witnesses, justice and truth,” she said, stressing that survivors are being systematically discriminated against. She urged institutions to recognise the rights of victims who took another citizenship after the war, noting that they endured torture while they were still Bosnian citizens. “We, the victims, are doing the job that the state should be doing,” she said.
Klaudia Kuljuh, head of programmes at TRIAL International BiH, said Bosnia and Herzegovina still lacks a comprehensive state-level law on civilian victims of war, despite repeated attempts and international pressure. While entity-level laws exist both in the Federation and Republika Srpska, their implementation remains incomplete.
“The UN also put pressure on the authorities and nothing was done,” Kuhulj said, explaining that international recommendations allow for the absence of a state law only if entity laws are fully harmonised and implemented, which is not the case.
She noted that while some financial support has been secured, other crucial aspects, such as rehabilitation, access to information and memorialisation, remain unresolved. “Biology does its work, and we have fewer and fewer beneficiaries of this law,” Kuhulj warned. “The state owes a lot to those who remain – support, information about places of disappearance, marking sites of suffering.”
Legal expert Prof. Dr Goran Simic questioned the broader impact of war crimes trials, arguing that the expectations placed on the judiciary were unrealistic. “We naively believed that war crimes trials bring justice – they do not, or they do so only in a very small number of cases,” he said, noting that compensation was awarded in only a handful of cases out of more than 900 adjudicated.
Simic also criticised the tendency to reduce responsibility for wartime atrocities solely to convicted individuals. “You cannot transfer responsibility for war crimes onto just 1,000 people,” he said, adding that despite those convictions, genuine reconciliation has not been achieved.
He identified education as a critical missing link, saying that court verdicts rarely find their way into school curricula. “Our problem is not that we do not have verdicts; the problem is where those verdicts are,” Simic said, pointing to ethnically divided narratives that portray one side exclusively as victims and others as perpetrators.
Lejla Gacanica, human rights officer for transitional justice at the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, UNHCR, said most progress so far has been driven by victims’ groups and civil society organisations, a model she described as unsustainable. “It is time for the state to take bigger steps in relation to current needs,” she said.
Representing the EU Delegation, policy officer Fermín Córdoba stressed the importance of institutional cooperation, particularly in the context of EU accession talks. He said transitional justice falls under the first cluster of negotiations and key priority Number Five, but acknowledged persistent resistance from authorities. “We tried to negotiate with the authorities, but we always hit a wall,” Córdoba said.
The panel concluded that without stronger political will, full legal implementation and meaningful engagement with victims, Bosnia risks allowing time to erode both justice and truth, leaving reconciliation an unfulfilled promise, three decades after the war.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the panelist(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or BIRN. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
Workshop Overview and Participant Breakdown
Date and place: 20 January 2026
Number of participants per country:
BiH 28
Austria 1
Netherlands 2
Belgium 2
Czech Republic 2
France 2
Spain 1
Germany 2
Sweden 2
Total number of participants: 42
The full findings and activities are available in the EDS Report, which can be accessed here.
To help school teachers learn more about how to teach students about the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a group of teachers from several towns and cities visited detention camps in a former elementary school in Brcko.
Almost 30 teachers attending the first in a series of trainings on “How to Learn and Teach About the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina” from January 12 until January 14, organised by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network of Bosnia and Herzegovina, BIRN BiH, the Srebrenica Memorial Center, and the Association Forgotten Children of War, visited the former Partizan and Luka detention camps in Brcko. The visit was organised by Senad Osmanovic, Head of the Education Department of Brcko District, and former Luka camp detainee Amir Didic.
In front of the detention camp where the Fourth Elementary School in Brcko is located today and the Partizan facility, they recalled how their fellow citizens were beaten up and killed at these places during 1992, despite the facilities being in the town centre and not far from the police station.
“No one reacted,” Osmanovic told the teachers, adding that, unfortunately, many people who went missing from the Brcko District are still being searched for.
Walking towards the former Luka detention camp in Brcko, the teachers spoke to Didic, who had been detained and tortured there aged only 23.
“Every visit means a lot to me and all detainees, to spread the truth,” Didic said.
As they looked at pictures of the suffering and the missing in the former Luka detention camp premises, the teachers, from Tuzla, Bihac, Sarajevo, Cazin, Bijeljina, Travnik, and other cities, said it was unimaginable that someone could commit such crimes, and that just visiting the place left a huge impression on them.
“I have visited many different detention camps, but I must admit that this has affected me emotionally,” said teacher Amila Kunosic from the Centar Elementary School in Tuzla.
According to the Database of Judicially Established Facts, created with the help of the United Nations Secretary-General’s Peace Building Fund, PBF, through the project “Building Long-Term Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Investing in the Future”, from May 3, 1992 onwards, in Brcko Municipality, Serbs detained primarily Bosniak and Croat civilians at 14 locations. They included the Brcko Public Security Station, the Laser bus company, the Partizan sports hall, the Vestfalija restaurant, the football stadium, the elementary school in Loncari, the Pelagicevo agricultural cooperative store, the mosque in Kolobare, the Posavina hotel, the hospital in Brcko, the fire station, the JNA garrison, and the Luka detention camp.
The Hague war crimes court established that from May 8 to June 6, 1992, a large number of people were shot and killed in the Luka detention camp, and that, in addition, detainees were interrogated and abused. Those killed were buried in graves, or their bodies were thrown into the Sava River.
The training participants discussed these and other facts with transitional justice experts and BIRN BiH journalists, who prepared video content for use in classes and drew the conclusions of the trial chambers concerning the wartime events from all verdicts. The materials are adapted to all ages and are available for free. The teachers talked about the methodology and conduct of such classes with history professor Melisa Foric Plasto, who has created a manual for teaching about the war. A special segment of the training was dedicated to genocide, which the teachers discussed with Muamer Dzananovic, co-author of Handbook on Srebrenica – From Siege to Genocide.
The biggest concern for all teachers is how to rise above personal experiences and remain professional during classes while discussing such sensitive topics, and how to properly talk about them with students, for which trauma expert Azra Frlj was at their disposal.
On the third day of the training, a special focus was on sexual violence, specifically on children born as a result of war, with members of the Association “Forgotten Children of War” assisting teachers at the workshop.
“The training is great. I will greatly use the workshops that you have shown us, and show the same to the students. It is much better than the traditional way of teaching,” said Amila Kunosic.
Nedzad Kapidzic, a high-school teacher from Travnik, said that teachers also needed to adapt to new generations and this kind of training is useful for class preparations and new knowledge, “so that no one is offended while speaking about the truth and what has been judicially established, which is not my opinion or that of my colleagues but the facts,” Kapidzic said. He pointed out that teachers are obliged to educate themselves and adapt to new generations who were not born during the time of the Bosnian war and mostly have gained knowledge only from their families.
“The goal of the training is to empower teachers to use factual, verified, and multi-perspective approaches in studying contemporary history and to develop critical thinking and empathy for all victims among students,” said BIRN BiH project manager Mirza Halilcevic.
Journalists Azra Husaric Omerovic and Lejla Memcic Heric are this year’s recipients of an award for professional reporting given by the Nas Most Association, for a photographic report on Srebrenica mothers who restored their village by their own will and means.
At the award ceremony in Zenica, the jury stated that this was a powerful and emotional report that documented the resistance, dignity, and perseverance of elderly women in the process of returning to and rebuilding a ruined village.
Memcic Heric said this recognition was significant for them both professionally and personally, explaining that she and Husaric Omerovic made the story as part of Detektor’s reporting on the 30th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide and that, while doing that, they came to a village where they met two women who were among the few still living there.
“We wanted to write this story so as not to present the two elderly women as victims, but as women who had rebuilt that village by their will, strength and financial investments, portraying them as they deserved,” Memcic Heric said.
Husaric Omerovic added that Detektor reports on elderly people on a daily basis, because they are part of society and drivers of certain changes through transitional justice and culture of remembrance.
“These are mostly returnee villages, where elderly people have returned, trying to sustain life, just like the two women in our story who wanted to bring life back to the burned village in which all the men were killed in the genocide, and the women and children were expelled. They returned with a desire to bring back life and memory of what it looked like while their loved ones were still alive,” she said.
Husaric Omerovic added that they had tried to bring back and preserve this memory for the sake of future generations, and also to leave a permanent monument in some way.
“We wanted to show the true strength of an elderly person to preserve what they know was valuable while alive,” Husaric Omerovic pointed out.
Zdena Saric, president of the Nas Most Association, which seeks to socially engage the elderly through culture and art, presented plaques to the winners on behalf of the Association. They were also given paintings created by members of the Association.
In addition to this award, recognition was given to Mirjana Pavlovic, a journalist from Nova TV, for continuous reporting on the elderly through a series of television coverages.
From November 24 to 26, 2025, BIRN welcomed some 120 participants – journalists, civil society activists, tech experts, academia, relevant institutions’ representatives and citizens at large – in Prishtina (Kosovo) for a regional annual conference and the Internet Freedom Meet event on digital rights and freedoms.
What unfolded was more than a presentation of cold statistical data. We witnessed a collective reckoning with how rapidly emerging technologies are advancing, and with how weak oversight and shrinking civic spaces are reshaping – and often endangering – people’s everyday lives across the Western Balkans and beyond.
From Project Roots to Regional Reality
The third and final annual conference is built on BIRN’s three-years project, Reporting Digital Rights and Freedoms, funded by the European Union and implemented by BIRN Kosovo and its regional partners BIRN Hub, BIRN Albania, BIRN Bosnia and Herzegovina, BIRN Macedonia, BIRN Montenegro and BIRN Serbia in the Western Balkans region and Turkey. The project aimed at strengthening media and civil society capacity to document and report digital rights and freedoms violations. Through training, capacity building online and offline events, fellowships, subgranting as well as editorial and other technical support, the project equipped newsrooms and individuals, journalists and activists with tools to first and foremost understand and then monitor and report about issues such as online abuse, to challenge disinformation, and bring somewhat hidden digital violations into public debate and for institutional reaction.
BIRN Kosovo director Jeta Xharra opened the conference and noted that there was very little knowledge about digital rights and that the project has contributed to educating both journalists to report on and the public to understand digital rights.
In a high-level speech, Kosovo’s President, Vjosa Osmani, sent a strong message of support towards the internet as a free space, and on the importance of exposing tech-facilitated abuse, be it online manipulation, promotion of hatred, violence against women or harassment of children.
The Deputy Head of the EU Office in Kosovo, Eva Palatova, emphasised the EU’s commitment to a human-centric digital environment, noting recent key policy instruments, the Digital Services Act, the AI Act and the European Democracy Shield, aimed at protecting users.
The work done throughout the project pointed to the importance of addressing internet governance-related topics systematically. The latest BIRN regional report, launched at the opening of the conference, documented 1,440 violations from September 2024 to August 2025. Over the three years of the project, based on BIRN’s monitoring methodology, we captured over 4,000 cases of digital rights and violations mapped.
From September 2024 to August 2025, the most frequent types of trending violations include misuse of artificial intelligence (AI) to facilitate sexual, gender-based violence and fraud, threats to the freedom and pluralism of information, attacks on digital assets and economic rights and harmful and threatening online behaviour.
The conference was attended by around 120 participants including 30 Internet Freedom Meet fellows from the Western Balkans region selected following a public call for participation.
Throughout the three-day event, the fellows played a dual role. They followed conference panels on the main stage, bringing sharp questions and contextual knowledge; and in parallel, they immersed themselves in dedicated workshops with international trainers, diving deeper into some of the most urgent challenges shaping the digital landscape.
In these workshops, fellows confronted real-world dilemmas: how to investigate online harassment while keeping victims safe; how to trace disinformation networks across borders; how AI-generated deepfakes and algorithmic bias threaten vulnerable groups; and how online/street surveillance erodes civic freedom. Fellows additionally enriched the discussion with local knowledge and lived experiences.
Photo: BIRN Kosovo
Humans Behind the Numbers
The conference focused heavily on the human impact behind the numbers – giving a platform to stories of and about real people – journalists, activists, citizens’ – whose lives were impacted and shaken by digital abuse, such as threats, surveillance or disinformation.
Participants heard worrying testimonies: journalists recounting smear online campaigns after exposing corruption, activists exposed to harassment and doxxing following their online advocacy, and citizens becoming victims of AI-driven scams, identity theft or deepface-based abuse.
Speakers emphasized a critical truth: digital rights violations are rarely isolated incidents. They are more often than not entwined with inequalities – especially in terms of gender, LGBTIQ+ persons, minorities, people with disabilities and other vulnerable groups. As Albanian technology policy expert Alba Brojka noted on the panel about gender-based violence, “It is a mirror of what is happening in the society and is amplified online.”
Photo: BIRN Kosovo
New Technologies, Same and Worse Dangers
Emerging technologies, such as generative Artificial Intelligence, are accelerating threats, while legislation and institutional oversight – and to a valuable extent also the media and civil society pace of understanding technological changes – lag dangerously behind.
Experts on the panels warned of AI-facilitated fraud, voice-cloning scams, deepfakes and more – noting that they are all increasingly used to exploit individuals’ vulnerabilities, especially women, young people and children. We heard how deepfakes have become so realistic that more and more people, especially with the information overload, cannot differentiate between real news, manipulated content or disinformation – which directly leads to undermining public trust and discourse influencing democratic and public informed participation.
Panelists looked into [weak] legal frameworks and selective enforcement, which make digital space a fertile ground for censorship, repression, threats and surveillance. We heard from several speakers sharing stories from Serbia or Turkey of unlawful surveillance, spyware deployment and non-transparent use of digital technologies and tools to intimidate critical voices of activists, journalists or even whistleblowers. While on one side, we see an “implementation gap” of those appropriate laws that exist, on the other side, in many places, we encounter outdated institutional settings, limited resources or political pressure, which stays unbothered while critical voices under attack stay unprotected and often with severe online or offline consequences.
Photo: BIRN Kosovo
Digital Rights are Human Rights – Not Optional Extras
One underlying message seconded by all participants – and participation was truly multistakeholder – is that digital rights are human rights, and are not marginal issues for tech-savvy urbanities but fundamental rights, deeply tied to dignity, security and democratic participation. Beyond the number of captured digital rights violations, those numbers represent people. At least one person per case. At least one more friend or family member was affected by it. And often entire communities.
Numbers cannot tell the whole story. Data reveals patterns to which the BIRN team, together with our partners, fellows, subgrantees, gave context. Living in the online space is not abstract – it shapes people’s safety, identity and freedom. Every violation is a life interrupted, a voice shaken, a right diminished. By documenting abuses, amplifying testimonies and exposing the systems that allow them to keep happening, the project brought human stories back to the centre.
Photo: BIRN Kosovo
From Talk to Action: What Needs to Happen Now
By the end of the conference, participants agreed on several urgent and concrete steps for the region:
Update and enforce legislation regionally, looking into good practice, to keep pace with technological change: laws should address AI-driven abuse, data protection, online harassment and digital surveillance
Support for victims/survivors, ensuring accessible reporting mechanisms, provide legal, psychological and social support, including protecting anonymity whenever needed
Empower independent media and civil society, including sustained grants, training and mentorship, so that civil society and journalists (media) can continue documenting abuses safely and effectively
Promote digital literacy and public awareness, as a necessary continued effort to educate citizens at large about ever-evolving online risks and understanding their rights
Fostering regional cooperation, as digital threats do not respect borders – cooperation among media, civil society, institutions, technical community and academia across countries is essential.
Why This Matters and Appreciation Words
For many years we have lived in a world where technology evolves fast – outpacing our social, legal and institutional capacity to adapt. As the closing conference in Prishtina underscored, these are not abstract policy questions. They are about people’s lives, freedom, trust, safety and dignity. They are about our future.
By bringing together journalists, experts from different fields and policymakers, over the three-year project we jointly took responsibility for protecting digital rights not as a niche project but as a core human-rights obligation that shapes people’s realities in the digital age. The Reporting Digital Rights and Freedoms initiative proved that when knowledge, evidence and human stories are brought together, digital rights can no longer be dismissed as technical issues “in the cloud”. They become what they truly are – essential rights that protect the very fabric of democratic society.
BIRN Kosovo wishes to extend its gratitude to project partners, coordinators, editors, monitors, journalists, researchers and authors, subgrantees, fellows, participants of physical and online training and community meetings, and the colleagues and individuals who contributed to the project’s delivery and success.
The Annual conference and Internet Freedom Meet were organised within the framework of the Reporting Digital Rights and Freedoms project, implemented by BIRN Kosovo and supported by the European Union.
A story about obtaining the right to justice for victims of war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina was one of two articles by Detektor journalist Emina Dizdarevic Tahmiscija which have been shortlisted for the Fetisov International Journalism Award for 2025.
The jury announced a shortlist of 33 stories submitted from 19 countries – a reminder that despite numerous crises facing the media, high-quality journalism remains alive and kicking around the world.
In her first article, Dizdarevic Tahmiscija described how, after the end of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, more than 1,100 people were convicted of war crimes. Despite this, prosecutors’ refusal to systematically file indictments against high-ranking perpetrators, fragmentation of complex investigations, slow trials, lack of a strategic approach, politicisation, and lack of support for witnesses resulted in absolute disappointment of victims and their families. This was illustrated by Dizdarevic Tahmiscija through the example of one of the victims who has seen only partial justice in court.
In the second nominated story, the Detektor journalist examined how much money had been genuinely contributed to creating a systematic approach to transitional justice processes, such as memorialisation and reparations, and to ensuring a comprehensive framework focusing on victims and their families.
“It is a distinct honour to be among the nominated journalists from around the world. Especially because this is a confirmation of the importance of stories about transitional justice and giving space to victims who had the courage to tell their stories, thereby placing their trust in me. This is also a reminder that these topics must never cease to be in focus,” said Dizdarevic Tahmiscija.
The Fetisov International Journalism Award promotes universal human values, such as honour, justice, courage, and nobility, through the examples of outstanding journalists from around the world, while “their service and dedication contribute to changing the world for the better”.
The shortlist also included entries from France, the Netherlands, Qatar, Indonesia, Great Britain, the USA, India, Finland, Mexico, Italy, Canada, Germany, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, China, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The winners will be announced at an award-giving ceremony to be held in Cyprus on April 22, 2026.
The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network of Bosnia and Herzegovina, BIRN BiH, the “Forgotten Children of War” Association, and the Srebrenica Memorial Centre presented a Database of Judicially Established Facts about the War and a handbook, How to Learn ad Teach about the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a tool for educating young people, combatting denial and relativization of verdicts, and building peace and mutual understanding.
For the purpose of creating the database, more than 980 final court verdicts were analysed, including decisions of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY, the Bosnian State Court and other courts in Bosnia and the region, about war crimes committed in the period 1992-1995.
BIRN BiH Executive Director Denis Dzidic emphasized the importance of the presence of teachers, representatives of education ministries and pedagogical institutes at the presentation of the database, which has now been supplemented with domestic and regional rulings, in addition to ICTY judgments.
Arnhild Spence, the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Bosnia and Herzegovina, said she was glad that the UN had the opportunity to support BIRN BiH in this groundbreaking work on fact-based teaching of the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Hasan Hasanovic, from the Srebrenica Memorial Centre, stated that he dreamed that we would reach a stage where we wrote such educational content for children. In the past five or six years, the Memorial Centre has made a significant step forward and created exhibitions, scientific research projects and oral history that serve educational purposes, he said.
Haris Rovcanin and Dzana Brkanic, BIRN BiH editors, presenting the database, said it was an educational resource based on judicially verified facts, focusing on established facts about war events rather than on perpetrators.
During a panel discussion, “The Role of Educational System in Peacebuilding Process”, Senad Osmanovic, Head of Education for Brcko District, Azerina Muminovic, Senior Associate for Professional Development of Educators, Teachers, and Associates at the Pre-University Education Institute of Sarajevo Canton, Enisa Golos, Director of the Pedagogical Institute of Herzegovina-Neretva Canton, and Nadia Bandic, Assistant Federation Minister of Education, welcomed the database, which for the first time offers teachers across Bosnia a tool for teaching about history and the painful past.
The database and handbook were developed within the project “Building Long-Term Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Investing in the Future”, which is implemented by BIRN BiH, the Srebrenica Memorial Centre and the “Forgotten Children of War” Association, with the support of the United Nations General Secretary’s Peacebuilding Fund, PBF.
The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network of Bosnia and Herzegovina, BIRN BiH, presented a database of children still being searched for after the 1992-5 war, as well as a documentary, The Unlived Lives, telling a story of three families whose newborn babies disappeared without a trace.
The Missing Children of War Database by BIRN BiH aims to draw public and institutional attention to this particularly vulnerable group and their fate, as well as to assist in the search for nearly 400 minors still sought by their families. According to the Missing Persons Institute, 1,297 minors went missing from the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the war.
BIRN BiH Director Denis Dzidic said the project was the essence and heart of what this organisation is doing – telling the stories of people who are often not very visible in society.
“In Bosnia and Herzegovina, there is not enough discussion about trauma, the search for the missing, and those who have the most horrible stories to share, namely parents whose children went missing,” Dzidic said, adding that he hopes the project will awaken the consciences of those who possess any information about these graves.
For the needs of the database, 35 profiles of missing children were recorded, including testimonies of their family members about them and their wishes, which they have never fulfilled, unfortunately.
Aida Lakovic Hoso, Good Governance Sector Leader at the UN Development Programme, UNDP, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, called the Database of the Missing Children a shining example of how investigative journalism, empathy, and technology can jointly contribute to justice, remembrance, and reconciliation.
The documentary, The Unlived Lives, which was screened in Sarajevo, tells the story of three parents from different parts of Bosnia who share the same fate – their newborn babies went missing without a trace, and their continuing desire to find them, even now, more than 30 years after the war began.
The film author, journalist Jasmin Begic, said that this was a never-ending story for the parents. He thanked the parents and family members who had agreed to share their stories.
“Youth was interrupted, as was the future for the children and the opportunity for their parents to enjoy watching their children grow. I hope this film will influence someone and that they will speak up to help move this story forward,” Begic said.
Besides Begic, the film crew includes film editor Elvedin Zorlak, cameramen Mirza Mrso and Anes Asotic, editors Dzana Brkanic and Semir Mujkic, producer Denis Dzidic, and project manager Katarina Zrinjski. Music for the film was made by Dino Sukalo and Dado Musanovic, and the song Why Aren’t You Here was performed by Elma Selimovic Tais.
A panel discussion on missing people after the screening included Fikret Bacic, one of the family members still searching for his two children, Adrijana Hanusic Becirovic, an expert in transitional justice who prepared a case study for the database, Emza Fazlic, spokeswoman of the Missing Persons Institute of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Boris Grubesic, spokesman of the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The project was implemented thanks to EU Support to the Confidence Building in the Western Balkans – which is funded by the European Union and implemented by the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP in BiH.
The Network for Building Peace has presented the “Goran Bubalo” award for contribution to peace, equality, and justice to Denis Dzidic, director of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network of Bosnia and Herzegovina, BIRN BiH.
The committee for the award, which is named after the prominent peace activist who died in 2020, stated that it was giving the award to Dzidic for his long-standing work in investigative journalism and contribution to media freedom.
“As personal as this award is, my work would not be possible without the people I work with,” Dzidic said during the award ceremony held in Mostar on the occasion of the International Day of Peace.
“It means an incredibly lot to me that the nomination was made by people with whom I work every day,” Dzidic said, also thanking the Network for Building Peace as the award organiser.
When selecting the winners of this peace award, the nominees’ achievements in the year prior to receiving the award are taken into account, along with their ongoing contribution to improving human rights, preserving and building peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Radenko Udovcic, project manager of the Network for Building Peace, said that this recognition was given to people who had made an important contribution in Bosnia through their work.
“They reconciled, connected, offered solutions, and even did something in terms of cultural and political creative activity, like making some theatre plays that filled auditoriums and positively influenced public opinion,” he explained.
Udovcic says that every individual in Bosnia has the opportunity to get this award regardless of which part of the country they come from or their political affiliation, as long as they have done something to connect people.
The award was established in 2013, and was named after Goran Bubalo in 2020, in memory of the late founder and president of the Network for Building Peace.
During the ceremony in Mostar, Dzidic stated that he met Bubalo as a young journalist, when he had just started working on reconciliation and transitional justice topics.
“A few years later, when I was invited to a working group on the media and transitional justice on a project together with him, I talked to him for a long time about what I thought about the challenges of reporting on war crimes. He said: ‘Friend…’ and went on to build my idea. He made it infinitely better. But this was the first time I felt heard while dealing with the topic of my interest,” Dzidic said.
On Saturday, the Network also gave an award for continuous humanitarian work in Bosnia and Herzegovina to Pomozi.ba Association, which was accepted by project manager Midhad Brkan.
“We at Pomozi.ba believe that humanity has no borders, that empathy knows no differences, that small actions can initiate great changes. This award motivates us further to persist in this mission,” Brkan said.
International Peace Days were held in Mostar this year again. During events that lasted three days, round tables, debates, poetry evenings, and performances were organised, all containing peace as a common theme.
The film None Will Speak the Truth, authored by Detektor journalist Azra Husaric Omerovic, will be screened as part of the “BH Film” Programme on August 18.
In July 1992, Esef Dzenanovic was separated from his family and forcibly taken to one of the detention camps in Prijedor. He survived torture in three detention camps.
But before being exchanged and saved from certain death, he learned that his mother, sister, wife and two underage sons were no longer waiting for him at home.
Husaric Omerovic explains that the film was made following the marking of White Armband Day in Prijedor in 2022, when she first met Esef together with her colleague, Enes Hodzic.
“Holding three white roses, Esef stood outside the large groups of people, families, friends standing in a line for roses and ribbons with names of killed children. When we approached him, accompanied by a friend of his, hoping we would talk to him, he only briefly said that they had killed his mother, sister, wife, and two little sons,” Husaric Omerovic recalls.
She added that, every year, he brings three roses for his killed underage sons Alen and Ajdin, as well as his sister, Majda.
On that day, Esef had no strength to talk. Husaric Omerovic says that, by researching his family, she learned that he lost his entire family on July 23, 1992, when he and his father were imprisoned in detention camps. To this day, he has not found the remains of his family.
More than 30 years after the war, Esef is still searching for any information about his family, hoping that they will be buried with dignity and that their souls will rest in peace. He finds the will to live and relief from nightmares by the water; he goes fishing every day.
The film is directed by Azra Husaric Omerovic, edited by Elvedin Zorlak, and the screenplay and editing are by Semir Mujkic and Dzana Brkanic. The executive producer is BIRN BiH director Denis Dzidic. The director of photography is Alen Alilovic, while Emir Dzanan is the cameraman. The sound was recorded by Samir Hrkovic, and the music was composed by Damir Imamovic. The sound processing is credited to Nedim Imamovic.
Detektor has worked on this film for over two years. The scenes and dialogues were filmed in Esef’s family house yard in Prijedor, his current home in Switzerland, and on Swiss and Bosnian lakes, where he seeks to find peace.
“The sadness with which Esef lives every day and his way of coping motivated us to persevere in this idea and to make a film about a man whose everything was killed in July 1992, along with hope.
“Our desire is for this film to encourage those who have information about the location of their grave to speak up, so that their souls may rest, and Esef may find peace,” Husaric Omerovic said.
The 31st Sarajevo Film Festival will be held from August 15 to 22. None Will Speak the Truth will be screened as part of the “BH Film” Programme.
As part of the Sarajevo Film Festival, the Association of Film Workers of Bosnia and Herzegovina is organising the “Bosnian Film Festival” Programme, presenting films from Bosnia as well as films by local authors living and working abroad.
