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USAID Information:
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This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
MISSION SPOTLIGHT: BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA
In this section:
Ethnic Groups Work Together to Rebuild Bosnia-Herzegovina
Bosnia’s Refugees Return to Restart Lives
Maimed Journalist Writes Painful Truths About
Bosnian War
Bosnian Businesses and Exports Expand Through
Loan Program
Bullet-Scarred Hotel Gets Facelift
Ethnic Groups Work Together to Rebuild Bosnia-Herzegovina
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina—Bosniaks,* Serbs,
and Croats today live together in peace in this city, which
was under siege by Serbs for much of the three-year bloody
ethnic conflict that tore up the country between 1992 and
1995.
As the three ethnic groups work to rebuild their country,
USAID—with a budget of $26 million, enhanced by an annual
$12–16 million in loan program repayments—supports
the process through economic development programs, promotion
of democracy, and assistance to thousands of returnees.
Sarajevo, once a cultural hub in the Balkans, has regained
some of its vibrancy, with busy streets full of cafés
and shops. But shelled-out and burnt buildings, including
the architectural gem of a national library, remain disfigured
and closed—a reminder of wounds unhealed.
The most visible changes in Bosnia are the new roads, bridges,
and homes. Less noticeable but equally important are changes
in the laws, said USAID/Bosnia Deputy Mission Director Pat
Jacobs.
“The laws are business-friendly. We’ve helped
rebuild the banking sector, and many new businesses are up
and running,” he said.
The next step is to move sovereignty to the federal level,
Jacobs added. “We need constitutional changes that make
Bosnia-Herzegovina one single country.”
The war began after ethnic Serbs boycotted a referendum
to make Bosnia-Herzegovina independent of the former Yugoslavia.
Bosnian Serbs, supported by neighboring Serbia and Montenegro,
responded with armed resistance aimed at partitioning the
republic along ethnic lines and joining Serb-held areas to
form a “Greater Serbia.” The Croats wanted to be
part of the newly independent Croatia.
In March 1994, Bosniaks and Croats made peace and created
the joint Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Peace talks with
Serbs began in November 1995.
The Dayton Accords created a multiethnic and democratic
government charged with conducting foreign, diplomatic, and
fiscal policy. But it also recognized a second tier of government
comprising two entities roughly equal in size: the Bosniak/Croat
Federation and the Bosnian Serb-led Republika Srpska (RS).
The federation and RS governments were charged with overseeing
most government functions.
This partition makes operating in Bosnia difficult at times,
said Jacobs.
“Ultranationalist parties make it very difficult to
work in [the RS] because a lot of our work there is with minorities,”
he said. “And they don’t want them returning.”
The Dayton Accords placed some 60,000 NATO-led peacekeepers
in Bosnia to maintain peace. As peace has held up, peacekeeping
forces have shrunk. Today, some 7,000 European Union peacekeepers
remain.
*Bosniak has replaced Muslim as an ethnic term, in part
to avoid confusion with the religious term Muslim, an adherent
of Islam.
FrontLines Acting Deputy Managing Editor Kristina Stefanova
visited Bosnia-Herzegovina recently and wrote this series
of articles.
Bosnia’s Refugees Return to Restart Lives
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Vlado Konjikusic, a Serb who took his family away from
the region of Livno when it became the frontline for
fighting between Serbs and Croats in 1994, looks at
his beehives. His house was destroyed, but he has rebuilt
it and brought his wife from refuge in Serbia. The family
lost most of their cattle and equipment. They live off
produce from their garden, milk from two cows, and homegrown
honey.
Kristina Stefanova, USAID
|
PRIJEDOR, Bosnia-Herzegovina—On a rainy August
afternoon, Said Hamulic made his way home after a day digging
a road and helping neighbors rebuild their houses. His wife,
pregnant with their third child, smoked cigarettes and waited
for him.
This is the life of 23,000 Bosniaks who returned to Prijedor
in western Bosnia a decade after they were expelled by Serbs.
Unemployment is high, and most everyone is rebuilding destroyed
homes, roads, and water and electric systems.
International aid organizations such as USAID provide construction
materials and help deliver power and water to new homes. They
also give financial aid, seeds, agriculture tools, and livestock
to returnees.
Today Prijedor is a Serb stronghold and its returnees are
Bosniak; in other areas, the Croats or Bosniaks are in charge
and the returnees are Serbs or from other groups.
Prijedor saw some of the war’s ugliest atrocities:
Bosniaks were forcefully pushed out of their homes or arrested
and put into concentration camps.
Hamulic was one of the lucky few who escaped. He and his
wife Enisa went to Croatia and later to Germany. By 1998,
they had two daughters, one born in each country.
The family returned to Prijedor to find their home—like
every other home belonging to a Bosniak—burnt to the
ground. The livestock was long gone and the cornfield leveled.
The family moved in with neighbors and, over the next two
years, got building materials to rebuild their home on its
old foundations. They got electricity and clean water as USAID
repaired the local distribution systems. Now they have two
cows.
At 66, Hamulic has lost all hope of retirement since his
13-year career at the local paper mill ended with the family’s
hasty departure from Bosnia in 1992.
“I make 25 convertible marks [about $18] a day when
I get paid,” Hamulic said, extending his calloused, rough
hands. “Just look at my hands.”
About half of the 45,000 Bosniaks who left Prijedor have
come back, one of the highest rates of return of any refugee
region.
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Enisa Hamulic and her 12-year-old daughter Erma sit
outside their new home. Bosniaks Enisa and Said Hamulic
fled Prijedor before the war. Their two daughters were
born while they lived as refugees in Croatia and, later,
Germany. The family returned to Prijedor in 1998. They
found their home destroyed, but have rebuilt it with
international aid. Hamulic is unemployed, and his wife
is expecting their third child.
Kristina Stefanova, USAID
|
“I wanted to be on my own land,” said Hamulic.
“Many others were returning, and we wanted to be close
to our friends and relatives.”
The sentiment is shared by a Serb in Bojmunti, a village
near Livno, some five driving hours away from Prijedor.
“We didn’t go from here of our will, but from
our will we came back,” said Vlado Konjikusic, 68, who,
with his wife and son, left for Serbia in late 1994, as Livno
became the frontline between Serbs and Croats.
Twenty-eight Serb families lived in Bojmunti before the
war. Now 13 have come back, all to find their homes and fields
burnt.
“We have to start with everything from the beginning:
the house, the livestock, agricultural equipment,” said
Konjikusic, who received a cow through a USAID project. “In
this region we once lived off agriculture, but now we have
nothing.”
USAID began supporting returnees by repairing large infrastructure
throughout the country so the economy could get up and running
again, said Samir Dizdar of USAID/Bosnia-Herzegovina’s
Minority Reintegration Development Office. As people began
returning, USAID refocused on small-scale community projects
to encourage more returns.
In the late 1990s, the Agency repaired hundreds of water
and wastewater systems, power plants, schools, and clinics
throughout Bosnia. Four border-crossing bridges and a railroad
leading to Croatia were rebuilt, as well as one internal highway
that was damaged from frequent use by heavy war vehicles.
To repair the Kakanj power plant, about an hour from Sarajevo,
the Agency invested $15 million to fix one generator, replace
another, and install filters that reduced fumes by 97 percent.
It later invested $9 million to modernize nearby coal mines
that fuel Kakanj.
The plant provides electricity and heating to 350,000 residents
in central Bosnia, including 150,000 people in Sarajevo.
“All the major power lines were shelled,” said
Dizdar. “The idea was that cutting power lines to the
villages would discourage people from returning.”
Sarajevo itself suffered power cuts 10 to15 days at a time.
“And when you got it, it was for two, three hours a day,”
Dizdar said.
USAID repaired major transmission lines after the war and
is still hooking up distribution lines that were cut off at
villages.
Maimed Journalist Writes Painful Truths About Bosnian War
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A printing press worker reviews a freshly printed copy
of Nezavisne Novine, a Bosnian newspaper that
has received assistance from USAID since 1997.
USAID/Bosnia-Herzegovina |
BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Herzegovina—Journalist Zeljko
Kopanja lost his legs for telling the truth.
Kopanja’s newspaper, Nezavisne Novine, was the
only publication in the Serb-dominated section of Bosnia and
Herzegovina—Republika Srpska (RS)—to write about
Serb war crimes against Bosniaks.
Shortly after his article appeared, a bomb was planted in
his car. He lost both legs.
Kopanja did not give up, and Nezavisne Novine, which
USAID has supported through various projects in the last seven
years, is still the only paper in the RS that objectively
addresses issues like war crimes and local corruption.
The newspaper’s investigative reporting has earned
it a good reputation. It is the second largest daily newspaper
in Bosnia and is widely read by Bosniaks and Croats, as well
as Serbs.
In 1998, USAID conducted research that helped the newspaper
decide to use Latin rather than Cyrillic letters. That helped
it attract Bosniak readers outside the RS.
In 2000, the Agency gave the newspaper a $500,000 loan to
build a printing press. Opened in 2002, it is the only private
printing press in the RS, and has been a money-maker for Nezavisne
Novine. Several local publications, some government pamphlets,
and a few Croatian magazines are printed here.
In 2001, a USAID-funded consultant helped the newspaper
reorganize its management. The Agency also trained editors,
managers, reporters, photographers, and designers.
Nezavisne Novine’s circulation is about 15,000
on weekdays and 25,000 on weekends. Kopanja also owns several
magazines and a radio station.
Some 65 reporters work in the Banja Luka newsroom and 26
work in the Sarajevo bureau, which opened in 2000.
“Our staff is Serb, Croat, and Bosniak. We have a mixed
hierarchy,” said Managing Editor Dragan Jerinic, adding
that this helps the newspaper’s editorial objectivity.
“Journalists in Banja Luka never printed a truthful
story about what was going on during the war,” he said.
“We needed young people who are not burdened by those
prejudices and who would write about anything.”
The average age of Nezavisne Novine reporters is
26.
In 2001, the foundation stone was being laid to rebuild
a mosque in Banja Luka that was destroyed during the war,
and many Bosniaks returned to the city for the event. During
the ceremony, locals threw stones at the visitors. Nezavisne
Novine sent an older reporter to cover to story, but he
refused.
“He wouldn’t admit the reality, couldn’t
write critically,” Jerinic said. “There are many
here who are not willing to accept that some other people
did terrible things in their name.”
After Nezavisne Novine’s investigative reporting
last year, legal action was taken against a forestry company
accused of funding war criminals. Reports also led to the
restriction of imports of materials used to make synthetic
heroin and crack cocaine.
Since 1997, USAID has supported media projects in Bosnia,
working with radio and television stations, as well as magazines
and newspapers. Of the dozens of outlets originally assisted,
about 10 are now at the core of Bosnia’s independent
media.
Bosnian Businesses and Exports Expand Through Loan Program
DOBOJ, Bosnia-Herzegovina—Muharem Salihbasic
and his family left this city in 1992, after he was forced
out of his job as manager at a large fruit and vegetable processing
plant. But he was soon back in business. Salihbasic rented
space in a nearby city and hired his family members and a
dozen former coworkers to process fruits and vegetables into
marmalades and other products.
Now, more than a decade later, and with extensive assistance
from USAID, the company sells 200 products under four brands,
here and abroad.
“When we started, it was very primitive,” said
Salihbasic’s son Edin, who heads the marketing department
and has been to the United States for quality control and
marketing training three times through USAID. “It was
a lot of manual work—like fire cooking in huge pots and
much stirring. Many people told my father he was crazy, but
he had a vision.”
A tomato concentrate and plum butter were the first products
sold by the company that the elder Salihbasic named Vegafruit.
Around that time, the company’s annual production was
200 tons. After receiving several loans and other kinds of
U.S. assistance—for quality control, financial management,
design, marketing, and the like—the company is producing
more than 18,000 tons per year.
Vegafruit is one of several hundred companies USAID helped
through its Business Development Program (BDP), which has
disbursed $162 million in loans.
These companies today are the backbone of the Bosnian private
business sector and account for half of the country’s
exports, said Amira Vejzagic-Ramhorst, who managed the project
at USAID. Among BDP’s borrowers are manufacturing, forestry,
and construction companies. BDP loans have helped create more
than 10,000 new jobs, Vejzagic-Ramhorst said.
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Small cucumbers moving through a production line to
become pickles at Vegafruit. The company, which has
received extensive assistance from USAID, produces more
than 18,000 tons of canned vegetables and fruits per
year. Pickles are one of its main products.
Kristina Stefanova, USAID |
In 1996, Vegafruit borrowed $800,000 to build a headquarters
and invest in new equipment, packaging, and labeling. A year
later, the company took out another $1.5 million loan to expand
its production line. The company expanded from 20 to 260 full-time
workers and hires another 100 seasonal workers.
Miles away in southeast Bosnia, another loan recipient,
herbal drug maker Pharmamed, has grown in nine years to employ
62 workers.
Pharmamed General Director Sead Medanhodzic headed Bosnia’s
association of pharmacists until he and his family became
refugees at the start of the war. His son went to Canada,
and he and his wife and daughter settled in Croatia.
In 1996, they returned to Travnik, in Bosnia. Medanhodzic
pooled the family savings, borrowed money from friends, and
purchased herbs and basic equipment. Soon he, his wife, and
daughter—all pharmacists—were making honey- and
herbal-based teas and cosmetics.
Two years later, BDP fieldworkers contacted the company.
Soon, Pharmamed was developing a business plan, and its two
employees were trained in quality control and management.
Pharmamed’s first loan went to building a production
plant. Meanwhile, sales grew as Medanhodzic drove his company’s
products to pharmacies around the country.
By 2002, Pharmamed had borrowed a total of about $2 million.
The company had a state-of-the-art, 16,000-square-foot production
plant, along with a dozen vans and trucks to distribute its
products.
“Last year, we were certified to sell our products
in Europe, and now we are exporting to Croatia and Kosovo,”
Medanhodzic said.
Pharmamed also packages and distributes products of Croatian
and German drug companies and works with them to distribute
some of Pharmamed’s 150 products.
“USAID really gave us a chance to keep moving ahead,”
Medanhodzic said. “We are always invited to meetings
where we can meet potential partners, and we really couldn’t
be where we are today without their assistance.”
Bullet-Scarred Hotel Gets Facelift
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina—The Holiday Inn
was built to house athletes in the 1984 Olympic Winter Games,
but a decade later it was the only functioning hotel and shelter
for foreign reporters covering the war.
The unlovely yellow hotel became something of an icon, its
battered façade appearing with regularity on television
screens around the world, a symbol of the bloody conflict
that tore Bosnia-Herzegovina apart.
Last year, on its 20th birthday, the Holiday Inn was privatized,
with U.S. assistance. Its new owner, an Austrian consortium,
will repair the existing building and add a 22-floor tower
with more rooms, a conference center, shops, restaurants,
and a parking lot. It will also hire another 800 people.
The Bosnian government tried to sell the hotel in 2001,
but offered prices were low and corruption was suspected,
so USAID stepped in to help. Starting in 2003, the Agency
performed financial projections, prepared all the information
for potential buyers, and participated in sale negotiations
lasting almost a year.
Tafro Fahrudin, manager for the hotel’s financial department,
remembers when the bright yellow, squarish building that still
bears many bullet holes and shell marks was under constant
attack. Power only came on so that meals could be cooked and
so reporters could write and transmit stories to editors abroad.
“We bought everything on the black market—fuel,
food. One liter of fuel then cost us about $15,” he said.
“Many of our employees were wounded as they came to work,
but luckily we didn’t lose any of them.”
But mostly Fahrudin thinks ahead, envisioning a Holiday
Inn that will be outfitted with fast internet connections
and feature high-tech information and telephone systems that
allow a Japanese guest to dial up and watch Tokyo television
programming.
“In half an hour you can drive to the Olympic mountains
from here,” he said. “This is a small but very beautiful
country. Tourism is our future.”
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