Aude's Interview

What was your first impression getting there ?

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Before going to Bosnia I didn’t know anything about the country, I didn’t even know where to locate it on a map. The advantage was that I didn’t have any expectations so I could only be positively surprised. And in fact, I really was. Immediately after my arrival by plane I took a taxi from Sarajevo to Tuzla and I discover a mountainous country with beautiful landscapes. It seems to me rather peaceful. But I started rapidly to notice that it was above all a poor country: the quality of the roads, the travelling salesmen all along, the quality of infrastructures etc. This first impression was confirmed during the rest of my stay. It was crazy to see a country in such a situation just at the border of Europe.

What was your mission there ?

I was working for a MicroFinance Institution called “Partner”, which is one of the biggest microfinance institution in Bosnia. I mainly worked in the headquarters in Tuzla but I also visited other offices in the west of the country and I went to visit the rural populations near the city of Bihac during door-to-door operations.

I worked especially on one project - “Solar Energy as the Future of Sustainable Development” - which aimed at developing the Bosnian market for solar energy by providing loans to the producers of solar panels (plus a technical and managerial assistance) and to the consumers to allow them to equip their houses and therefore reduce their consumption of energy. The final objective of the project was to create a self-sustained market for solar energy in Bosnia that would help the country to raise its ecological standards (there is a lot of work to do since the coal mines are still exploited massively). It was a really interesting project, developed in partnership with the American organisation USAID.

What do you think about Bosnian’s reconstruction? 

I think that there is still a lot of work to do, 20 years after the war Bosnia is still not reconstructed. This is especially striking in Sarajevo where bullet marks are noticeable on almost every building. Even all the guided tours organised by the city were about the war. In Tuzla the memories of the war were less noticeable, but I did see some prison camps in the nearby countryside that were still occupied. The most striking are not the material destructions but the presence of the war in the mentalities. To give you a concrete example, last summer it was the first year since the war that the city of Tuzla restored the tradition to fire canons every day around 8pm to mark the end of fasting during Ramadan. Well, several people told me that for them it was scaring to hear this because it was like living the war again. Many people are completely traumatized by the war, in each family someone has been killed or tortured or whatever. People still have real memories and are always speaking in terms of “before it was like this… but now everything is changed”. I think that this rupture will only disappear with time, when the generation will goes by.  

Do you think that microfinance is important for the reconstruction? How is it helping ? Does it work?

Yes, I personally think that microfinance is crucial in Bosnia because the political system is still very corrupted, elitist and inefficient and therefore unable to help the reconstruction by implementing huge infrastructures projects or giving subventions to the strategic sectors etc. And the major part of the Bosnian population are small farmers or entrepreneurs, who are the targeted clients of microfinance institutions. There is therefore a huge potential.

However, I’ve noticed that microfinance is suffering from a bad reputation in Bosnia. When I was telling to people outside the microfinance institution that I was working in microfinance, some of the typical answers were that : “Microfinance is using the poverty of the population to tax them huge interest rates”, “Microfinance institutions are strengthening the misery of the country”, which were quite surprising for me. This reject comes in part from the confusion that the population usually does between banks and microfinance institution, and also to the fact that the majority of the population cruelly lacks financial education and therefore feels that they are being abused because of their misunderstanding. The population remains suspicious but the democratization of microfinance seems to be on a good way.

I think that there is also a risk that too many microfinance institutions enter the market in the last few years and starts to use it as a way to make profit rather than to reduce poverty. Indeed, I have noticed in Tuzla – and several Bosnians confirmed it – that there are too much microfinance institutions compared to the size of the population. This could favour the over indebtedness of the clients and lead to another crisis such as the one that the sector has experienced in the mid-2000s.

What would you do if you have powers to improve the Bosnian situation?

I would first try to create a political party that would be closed from the population and trustworthy. I think that nothing would change in Bosnia with the actual political system - a rotating presidency with 3 presidents – which restrict any long term initiative and is still based on religion. There is today far too much political parties, and an excessive administration for a country of only 4 million people. The popular revolt in Tuzla last year and the destruction of the offices of the canton’s government illustrates the dissatisfaction of the population toward its ruling elites. Someone in Bosnia told me that the Bosnians are not a nation that is used to revolt easily, as long as the population would earn the minimum to eat decently nothing would change. It is quite difficult to say but with time the Bosnians have learned to accept their lot. Therefore they need some influent political leaders that would help them to reconstruct.

Then, I will also launch several infrastructure projects and give the priority to ameliorate the quality of the transport network (roads, trains) in the country. These infrastructures plans could also help to reduce unemployment, which is incredibly high in the country.

Do you think that The European Union has to help the Bosnian government? How?

I think that the European Union has definitely a role to play in the Bosnian reconstruction, especially with the membership application of Bosnia that has been officialised these last days. But I’m not sure that a financial help would be useful as long as the political situation does not change in the country and that the corruption does not stop. The EU could only provide short run help, which is not what the country needs. I think that the help should rather be the initiative of United Nations Organisations which are implementing specific development projects on the long run. But for sure, the European Union is anyway having an implicit role in Bosnia because the country uses the European standards as benchmarks for its own development (this was the case for example for the environmental project I was working on).

I have noticed that the young generation is a bit fed up with the international intervention in Bosnia and the fact that their country is considered only as an underdeveloped country that needs help rather than a country that is worth-visiting, culturally and naturally rich. It is undeniable that Bosnia would need international aid for at least several years more but the most important is that the population starts to be actors of the change. Tuzla is for example the starting point of the “Plenums”: citizens assemblees that are the most striking expression of the ongoing Bosnian revolution. In Bosnia, the people who were adults during the war are resigned but the young generation, these people who are born during the war represents a huge potential of change.

Is there a multicultural society yet? (mix of Bosnian, Serbian, Croats, etc.)

I wouldn’t say that the Bosnian society is fully multicultural today, because especially in the rural areas there are still tensions from the war and this is totally normal. But in the main cities I felt like things are starting to change, especially in Tuzla which is known to be the most multicultural city of Bosnia. I think that is this important to mention: I was in Bosnia during Ramadan and I didn’t feel any tension at all between the people who were fasting and the others. I was advised before the start of Ramadan that it would be difficult during one month to eat or drink outside to be respectful, and in fact it was totally not true. It is really surprising but in Tuzla you can hear the call of the muezzin and 2 minutes after the bells of the protestant church.

It seems like the tensions between the different religions – that were the starting point of the war – are starting to weaken, but on the opposite it still exists a certain tension between the 3 countries which is for sure a consequence of the war, the subsistence of hard feelings towards the countries which attacked Bosnia, and therefore especially against Serbia. It is not that the different communities cannot live together at all, the Balkans area is becoming more and more integrated but there the vision of the Serbian as the dominating country oppressing Bosnia is widespread. And this is not totally unfounded: in Republika Srpska I was surprised to see Serbian flags flying although it is a Bosnian territory. I am not informed enough to evaluate the possibility that Serbia could still today annex the Serbian Republic of Bosnia but it is really the impression that it gives.

Did you feel any tensions between the different communities?

Well, yes sometimes. The first days that I arrived and tried to ask questions to discover Bosnia I was immediately told that religion is taboo in Bosnia. People compared it with the taboo of wages and money that exists in France and advised me to avoid talking about religion as much as possible. When you know this everything goes better…

I experienced some situations of tension in the everyday life. For example I was once in a restaurant with a Bosnian, and he started to be nervous when a group of Serbian entered the restaurant and started – according to him – to speak loud on purpose, to use their specific dialect etc. I was also advised to be careful with the words that I used to order in the restaurant, because depending on the way you ask you would be considered as a Serbian and it could be badly seen in Bosnia. On the contrary, I didn’t notice that kind of tensions regarding the Croats.

During my stay in Bosnia I have visited both Croatia (Zagreb) and Serbia (Belgrade) and I can say that maybe more in these countries that in Bosnia itself I have remarked that Bosnia still suffers from a position of inferiority in the Balkans.

Have you heard about Srebrenica Massacre? What do you think about it?

Yes of course. I already heard about Srebrenica before coming in Bosnia and when I was there I heard people talking about it several times. Especially because the city of Srebrenica was very close from Tuzla and last July were organised the commemorations for the 20th anniversary of the genocide, which was a really important event in Bosnia and for the reconstruction process. The week before all the people were talking about it, preparing, advising me that it was impossible to organise other events this day to respect the memory of the victims etc. The flower in symbol of Srebrenica was present everywhere in the city.

The memory of this awful genocide – the most important since the end of the second world war – is still very present in the population’s mind. I was even afraid that the situation aggravates when the Serbian prime minister was attacked by the crowd when he came to Srebrenica for the commemorations. This event is the perfect illustration that the situation is not stabilized at all in the Balkans and that the tensions between Bosnians and Serbians is still present in the mentalities, despite the official position of both the Serbian and the Bosnian governments who claims to work for a reconciliation.

I think that one of the main problems is that this massacre is still not recognized as a genocide by the United Nations. Therefore it is difficult for the population and the families of the victims to turn the page. In Tuzla you still can see every day many beggars, claiming to be “woman of Srebrenica”. Srebrenica continues to be a city composed in a large majority by women and is the symbol of the Serbian invasion and barbarism.

A last word about your experience? Free expression :)

I have discovered a really beautiful, convivial and welcoming country. I invite everyone to put aside these considerations from the war and go to visit Bosnia :)

Aude is French.

She went to Bosnia from June to Augut 2015, in the city of Tuzla, the second biggest city in the country, near the Serbian border and 100km far from Sarajevo.

She was on an interniship in a microfinance institution.