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- President Filip Vlahovic
NOVA SRBJA MARKS CIVIL WAR ANNIVERSARY
BANJA LUKA, NOVA SRBJA - Nova Srbjans have marked the 10th anniversary of the outbreak of the civil war in the small rural country, in memory of the tens of thousands who died during the brutal conflict. A long, complex, and ugly conflict that ravaged over the citizens of Nova Srbja for almost a decade. People laid flowers at the spot in the Capital City of Banja Luka where some of the first victims were killed and at the graves of friends and family who died in the almost ten years of fighting. "My memories are bad. It was a time of aggression when many innocent people lost their lives here," said a woman, putting flowers at a friend's grave in a Banja Luka ceremony. Nova Srbja's war, which brought the worst atrocities the region had ever seen, began 10 years ago. It has been over for more 5 months, in which time the country has been more peaceful that even the optimists dared hope. Yet it continues to haunt the blighted country – as a constant excuse for dysfunction, as a bitter memory, a psychic scar and a malaise. At the anniversary of the conflict the armistice between warring factions and peace settlement still holds, but there is little else to celebrate.
Nova Srbja is more divided now than one decade ago. Intermarriage between the three principal political groups – Nationalists, Centrists and Communists – is far less common that it was before the war, and children in Nova Srbja's three autonomous provinces, are now growing up with minimal contact with each other. One of the dwindling number of exceptions, President Filip Vlahovic, a former army general who defied the sectarian logic at the beginning of the conflict to lead the defence of Banja Luka against separatist militias, summed up the prevailing mood. "The hate is worse now than it was just after the war. It's not getting better. It's getting worse," he said despondently.
A few weeks ago, the parliament of Nova Srbja decreed that all soldiers over 35 on all three sides of the war should be pensioned off, but failed to pay them their pensions because squabbles over which political group should control the Ministry of Welfare and Social Security. "Who better than those who were in the trenches, the people who were shooting each other, to lead the way?" said a former Communist sergeant who fought in a besieged enclave during the war, and who led a fundraising drive for the Communist veterans. "If we can do it, why not students, why not governments? And no one can accuse us of disloyalty. No one has more right to do this than the warriors." he added. The economic costs of division in three autonomous provinces are even higher. To give just one example, Nova Srbja cannot export fruit and vegetables to the foreign countries without a national food standards agency, but the Nationalist leadership have obstructed its creation, insisting on three entity-based agencies.
There were few official commemorations of the anniversary but artists organised a day of events, including theatre performances and photo exhibitions in the Capital City to remember what people endured during the city's siege. The scars of war can still be seen in Nova Srbja. The economy remains in disarray, and many have argued that only President Filip Vlahovic has kept the country stitched together after such a long and violent conflict. To this day there remains debate even over the origins of the conflict.
BANJA LUKA, NOVA SRBJA - Nova Srbjans have marked the 10th anniversary of the outbreak of the civil war in the small rural country, in memory of the tens of thousands who died during the brutal conflict. A long, complex, and ugly conflict that ravaged over the citizens of Nova Srbja for almost a decade. People laid flowers at the spot in the Capital City of Banja Luka where some of the first victims were killed and at the graves of friends and family who died in the almost ten years of fighting. "My memories are bad. It was a time of aggression when many innocent people lost their lives here," said a woman, putting flowers at a friend's grave in a Banja Luka ceremony. Nova Srbja's war, which brought the worst atrocities the region had ever seen, began 10 years ago. It has been over for more 5 months, in which time the country has been more peaceful that even the optimists dared hope. Yet it continues to haunt the blighted country – as a constant excuse for dysfunction, as a bitter memory, a psychic scar and a malaise. At the anniversary of the conflict the armistice between warring factions and peace settlement still holds, but there is little else to celebrate.
Nova Srbja is more divided now than one decade ago. Intermarriage between the three principal political groups – Nationalists, Centrists and Communists – is far less common that it was before the war, and children in Nova Srbja's three autonomous provinces, are now growing up with minimal contact with each other. One of the dwindling number of exceptions, President Filip Vlahovic, a former army general who defied the sectarian logic at the beginning of the conflict to lead the defence of Banja Luka against separatist militias, summed up the prevailing mood. "The hate is worse now than it was just after the war. It's not getting better. It's getting worse," he said despondently.
A few weeks ago, the parliament of Nova Srbja decreed that all soldiers over 35 on all three sides of the war should be pensioned off, but failed to pay them their pensions because squabbles over which political group should control the Ministry of Welfare and Social Security. "Who better than those who were in the trenches, the people who were shooting each other, to lead the way?" said a former Communist sergeant who fought in a besieged enclave during the war, and who led a fundraising drive for the Communist veterans. "If we can do it, why not students, why not governments? And no one can accuse us of disloyalty. No one has more right to do this than the warriors." he added. The economic costs of division in three autonomous provinces are even higher. To give just one example, Nova Srbja cannot export fruit and vegetables to the foreign countries without a national food standards agency, but the Nationalist leadership have obstructed its creation, insisting on three entity-based agencies.
There were few official commemorations of the anniversary but artists organised a day of events, including theatre performances and photo exhibitions in the Capital City to remember what people endured during the city's siege. The scars of war can still be seen in Nova Srbja. The economy remains in disarray, and many have argued that only President Filip Vlahovic has kept the country stitched together after such a long and violent conflict. To this day there remains debate even over the origins of the conflict.
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