SARAJEVO - "Do not forget 1993!" is written on a stone placed just a
few feet from the Stari Most, a reconstruction of a 16th century Ottoman bridge
in Mostar that is a symbol of the targets from that year. A bridge of no
strategic or military interest, but one that was valued from a nostalgic
standpoint; a symbol of belonging and of the alliance between worlds that
longed to separate at all costs. A symbol of the "diversity of
Yugoslavia" that still exists, but which, from the day the bridge was
destroyed, is much more fragile.
The educational system in the country reflects the division of its three ethnicities
(Bosnian, Serb and Croat), and each one has gained autonomy as regards the
education of their children.
Inter Campus operates just a few kilometres from Mostar within a school in the
small town of Domanovici, or rather, two mono-ethnic schools on two floors
(Bosnian Muslim children on the ground floor, and Croat Catholic children on
the second floor), governed on the basis of an "in house" separate
co-existence. It’s the result of the notorious "Two schools under one
roof" programme, condemned by the Council of Europe, the OSCE and the
United Nations, and the most sensitive subject among the various scholastic
programmes is history.
Last year, before Inter Campus arrived here in Domanovici, it was unthinkable
to see children of different ethnicities playing together. Initially it was not
easy for the children themselves to convince their parents to let them take
part with Inter Campus and the "others". Today, close to seventy
children, both Muslim and Christian, train and play together, all wearing the
Inter shirt.
In Sarajevo, the situation is a bit different. The majority of the schools are
public and, being a city with a multiethnic population, the students who attend
belong to different ethnic and religious groups. Inter Campus is active here along
with Sprofondo Bezdan, a socio-cultural centre that is both multi-ethnic and
multi-religious: http://www.sprofondo.ba/
Even today, nearly twenty years after the end of the war, places such as this are rare. On the cement pitch 80 children, Muslims and Christians, play together, all wearing the blue and black.
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