A Voice For the Voiceless

MISSION

The Advocacy Project seeks to help community-based advocates produce, disseminate and use information, and so become more effective advocates for human rights and social justice

Srebrenica Then and Now

When people hear the word Srebrenica, they think of the massacre. But few know that for its pre-war residents, Srebrenica was a tranquil place, almost idyllic. Although it was an out-of-the-way municipality, Srebrenica was exposed to a rich culture that attracted visitors from the rest of Yugoslavia and beyond.

“My soul hurts when we talk about how Srebrenica was before the war,” says Svetlana Buca Jukic, a staff member with the NGO Drina. “Then, it was a city of flowers. In the Cultural Center, there were performances each evening from all over Bosnia. The department store was so well-stocked that people even came from Belgrade to buy food and clothing there. Every day the streets were cleaned. Each window, every balcony, was full of flowers.”

Deceptively peaceful: sunset on the hills around Srebrenica.

According to Munira Beba Hadzic, director of the NGO Bosfam, competitions were held to decide who had the nicest balconies. Srebrenica boasted an amateur cultural association, an amateur theater, and sports -- soccer and basketball teams. There was a library and a movie theater.

“Srebrenica” means “place of silver” in the Bosnian language. Exploitation of the rich silver, lead, and zinc mines dates back to Roman times. The Romans called the place “Argentario.” In modern times, these mines helped make the Srebrenica region one of the richest in Bosnia. 

Svetlana Jukic from Drina: “My Soul Hurts”
Photo credit: Peter Lippman

From the mining, forestry, and agriculture, factories grew up after World War II that supplied all of Yugoslavia and parts of Europe with lumber, paper, and furniture, minerals, and industrial products. About a dozen factories in two industrial zones provided secure employment for townspeople and the inhabitants of surrounding villages alike. As a result, the villages around Srebrenica were anything but primitive. They boasted large houses and well-equipped schools and clinics of their own.

One of the finest assets of Srebrenica was the “Guber spa,” the complex of mineral springs that ran through the hills above the town. These springs, known from ancient times, were enhanced by the Austro-Hungarian occupiers in the late 19th century and attracted tourists from all over Yugoslavia until the outbreak of war. Ibrahim Hadzija Hadzic, a staff employee of the Srebrenica municipal government, said that Guber was so popular that one had to have “connections” to reserve a room at one of the two hotels that housed visitors to the spa.

In spite of the bitter tragedies they have experienced, those who were displaced from Srebrenica recall the region as the "most beautiful place on earth." The memories motivate their determination to return home.

They would be shocked by what they see. Mortar shells have left their trace on virtually every building. Those that were not damaged by guns have suffered from neglect. Roads and factories have not been maintained since the beginning of the war.

The former ErgoInvest building.
Photo credit: Peter Lippman

Off the center square stands the “Robna Kuca” (department store) and nearby, the municipal building and the Energoinvest office building. The Austro-Hungarian-style municipal building has been repaired and repainted, but the other two buildings are empty hulks. The Robna Kuca, a modern building with a red brick façade, is plastered with old campaign posters for various Serb nationalists. The EnergoInvest building, where the administration for the defunct local mining industry used to be, has no windows. The little city park in the square lies neglected and littered, and across the square is a several-story building that once housed the movie theater. It too stands empty, disintegrating.

One mosque has been rebuilt. There were many mosques in Srebrenica; all were destroyed. This one stands on a hillock right above the center of town, in direct view of the hotel Domavia. The Malaysian Embassy, responsible for much reconstruction around Srebrenica, is financing the work. In order to rebuild the mosque, they had to tear it down completely, as it was quite wrecked. Workmen started on the foundation in the spring of 2002, and its official opening took place in September. It has a commanding view of the center of town.

Srebrenica is a long and narrow town in a mountain valley. It has one long thoroughfare that splits into two main streets in the town’s center. But both of these two main streets, with their few depressing shops, have the atmosphere of back streets. 



Photo credit: Peter Lippman
The Robna Kuca (department store).

The two main streets reunite two blocks away, at the other end of Srebrenica’s center. The Cultural Center, a new building in the time of the Sarajevo Olympics, is located there. Today it houses the offices of a few NGOs, but they are sorry places. Each little office is heated by a small electric space heater. In the rest of the building, tiles are crumbling, glass is broken, railings are missing, and the lights are dim. The roof, like those of a number of other multi-story buildings nearby, leaks and needs to be repaired.

 

Photo credit: Peter Lippman
The challenge that lies ahead. One of many mosques destroyed during the war.

Compounding the disintegration and neglect is the fact that factories were pillaged after the war. The authorities controlling Srebrenica at the time enriched themselves by selling off plant equipment from the factories and mines. Some of it ended up in Serbia. What was not taken away has rusted, and will probably need to be replaced if the factories are to start working again. But some of these factories are obsolete, or their markets have found other suppliers. Not all of them will be able to be revived.