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

Return to Southeast Bosnia: Gorazde and Kopaci

Issue 17: Division and Obstruction on the Drina
Citizens of Gorazde describe the terrors of war in that enclave in southeast Bosnia. Organizations are formed in 1999 to spearhead to return to nearby homes in the RS.

Issue 18: In the Tents: Citizens of Kopaci Insist on Return
Displaced people from Kopaci, a Gorazde suburb, can see their homes but can't enter them, due to the threat of violence. In winter 1999 activists among these people set up a tent encampment in the snow on a hill overlooking the inter-entity borderline, within site of their homes, to press home their demand for return.

Issue 19: Serbs to Gorazde; Bosnjaks to Kopaci
Winter 1999 was difficult, but the tent encampment in Gorazde led to a breakthrough in return to Kopaci. During the war, not only had masses of Bosniaks been displaced, but also many Serbs were displaced from Bosniak-held Gorazde. By 2000 Serbs were struggling to return to Gorazde, with support from the non-nationalist Serb Citizens Council.