“Children After War” Discussion

The “Children After War” discussion, organized by the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC), was held in the Cultural Centre of Belgrade on Thursday, December 19^th, 2013. Present were seven young people from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo and Serbia, who survived crimes and personal tragedies alone or together with their family members. The roundtable was attended by 40 young students of elementary and high schools and university students from Serbia.

Saranda, Jehona and Fatos Bogujevci, Zijo Ribić, Igor Matijašević, Radomir Nevajda and Sudbin Musić spoke about their memories from childhood, their favourite games and shenanigans, which were abruptly disrupted by the war and the personal tragedies that they endured. They shared their experiences in the fight for the truth, justice and acknowledgment of what had happened to them, with the persons present at the roundtable. Each one of them had assumed the difficult task of facing what had happened to them and fighting against oblivion: Saranda, Fatos and Jehona Bogujevci through their long struggle over many years for justice and the art emerging out of it, Igor Matijašević through his struggle to find his missing father, Sudbin Musić through activism aimed at helping survivors and acknowledging the things that happened in his birth town of Prijedor, Radomir Nevajda through his fight for judicial acknowledgment of the injustices that he suffered, and Zijo Ribić though the confrontation with the murderers of his family in the courtroom.

The students who listened to the conversation between Saranda, Fatos, Jehona, Igor, ZIjo, Radomir and Sudbin, showed respect for their courage to speak publicly about what had happened to them, and told them that their stories and determination represented a huge inspiration for young people.

Participants in the discussion sent a message to young people in Serbia and the region that they must not feel guilty, but that they should adopt a responsible relation towards what had happened in the past in order that such crimes do not recur.

Here you may find the biographies of the participants.