Response to Kosovo’s declaration of independence in February has reminded the world that the former Republic of Yugoslavia is still very volatile. Strong ethnic feelings lie just under the surface and political forces are maneuvering without much world media attention. During and following the war of the early 1990’s, refuges fled persecution and violence.

Nearly four million people from the former Republic of Yugoslavia have come to depend on international emergency assistance since late 1991, when the horrific term “ethnic cleansing” was heard around the world.The term “refugee” is broad, but in Bosnia, for those people that Mission Without Borders reaches, the more appropriate term would be “internally displaced persons.” Due to the violence that they were exposed to during the war, they were forced to escape and find a new place where they could live without being afraid for their lives. As their numbers increased each day, refugee camps were the only alternative for them back in the 90’s.

Life in the camps was, at that time and still is, very hard. The intention of all the people living there was to leave as soon as the fighting and violence stopped and return to their homes. However, they have found it impossible to do so for many reasons. An example is the Drljo family, who were not able to return home because it’s located in an area of Bosnia that is ethnically “cleansed” - meaning that they would live in an environment where almost all the population is Muslim. Being Christian would expose to all sorts of maltreatments by their neighbors; their children would have to attend a school where the curriculum is written for Muslim children. Their chances for employment would be minimal since they would hardly get a job in an environment where the majority of the population (Muslim in this case) is still unemployed. Many families were so traumatized by the horror they witnessed and experienced that the idea of going home is too frightening. When refugees are asked why not return home the reply is literally:”I would rather die in the camp than return to the place that once I called home.”

Mission Without Borders is touching the lives of many of these internally displaced people on a practical and daily basis.

Your support helps make this possible.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 27th, 2008 at 12:19 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.