Bosnia and Herzegovina: summer break for "children of the missing"

 
One of the children thanks the organizers of the summer camp ©ICRC 

" I especially want to thank the organizer and all those who helped us to meet each other, have fun and exchange experiences, " says 14-year old Hasema Aliskovic, one of the 60 children holidaying at the summer camp outside Sarajevo.

For some of them this was the first visit to the capital. After her holiday, Hasema will return back home to Prijedor, a small city in the West of the country she fled in 1992 to save her life . That was also the last time she saw her father who has not been traced.

While Hasema's new friends at the summer camp all share a similar destiny, not all of them will be able to return home to the cities, towns and villages they barely had time to discover before they had to escape. They are some of the'children of the missing'-- children who still don't know what happened to their parents and, in some cases, brothers or sisters.

The children belong to more than 16,000 families in Bosnia and Herzegovina still waiting for information about their missing relatives. Many years after the end of hostilities in the country these families continue to suffer.

 Ante-mortem data  

Over recent months, the ICRC, the Red Cross Society of Bosnia and Herzegovina and associations of the families of the missing have been contacting thousands of families to collect additional information on their missing relatives and the circumstances of their disappearances. This information, known as ante- mortem data, contributes to the identification of the human remains found in mass graves across the country. This in turn helps to clarify the fate of some of those still unaccounted for.

Most children at the camp come from poor homes - in many cases the missing relative was also the main breadwinner in the household – and their stay in the summer camp is the only real holiday they get. Their home for these 10 days is the national society's Red Cross House in Vogosca, situated some 20 kilometres outside the capital in peaceful green surroundings. The Norwegian Red Cross donated the building to the Sarajevo branch of the Red Cross a few years after the war, and the ICRC is providing some of the money necessary to organise the summer camp.

" It is great in the camp. Most of all we like the entertainment evenings that start just after dinner " , says 13 year-old Nejr Varupa, in good English.

During the first four days at the camp, Nejr and the other children visited the national museum and Sarajevo's old quarter of Bascarsija.

" The vis it to the museum was one of the highlights. We want to make sure that the children spend quality time while in the camp " , said Ahmed Grahic, President of the Union of Bosniak Associations of the Missing, who volunteered to help the children as the camp's chief councillor.

 Sports, first aid and landmine awareness  

Apart from the cultural programme, the children also have plenty of time for sports, games as well as more serious activities such as first-aid training or lectures on the danger posed by the many landmines still hidden in the ground.

Mr Grahic, a proud grandfather of four, knows the pain the children are going through. After his father went missing in 1992 in Zvornik, Mr Grahic had to wait until last year before his remains were found in one of the biggest mass graves discovered to date, the Crni Vrh site near the town of Tuzla in the northeast.

Knowing the children and their difficult lives, Mr Grahic was particularly touched by young Hasema's appeal to the world.

" We expect the world's powerful politicians to resolve our problem so that in the future we will never have to depend on anyone's mercy. "

Hasema's views and those of her friends at the camp will probably not change the thinking or actions of those waging war elsewhere but they definitely struck a chord with those listening to her.