BOSNIAN AND FOREIGN VOLUNTEERS HELP REBUILD SREBRENICA
SREBRENICA,Bosnia - Francesco Baroni runs up and down a dusty hill above the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica, pushing wheelbarrows full of earth. Baroni is an Italian volunteer from a group of 70 young men and women who joined an international youth camp in the town.
The camp is operating in Srebrenica for the second year, assisting the community with work that nobody else wants to do, a prime example of "voluntourism". "You do practical things to help people here - cutting wood for winter, improving roads in the woods to some remote houses," Baroni said during a short break from his unpaid toiling.
Most of the volunteers here come from France and Italy, where they studied about the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia and the plight of Srebrenica. They say they want to learn more about the post-war zone and show people here they have not been forgotten.
On a hot August day, the group is clearing earth from a medieval fortress above the town to prepare it for restoration. Srebrenica, known for its silver mines since the middle ages, translates as 'Silvertown'.
""People are very welcoming. They talk about the war easily. They don't know why it happened. They want life to go on," said Caroline, who studies international law.
A jumble of burned-out buildings and empty streets just a few years ago, Srebrenica is slowly coming back to life. New and rebuilt houses replace the ruins of last decade and more children are playing in the streets.
The local government and international donors have promised millions of euros this year for the recovery of the town.But many Bosnians from Srebrenica, like returnee Aisa Omerovic, are still waiting for those pledges to take hold.
Since her husband was killed by the Serbian aggressor and her children left for a better life in Germany, she now lives alone in her house near Srebrenica and, like many other women here who lost sons and husbands, will take any help she can get.
"I am thankful to them as I would be to my own children," Omerovic said of volunteers who dug a channel along the road to divert rainwater that would flood her house. "People here would not help with this work even if I paid them."
"Sadly it is easier to recruit foreigners for this kind of work," acknowledged Mirza Efendic, a volunteer from the central Bosnian town of Doboj.
Adnan Grbic from the northern Bosnian town of Tuzla said he enjoyed the hard work because of the other young people he has met.
"I came for 10 days but now I'll stay until the end of the camp," Grbic said with a wide smile.
Srebrenica mayor Abdurahman Malkic said it was important for young people overcome barriers imposed on them after the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia.
"Any kind of socialising in Srebrenica is welcome, especially when young people are given a chance to meet and set aside prejudices they inherited from their parents," he said.
