CdP: There’s an almost universal notion that the different ethnic groups of the former Yugoslavia feel a fierce hatred towards one another, but you’ve decided to show that that’s not the case…

S.B: My own memory is that of a country where people lived together in peace. We were neighbours, friends, relatives; people intermarried…without worrying about the faith or origin of the other. The reality is that the war didn’t start amongst the people, but because politicians with nationalistic and racist ideas started to incite hatred, to highlight differences between people…differences which hadn’t previously been important to us. The politicians (and not the people) were responsible for the first murders and that’s what interested the local press most, and the idea of division grew, then the international press arrived and they just echoed the same images, the same ideas...and you well know that if a lie is repeated a thousand times, in the end it becomes reality, or at least, it starts to look like the truth.

CdP: Or maybe the division and racial discrimination was already there, just waiting to be let out. Do you think that's possible?

S.B: The people of Yugoslavia had lived and coexisted for many years with feelings of fear and distrust since the end of the Second World War, and so it was relatively easy to make people suspicious of each other, even though it was all lies invented by the people in power, at least at the beginning of the war.

The press also played a decisive role, because journalists were used by the politicians for their own interests and the journalists published stories that suited those who wanted to see the breakup; and so people who had previously been friends and neighbours started to be suspicious of each other, they started to believe that there was some ancestral hatred between them, and little by little the ties that united us were being broken, even within families.

In Yugoslavia at that time, about 27% of marriages were mixed, people from different ethnic groups who had decided to spend their lives together: consequently, there were thousands of children who’d be born into families from both ethnic groups…the price of this war was very high, not just in terms of the lives it cost, but in broken bonds, which existed before.

The war was a terrible reality, but it’s also the case that before it, we lived alongside each other, respecting the differences, celebrating the festivals of all the different cultures, ethnic groups, religions…because the former Yugoslavia didn’t have just three or four ethnic groups…we think that at least 140 different groups lived together here.

CdP: You say that the press played and important role. How would you describe the effects of both the national and international reporting during the conflict in the Balkans?

S.B: With a few exceptions, I would have to say that it had a negative effect on the conflict that was developing there. First of all, the local media reported too much on the political classes and very little on the people. Journalists were being used from at least five years before the outbreak of hostilities, so people were getting the idea that there was conflict between ethnic groups. It was at that time that the different groups started to be separated into potential attackers and potential victims.

With regard to the international press, although there were some attempts, in general the trail of blood was much more attractive to them…and if you only talk about the negative aspects, you're not painting an accurate picture of what's happening, because there's more to it than that, always.

Unfortunately, I think the conventional media is always more interested in conflict...in portraying the "evil"...but sometimes these negative reports just increase tension if you don't tell the whole story: there are always people, organisations, struggles, testimonies of people who are fighting, not for the war, but against that war, in favour of peace.

It’s likely that the stories I tell in my book (Good People in an Evil Time, 2002) would never have been told by anyone and would have been left in the shadows, without offering the opportunity of reconciliation, of healing the wounds...here in Bosnia-Herzegovina, like in all wars, there are always people who didn't want war and fought for peace.

CdP: But if we read recent news reports, it would seem that there's another conflict imminent in the Balkans. Do you think there is that risk?

S.B: I’m sure that many politicians who were around during the war in 1995 weren't happy with the lines that were drawn up, and some of them would like another war to break out so that they could realize their own dreams of greatness…to have a bigger Serbia, or a greater Croatia. But not amongst the people (again), I don’t see there’s any risk right now.

It’s true that there are still many wounds, and some of them still unhealed, because the international community also made a lot of mistakes when they were here, supposedly to help bring peace to the region…that’s why today, the same mistakes are being repeated and there are wounds that won't heal, which makes reconciliation more difficult. I ask myself if we’re not learning any lessons in the world...I ask myself: after Rwanda (1994) and Bosnia-Herzegovina (1995-99), how many more genocides have to be committed before the international community learns how to intervene more effectively in conflicts?

CdP: As well as being a journalist, you are also a doctor…let’s imagine that the former Yugoslavia is a human body. How would you assess its health?

S.B: I would say that before the war, we were healthy, but the mind, i.e. its politicians, was damaged; that’s why the whole body suffered such a catastrophe: because of the bad decisions of an unhealthy mind...unfortunately, a mind that doesn't work properly can do a lot of damage to the rest of the body.

However, continuing this metaphor, I think that the people would be the body's heart...and the heart keeps beating, and it's still beating strongly today, and it’s trying to repair the body. Because the heart is usually more resistant, more attached to life…even when the brain stops functioning in a body, the heart can go on living…but yes, obviously there are wounds and after-effects, and there’s a road we have to travel to recover.

CdP: And what steps are being taken today towards reconciliation in the Balkans?

S.B: Well, after any war, big or small, people have to take time and distance to recover from traumatic experiences, but little by little, people’s reactions and attitudes have started to mellow and many people, the majority of people, are trying to return to their lives, get back to their little routines and to normality, that's what most of us want after living through a terrible experience.

Some people can do it by themselves and others undoubtedly need help and guidance to recover; that’s what I'm also trying to do now and that’s why I decided to set up the NGO, because here, organisations have a fundamental part to play in directing those experiences towards the normal feeling that emerges after a war: which is basically the feeling of wanting to get away from the pain. People who have lived through war, they're usually people who are determined to go on living, and sometimes that effort needs to be guided to help them keep that spirit.