No abstract

This article critically addresses the idea that ethnic remixing alone fosters reconciliation and tolerance after sectarian conflict, a vision that has been forcefully cultivated by international interventionists in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in the town of Banja Luka, it presents a multi-faceted analysis of the effects of ethnic minority return on the (re)building of social relations across communal boundaries. Although returnees were primarily elderly Bosniacs who settled in parts of the town traditionally populated by their own ethnic group, some level of inter-ethnic co-existence and co-operation had developed between the returnees and displaced Serbs who had moved into these neighborhoods. In the absence of national reconciliation, peaceful co-existence in local everyday life was brought about by silencing sensitive political and moral questions related to the war, indicating a preparedness among parts of the population to once again share a social space with the Other.

The return of displaced populations is regarded by the international community as essential to peace processes in war-torn societies, with housing and property restitution increasingly seen to constitute a pre-condition for the success of such return movements. A decade after the end of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina the property restitution process is close to full implementation while the rate of return remains relatively low. This paper explores the relationship between property restitution and patterns of return and relocation, as well as between house and the sense of home in the aftermath of the violent conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is based on research among three distinct groups of displaced Bosnians within and from the town of Banja Luka (repatriates, "transnational" refugees, and IDPs). The paper shows that although repossession of pre-war housing was perceived by the displaced as important for reasons of morality, justice, and economic rehabilitation, sustainable return usually also demanded access to jobs and other sources of livelihood, often located in transnational space. This, however, meant that in many cases "return" was temporary rather than permanent, and that for other displaced Bosnians "sustainable relocation" had eventually come to be the desired goal.Yet the option of permanent resettlement in new parts of the country has not received much backing from the international organizations operating in Bosnia because of the emphasis on ethnic minority return as the central Stefansson

Anmeldes af Anders Stefansson

Anmeldes af Anders Stefansson