About 500 young people currently live in Srebrenica. Most of them go to elementary or high school.
Most were born 10 years after the genocide committed in 1995 in that small town in the east of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), in which more than 7.000 Bosniaks were killed.
The rhetoric of division for years after that tries to impose the idea that the life of Bosniaks and Serbs in Srebrenica is impossible.
This rhetoric is denied, among others, by Merjema Pestalic, Kristina Stanojevic and Aldijana Salihovic. These seventeen-year-old girls attend high school.
The three of them are best friends. They train together in the karate club “Zelja ipon” and are multiple champions in this sports discipline. They say they are not interested in divisive rhetoric.
“We met through karate and our friendship has been going on for ten years. We also hang out outside of school and training,” Kristina told.
Merjema said that sport united them: “The three of us have been best friends for ten years. We have experienced every competition together and learned together. We have gone through all the new experiences in life together and this affects the development of our friendship,” she stressed, adding that she spends her time mostly at school and at training sessions.
“Most people are surprised that three girls come from such a small state of BiH and do well. We are here to prove that we can,” stated Kristina.
Esnaf Salihovic is the father of 16-year-old Aldijana and said: “They are just like my children. When they travel somewhere, either I drive them or the coach or one of the parents,” Esnaf pointed out and added that the club is an example of coexistence in Srebrenica.
Will the girls stay in Srebrenica?
Young female karate practitioners say that they are sure that they will continue to play sports even after finishing high school. However, they do not yet have an answer to the question of whether they will stay in Srebrenica; Radio Slobodna Evropa reports.
E.Dz.
