Chicago Serbian Film Festival

The Serbian Film Festival was presented at the Muvico in Rosemont from Friday, Dec. 6 to Sunday, Dec. 8. I had the pleasure of attending Saturday’s screening of “Krugovi,” a movie set during the Bosnian War in which a Serbian solider saves the life of an innocent Muslim who was being beaten by members of the Serbian Army. The Serbian solider dies for his troubles.

Needless to say, the movie was dark, but the camaraderie in the theatre amongst the viewers was beautiful. In my 11 years of being part of the Serbian community in Chicago, I have never witnessed such a feeling of togetherness from a group of about 200 Serbs.

At the end of the movie, the audience gave a standing ovation for the film and the group of individuals who organized the event. After the show, I stuck around the lobby just to listen critiques of the movie. I was sure I would hear people say “Fu** the Muslim” or “He should have died, not the Serb,” but I didn’t.

I heard person after person commenting on how courageous both the Serbian soldier and Muslim civilian were. (Later in the movie, the Muslim civilian puts his family on the line to help the ex-girlfriend of the Serbian solider.)

During the movie, a Serbian who I recognized was appalled and shouted “look at us, no wonder everyone hates us,” referring to America’s involvement in the war and Kosovo.

While that comment was harsh (not every Serbian soldier antagonized Muslim civilians), it did show me something I didn’t know existed – Serbians who were nationalistic, but at the same time compassionate and reasonable.

The entire three-day event was held with professionalism and class. I was proud to see people working so hard to bring a part of Serbia to the United States in a positive light.

Microcosm of Sarajevo

The bloody civil war in Bosnia during the early 1990’s is summed up through one street that is supposed to be a microcosm of the entire ethnically and religiously diverse city of Sarajevo.

The six-block stretch of Logavina Street included roughly 240 families of Muslims, Serbs and Croats. The author, Barbara Demick, a war correspondent for the Philadelphia Inquirer, tries best to depict how all families, hailing from all religions, were impacted.

The key word there is tries.

Demick focuses on four families from the street, all ethnically diverse. And yes, if you wanted to describe Sarajevo at the time, this would be a perfect street to do so. The problem is, Logavina Street wasn’t nearly as impacted as some other areas. A few of the family members of Logavina Street lost their lives, but at the end, the families Demick focused on survived.

Being from the area, I have an unfair (or fair) advantage of how other area really was. Granted, I never been to Logavina Street, but I did live in areas that Demick mentioned such as Grbavica, Dobrinja and Bascarsija.

All the facts in the book are correct. One can easily tell Demick did extensive research on the street and the people of Sarajevo. The number of people that died and the inhumane way people were treated was correctly depicted, just not on the right street to represent the city.

How the families survived was also spot on.

Demick notes that one woman from the street used a variety of canned good, airlifted by the United Nations, to create baked goods, if you can call them goods. Most families survived only on the canned goods, but families such as the Stanic’s, a Serb-Croatian family on Logavina Street, improvised to make the food more edible and enjoyable, mainly for their children.

The chapters were fast-paced and hardly connected. Reading through it, I had to go back to the character list to figure out who was who and where they came from. Some scenes made no sense. For example, Demick spends a good amount of time talking about a “unified” soccer team from Logavina Street that earned national recognition. But the team was hardly unified. Only one Orthodox (Serbian) teen played on the team.

It would have been better to use the soccer team as a microcosm of Logavina Street then it was to use the street to represent the entire city.

Demick mainly focuses on the hardships of Ajla, Haris and Delila, teenagers living in the orphanage house on Logavina Street. Their journey deserves to be told. But the way Demick describes it; it wasn’t true in all cases.

However, Demick beautifully captures the mood of Sarajevans during the war. As she notes, most residents weren’t religious before or during the war. In one scene, Demick describes how 2,000 residents, Muslims, Serbs and Croats, went to mass for Christmas. During the scene, Zijo, a Muslim character in the book, recounts how this was done for tradition, not religion.

There are many instances in the book where the characters describe how they lived in harmony, but towards the end, it turned into bitter spite and hatred.

For example, a resident of the street was Jovan Divjak, an ethnic Serb that was second in command of the Bosnian militia. Throughout the book, Demick notes the mistrust he felt from the Bosnian soldiers, even Bosnian president Alija Izetbegovic.

But, it was not uncommon for ethnic Serbs to fight for the Bosnian side. At the beginning of the war, Demick notes that roughly 30 percent of Ethnic Serbs in Sarajevo fought with the Bosnian side. Towards the end, the number dwindled to the teens. Yet, Demick continually notes that Divjak was not trusted and an ethnic Serb.

That was the tone for the majority of the book. As its own body of work, the book describes horrific scenes and general feelings from the Bosnian War through the eyes of long-time residents of Sarajevo. However, it does not paint the entire picture of Sarajevo how Demick intended.

The book is boiled into beautifully written short stories of a few families, mainly Muslim families, and their hardships of the bloody war that let over 100,000 people dead.

The autobiography of Jovanka Broz

Following the death of the former first lady of Yugoslavia, Jovanka Broz, I decided to educate myself more on the woman behind the man.

I picked up a copy of My Life My Truth, the autobiography of Broz, written by Zarko Jokanovic. In the beginning, I was reading what I already knew. I knew that she was a guerilla war fighter. I knew that she lived a life of luxury. But almost half way through, I never expected to read her thoughts on some of her husband’s policies.

In particular, she mentioned how she didn’t agree with the dealings surrounding Kosovo and Albania in the 1980. She said if it was handled differently, the ethnic conflict in the region, more than 30 years after her husband’s death, would not have occurred.

It was shocking to read that she foresaw then what would occur if the two nations mixed.

When Jovanka Broz died, articles came out that either painted her like a hardened criminal or a wrongfully imprisoned saint of former Yugoslavia. Those articles made me aware of why she was arrest, but until I read the book, I had no idea how she has been treated since 1980.

Even before Tito died, his cabinet speculated that Jovanka Broz would take over the throne, and they would allow that to happen. The stole all her goods, threatened her, kicked her out of multiple homes and stole and erased all of her identification, forcing her to be a house prisoner for over 30 years.

What was especially interesting to me was that they would not let her attend Tito’s funeral. Indira Ghandi was the one who forced them to allow her to attend.

When I talked to a few close friends, and some not so close acquaintances about her death, they all said it signified the death of Yugoslavia. While most weren’t happy that someone died, they were happy that the countries history was finally being erased. But not all felt like that.

My mother and grandmother woke up at 3 a.m. to watch the live broadcast of her funeral on Serbian television.

But, for the overall Bosnian and Serbian communities in Chicago, it was a day that will go in history.

Telling a large story through a small problem!

In early October, the Bosnian National Soccer team cemented their place in the 2014 World Cup Finals in Brazil. Shortly after, Daria Sito-Sucic and Gordana Katana wrote an article about the continued ethnic divide in Bosnia amongst Bosnian Serbs, Bosnian Croats and Bosniaks, using the success of the team to tell the story.

The article explains why this was such a big deal for the national team and how communities within Bosnia were effected by the game. In Banja Luka, the main city of the Serb Republic in Bosnia, the game was not aired. People who wanted to watch the game had to order special channels that broadcast the event. It was a great way to show how such a large story can impact the smallest community in an already small country.

The writers used the success of the ethnically diverse Bosnian team to highlight the dysfunctions of the country’s government.

“The Bosnian federation was on the verge of bankruptcy. Three former officials, one of them an ex-commander of the Muslim-dominated Bosnian army during the war, were jailed last year for tax evasion and embezzlement.

Many foreign-based players and devoted soccer fans boycotted the national team, angry at political interference which they said was spoiling otherwise harmonious relations among players and coaches.”

It reminded me of my experience working on my midterm project. Because I am Bosnian, I had trouble talking to Serbian parents that sent their children to St. Sava Academy. I clearly had no dog in the fight, but it was hard knowing that people didn’t want to talk to me because of who I am or where I come from. I thought I left that back in Bosnia in 1997.

My article isn’t as much about the dysfunctions of the school, but the importance of the school to the Serbian community. The article about the Bosnian National Team is the same. The article mentions the success of the team, but it’s more about the dysfunction of the government and the effect of that on national pride.

Former First Lady of Yugoslavia Dies

Zeitoun

If you wanted to know what conditions are like at refugee camps in countries where war is prevalent, look no further than the graphic, yet poetic descriptions in “Zeitoun.”

Author Dave Eggers chronicles the life of one Syrian-American construction worker with the heart of gold as he stays behind in New Orleans to salvage his house, business and properties during Hurricane Katrina.

The lead character, Abdulrahman Zeitoun is Muslim. His wife Kathy, after a failed marriage, converted to Islam. Their faith and relationship give a glimpse into what kind of life they lead, a happy, pure and understanding life, but one where their faith is the cause of concern; in their business and with Kathy’s family.

The stage is set just days before Hurricane Katrina hits. Everyone else is in panic, including Kathy, but Zeitoun doesn’t seem phased by it. Kathy and their four children leave, but Zeitoun, to the dismay of Kathy, decides to stay and look after their properties.

As the storm comes, Zeitoun, an established construction worker is able to salvage most of the valuables in his house. Only about a foot of water encompasses the city, and slowly drains. When the levees break, even Zeitoun couldn’t predict what would happen.

Very soon, the city is engulfed by 15 feet of water. Zeitoun, carrying a deep nostalgia of being at sea as a young man, find his aluminum canoe and embarks on his own version of Homer’s “Odyssey.” Instead of encountering sirens and one-eye monsters on his way to Ithaca, Zeitoun encounters helpless neighbors, friends and dogs as he paddles throughout the city in hopes of salvaging some valuables from his other properties.

During his quests, Zeitoun helps as many people as humanly possible. He gives his food and water to strangers and dogs. Zeitoun tells himself this was God’s plan. It was in God’s plan for him to stay behind and help as much as he could. He has a new, fresh sense of belonging; purpose. Soon after, Zeitoun succumbs to the same fate many of God’s messengers faced.

He and his three friends were arrested, humiliated, interrogated and forced to live in make shift cells that the author compares to Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. The day he was arrested was the first day Zeitoun was unable to contact his wife, and the author foreshadows a series of unbearable and drastic conflicts.

After about a week, his wife presumes he’s dead. His children notice their mothers’ worries and Kathy tries to imagine life without Zeitoun. Hell. Zeitoun encounters his own hell, thanks in large part to failed efforts by President George W. Bush’s administration and the Federal Emergency Management Authority. Eggers, however, doesn’t impose his personal views. He lets his writing explain how flawed the system became during Hurricane Katrina.

Zeitoun was a Muslim. A Syrian. That was enough to put him in prison.

In large part, the book provides insight into a weak moment in America’s history but a strong moment for one particular family.

St. Sava Academy

I was able to interview Marko Bojovic, the principal of St. Sava Academy. It is the only Serbian Parochial School in Chicago. Since 2008, the school has seen a decline in student enrollment, and subsequently, the funding for the school has declined.

Later this fall, the school board has a tough decision to make. Because the number of students is declining, the board may be forced to cut the seventh and eight grade classes and consolidate the fifth and sixth grade classes. The board is also looking at different fund raising options.

Bojovic said two-thirds of the school’s $400,000 yearly budget comes from tuition, the rest from fund raising. He also said the reason for the decline in students is because most of the students come from working class families. Another reason why the school loses students is because the school cannot accommodate the upper classes in terms of a gym or sports.

“We usually lose them in the upper grades,” said Bojovic. “There are no sports programs. We don’t have a gym.”

If the fundraising and consolidating doesn’t help, the school may be forced to shut down.

As I mentioned, I am going to focus on this problem for my thesis. I’m hoping to talk to families that have students enrolled in the school and families that did but chose to take them out.

Going into the communities

Boy have I been foolish. Because I come from the communities I cover, I thought people in these communities would care about what I care about; what is actually happening in those countries. The people that are indulged in the communities in Chicago have much bigger issues to worry about than what is going on at “home.”

For example, I happened to be invited to a board meeting at Holy Resurrection Serbian Orthodox Cathedral. They weren’t talking about the new possibilities of Serbia joining the European Union. They weren’t even talking about the ongoing struggles in Kosovo. The board members were concerned about losing the St. Sava Academy.

For years, many Serbian immigrants have sent their children to St. Sava Academy for school instead of a traditional American grammar school. However, enrollment has drastically dropped, leaving the school fighting for survival. Mira Djordjevic, the school board president, and board members attribute the decline in enrollment to the recession and increased tuition, among other things.

The issue now becomes parents removing their children from the school because there aren’t enough kids enrolling. The parents don’t want their children to go to a school that has little to offer their children, especially friends.

For my article, I will focus on the schools effort to raise enrollment and keep their current members. If the school closes, numerous jobs will be cut and funding to the church will decrease. I plan on talking to families who have chosen to remove their children from the academy and families that have chosen to stay with the school. Getting both sides of the story will provide insight on what the community’s thoughts are of the particular church and school.

For the Bosnian community, I want to do a profile story on Mirza Mahic. I read a NYTimes story about Mirza Mahic and immediately fell in love with it. Like me, Mahic came to the United States after the war. Like me, his family had nothing here in the States. But instead of hating Serbians and Croatians for what happened in the war, Mahic, a Chicago resident decided to form a leadership initiative to help Bosnian refugees.

I have tried to get in contact with Mahic through social media so I can find out what his leadership initiative is currently. What struck me most about Mahic and his group is that they didn’t only want to limit their efforts to Bosnians, but Serbian and Croatians from Bosnia that were effected by the war. Even as members of the group decided to leave because the group put efforts to help all immigrants, Mahic stuck to his beliefs. Along with talking to Mahic and group members, I want to speak with individuals that his group has helped. Hopefully I will be able to speak with him sometime this week so I can finally meet him and see what kind of story I can do.

Where these immigrants are based.

*** According to the 2012 U.S. Census, there are 121,938 Bosnian-born immigrant in the States. Out of those immigrants, 12,826 live in Illinois, the most populated state of Bosnian-born immigrants in the country. Cook County is home to 9,691 of those immigrants.

***According to the same census, there are 35,765 Serbian-born immigrants in the States. Out of those immigrants, 7,569 live in Illinois, also the most populated state of Serbian-born immigrants in the country. Cook County is home to 5,083 of those immigrants. 

Both of the county numbers surpass many whole state populations of the immigrant groups. 

Playing with Passion

Walking on the cusp of Albany Park and Ravenswood Manor, the Narloch Piano Studio might not be the most noticeable business. But if you listen closely, you may recognize an Alexander Scriabin composition fighting against the sound of the Brown Line CTA train.

Inside, Christopher Narloch at his new grand piano and lets his fingers caress the ivory keys. The 28-year-old Wisconsin native practices as he waits for any one of his roughly 50 students to show up for their private lesson.

“Each and every kid that comes in is just really cool to work with,” said Narloch. “Every time they come in, I really see their progress.”

Narloch only sees the student once a week, but said they typically practice outside of the studio so they stay on top of their craft.

Playing the piano was a part of Narloch’s life from an early age. The son of a pianist and piano professor, Narloch picked up the craft at the age of 6; coincidently, some of Narloch’s clients are the same age he was when he first began playing.

At his quarter-century life mark—shortly after earning his Master's in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from Bowling Green State University—Narloch decided to make his passion a career choice that he wouldn’t hate.

“It’s really my dream job,” said Narloch. “Everyday I come in and am so grateful for what I have and what I do.”

After college, Narloch taught private lessons throughout the city, at numerous churches and twice a week at Sherwood Community Music School. Narloch had thoughts about opening up his own business while he was in school, but he never crunched the numbers to see if it was feasible.

It was only after his friend and colleague decided to leave town and close up their piano shop that Narloch pushed himself to make this his career.

“I kind of envisioned this. I already had an idea of how I wanted to start it and how I wanted it to look,” Narloch said. “Working in Chicago for a year before I did this helped me understand the rates really well and what my gross income might be and what I could risk up front.”

The rate is $124-per-student, per-month, with one common goal; working towards four yearly recitals. Two of the recitals are hosted at the studio, one is across the street in the Ravenswood Manor Park and another at North Park Covenant Church.

The kids not only learn how to play, Narloch teaches them about classical and modern composers.

When asked what his favorite music was, he smiled and gently replied, “Classical.”

In other news

Fulfilling the American dream: city's first Bosnian refugees celebrate 20 years in Lincoln

September 15, 2013 11:45 pm  •  By ERIN ANDERSEN / Lincoln Journal Star

Samka (left) and Emsud Deumic alter clothing at their shop, Emsud's Clothiers, near the intersection of 28th Street and Pine Lake Road. The Deumics and their two children, Salko and Alma, fled their native Bosnia during the war and migrated to Lincoln in 1993.

(4) More Photos

Emsud Deumic asks to speak. All eyes turn to the family patriarch.

“God bless America,” the soft-spoken Bosnian American states.

They are words from his heart. The most succinct and accurate way to capture the overwhelming mix of gratitude, pride and joy of the past 20 years -- living the American dream after fleeing war-torn Bosnia, political imprisonment and torture, and a nine-month nightmare housed in a Croatian transit camp, sharing a single room of living space with 40 other displaced Bosnians.

***

On Sept. 15, 1993, at 9 p.m., a travel-weary Emsud, his wife, Samka, and their children,  son Salko, then 14, and daughter Alma, then 7, landed at Lincoln's airport, climbed a staircase to the concourse and were greeted by strangers carrying signs proclaiming: Welcome home.

Home?

Just a few hours earlier, the Bosnian refugees thought they were going to Lincoln, Nev.

Their tickets said Lincoln, NE. -- NE? Wasn’t that the abbreviation for Nevada?

When helpful New York passengers corrected them, the family was left wondering: Nebraska. What is Nebraska? Where is Nebraska?

The Deumics arrived carrying two small suitcases -- filled with Salko’s and Alma’s outgrown clothes.

“I did not even have one penny,” Emsud said.

What he had was determination -- and an army of unimaginable support from the refugee family’s sponsor, First-Plymouth Congregational Church.

The Deumics were the first Bosnian refugee family to arrive in Lincoln.

More would arrive in the months and years to follow. Today, about 500 Bosnian immigrants call Nebraska home.

In Bosnia, Emsud was a tailor -- like his father and grandfather, his brothers and sisters. Emsud and Samka owned two clothing shops. They were about to open a third shop, when war broke out.

The Yugoslavian government sent Emsud to a concentration camp. He was beaten. His bones broken. Samka and the children fled their home.

The family eventually reunited in a Croatian transit camp. The family was given a choice of countries to which they could migrate. Samka’s relatives went to France. Emsud’s family selected Sweden.

But Emsud wanted the United States.

“He said, 'America is the best country,'” Samka recalled. “And that is true.”

* * *

Their first two weeks in Lincoln, the Deumics lived with a First-Plymouth family.

Then the church found them an apartment -- furnishing it with everything the family would need. Church members even stocked the refrigerator.

Two decades later, the family still gets emotional remembering.

“My God, it was like yesterday. How time goes fast,” Emsud said.

Emsud and Samka worked odd jobs -- raking leaves, cleaning people’s houses. Emsud became a tailor at Ben Simon’s Clothing Store. They took English classes at Southeast Community College. Alma and Salko, both English as a Second Language students in school, often spoke English at home to help their parents learn.

Using a donation and meager savings, Emsud and Salko bought their first sewing machine -- a machine they still use in the store.

Samka smiles -- she was not happy when Emsud came home with the sewing machine. She wanted to buy dishes.

Dishes could wait, Emsud said.

“Always, first the shop,” Samka recalled. “He was always right.”

They set up the sewing machine in the basement, opening a small alterations business on the side.

In 1998, they opened Emsud’s Expert Alterations in Williamsburg Village. In 2000 they began Emsud’s Clothiers at 29th Street and Pine Lake Road. Four years later they relocated into the strip mall adjacent to Red Robin, across the street from SouthPointe Pavilions.

By fall 2014, the Deumics hope to move into their own building -- which they will break ground on this fall at 56th Street and Pine Lake Road, beside Security Bank and just behind Walgreens.

“To Emsud, nothing is hard. He is never tired,” Samka said of her husband of 37 years.

* * *

For Emsud the secret to success -- any success -- is simple: “Be the best. Be honest. Treat customers like family.”

Always modest, Emsud admits his family has done OK.

They became American citizens in 1998. Salko and Alma graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. They both married. Salko and his wife, Mandy, have two children Kenan, 5, and Mina, 3 months. Alma married Armin Sehic in June 2012.

All three families live within eight minutes of each other and the store. Alma and her parents work full time at the store. Salko, who works full time for a Lincoln technology company, spends nights and weekends helping out.

* * *

The Deumics say there is little doubt, that Lincoln, Neb., is the best place in America. Other Bosnians who arrived in America with them went to Chicago and Dallas, where they mostly were left to fend for themselves.

By contrast, First-Plymouth members have treated them as family from the moment they stepped into the airport terminal on that September day in 1993.

And still do.

“The people from the church made everything easy. They took us everywhere. Helped us get our Social Security cards. … It made a world of difference,” Salko said.

Church volunteer Alma Vlasak has been by their side all of those 20 years.

“She is like a sister,” Samka said. “She is second mom to my kids. … They are like family. … Nebraska is like home.”

Emsud clarifies: “This is our home.”

In other news

Bosnia Court Decision Sends Message To International Community

SARAJEVO, BOSNIA

By SETimes

September 16, 2013

By Drazen Remikovic

A court ruling that makes Dutch state responsible for the deaths of three Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) Muslims in Srebrenica in 1995 could impact future UN peacekeeping missions, as states could be held responsible for preventable situations that went wrong, experts told SETimes.

The Netherlands Supreme Court ruled on September 6th in favour of two Bosniak families who filed a lawsuit against the Netherlands. Hasan Nuhanovic and the family of Rizo Mustafic, who have been pursuing the case for the past 11 years, argued that the Dutch soldiers serving under the UN flag in Srebrenica in July 1995 did not do all they could to protect their relatives from the BiH’s Serb Army that overran the Netherlands-run UN safe area.

“The court has clearly established their [Dutch soldiers] responsibility,” Nuhanovic, a former UN translator, who lost his brother, mother and father in Srebrenica told SETimes. “The court also confirmed that no one can hide behind the immunity of the UN. And the other way around. I’ve heard other people that they would take my example and sue the Netherlands. I will be available to them, for all that it takes.”

”This is a great victory for the victims,” Kada Hotic, president of Mothers of Srebrenica Association, told SETimes. “These people were there to protect the lives of Srebrenica residents. And they pushed them to death. It is a crime. Mothers of Srebrenica have also filed a lawsuit against the Netherlands a few years ago. After this verdict, a lawyer who runs our case in the Netherlands said that this is the encouraging news for our common lawsuit.”

The Hague district court first ruled in July 2011 that the Dutch state could be held responsible for the deaths, but the country’s defence ministry appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that the UN had ”effective control over the ‘Dutchbat’ forces, not the Dutch state.”

But the court rejected this, with Judge Floris Bakels ruling that clearing the Dutch state of responsibility would mean that ”justice would have almost no way to judge armed interventions.”

Experts said the ruling is significant for the international community.

“This ruling puts in to a focus the full engagement of the international community in BiH during the ’90s,” Bojan Vlaski, a professor at the law faculty in Banja Luka, told SETimes. “I think the experts, especially those who deal with the law and history, in the future to have a reason to put the international community in questioning and critical position, especially when it comes to peacekeeping missions around the world. Now there is a legal basis for such views.”

BiH’s Serb forces killed more than 7,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica, an act that was declared genocide by the International Court of Justice and the UN. Several BiH’s Serbs were convicted in war crimes court for their roles in the deaths. It’s been called the worst crime on European soil since the World War II.

Visiting Srebrenica last year, Secretary General of United Nations Ban Ki Moon said the international community has learned the lessons of history in Srebrenica.

”We have to do all to protect civilians and to stop bloodshed particularly in Syria now, when we have learned the message of Srebrenica,” Moon told at Potocari Memorial Centre. “The international community must be united not to see any further bloodshed in Syria because I do not want to see any of my successors after 20 years visiting Syria apologising for what we could have done now to protect the civilians in Syria which we are not doing.”

There are 6,066 victims in the memorial centre and 2,306 still missing.

In other news

Difficult without EU, more so without Kosovo

SOURCE: TANJUG

BELGRADE -- Tomislav Nikolić said on Monday as he received Finland's FM Erkki Tuomioja in Belgrade,that Serbia was "working intensively on the EU integration process."

 

(Tanjug)

But any talk between Belgrade and Priština and signs of willingness to reach a compromise "are seen by Albania as recognition of Kosovo's independence," the Sebrian president was quoted as saying.

Serbia is aware that it can "hardly survive" without EU membership, Nikolić said and added that Serbia is also aware that without Kosovo and Metohija "it cannot survive," his press service said. 

The president underscored that in the mediation in the Belgrade-Priština dialogue, the EU is faced with two sides which have a different view of the situation, as one sees it as an autonomy for Kosovo and is trying to protect the national interests, while the other sides sees this as Kosovo's independence. 

Tuomioja commended Serbia's leadership on its courage, pragmatic approach, and the efforts it invested in the implementation of the agreements reached so far. 

Finland supports Serbia's prompt EU accession and believes that there should be no brakes to EU enlargement, Tuomioja said as quoted in the release. 

The Serbian president expressed the belief and hope that EU members are aware of the difficult situation Serbia is facing and the fact that European values are deeply knit in the Serbian way of life, thinking and being as a whole. 

Nikolić underscored that Serbia maintains excellent ties with regional countries and announced that Croatian President Ivo Josipovic would visit Serbia soon, noting that he met with presidents of regional countries. 

"Unfortunately, there is a tendency for Romania to present the Vlach minority as Romanians, and Serbia cannot allow this as it does not serve the interests of that minority," Nikolić said. 

Tuomioja said that Serbia maintains the optimum approach to the regulation of minority rights and added that the position of the Roma and LGBT community needs to be additionally improved. 

Nikolić agreed that additional investments should be made in education of the Roma community and underscored that Serbia is facing potential reintroduction of the visa regime so as to prevent members of the Roma population from crossing the borders. 

The benefits which the EU grants asylum-seekers are very attractive to the Roma population because the privileges are greater even than those which ministers in Serbia have, Nikolić said. 

The EU should ensure freedom of movement for all citizens, including the Roma, instead of shutting them in within Serbia and other countries in the region and leaving the issue for them to tackle on their own. 

"We should resolve this problem together because a country can solve it on its own," the Serbian president said. 

As for the LGBT population, the president underscored that they should have the same rights as other citizens and that he would personally back their security in case there are reasons to believe it may be brought into jeopardy.

Possible story ideas

A story idea occurred to me and it just makes sense. I will be covering efforts of a new initiative by World Relief Chicago – Priority 3 Family Reunification Program – and how it may be helping Bosnian or Serbian families in Chicago that are trying to get family members that are currently living in the Balkans over to the States.

I hope to be able to follow a family that has recently come to the States, or even during the Balkan civil war, and is trying to bring loved ones over.

If this doesn't pan out, I want to focus on the work Serbian Orthodox churches do to help newly arrived Serbian families in Chicago. For example, the Holy Resurrection Serbian Orthodox Cathedral helps families find homes and work within the Serbian community.

This is just a tentative story idea. I am also very interested in the Club Prijedor, 5611 Kimball Ave. I want to know why the organization decided to form at that location (Maybe there is a large populations of Bosnians from Prijedor living there) and what kind of work they do. Even if there isn’t a story here, maybe they will be able to direct me to organizations that I can do my story on. Also, they may be able to tell me some of the issues in the Bosnian community in Chicago – maybe even just the Prijedor community. Since I will be in the Albany Park community on Sept. 17, I will stop into the club to see what is going on.

My communities

For the semester, I will cover the Bosnian and Serbian communities. Since the countries share such a deep and bloody history, as a correspondent for a newspaper, I wouldn’t be able to cover one without the other. For geographical reasons, I would be stationed in Sarajevo, Bosnia. Bosnia borders both Serbia and Croatia, and is close to other former Yugoslavian republics that I might have to cover. Bosnia is a melting pot of Serbians, Croatians and Bosnians - the only country with such mixed ethnicities.

A very small bit of history:

The two countries were republics of former Yugoslavia, run by Marshall Josip “Tito” Broz. After Tito died in 1980, the republics such as Croatia and Slovenia decided to succeed from the Union. In 1992, Bosnia wanted to do the same. By 1995, Bosnia seceded, only after three bloody years.

In Chicago, there is a Bosnian-Herzegovinian cultural center, 1016 W. Argyle St. For the Serbians, Chicago is the largest Serbian community, outside of the Balkans. The Serbian-American Chamber of Commerce is also located in Chicago.

As recent as last week, the Consulate General of the Republic of Serbia in Chicago has been in hot water, and even removed from office. My first story will focus on the removal of the Consulate General and the effects of it for American-Serbs and Serbs in Serbia.

Who I will follow:

Bloomberg News is the only site that has correspondants stationed in the Balkans. I have been following, but will follow more closely Gordana Filipovic and Misha Savic. I will also be reading the work of David Rhode, who covered the Balkans during the civil war. Along with this, I will follow Reuters journalist Aleksandar Vasovic. 

Stay tuned!