Bosnian Schools Still Named After Divisive Wartime Figures: Report

Schoolchildren in Bosnia. Photo: BIRN 

A report published by the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina on Wednesday says that over the past couple of decades, education authorities and decision-makers in the country have failed to tackle ethnically exclusionary school names, symbols and events held at schools such as celebrations and commemorations.

“Politicians continue to use education institutions as a tool to mark territory, express political power and shape historical and cultural narratives in communities,” the OSCE report says.

During the war and up to the year 2000, the names of hundreds of schools throughout the country were changed to commemorate wartime events, military figures and battles, and to pay tribute to historical figures that are important to the majority ethnic group in a specific area, the report notes.

It cites schools in the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska entity named after wartime Bosnian Serb Army commanders, a school Bosanski Petrovac named to commemorate the recapturing of the town by the Bosnian Army.

It points out that many schools are named after religious figures who only represent one of the country’s three main ethnic groups, and that some are even still named after “Nazi sympathisers and individuals with political or military associations with fascist regimes during World War II”.

Such practices “complement divisive and one-sided policies” in the country in general, the report says.

“This results in school environments promoting ethnic exclusivity rather than affiliation to a school and wider community,” it adds.

Positive steps were taken between 2004 and 2012 in some areas to address the problem, the report says, but cautions that “it is clear that backsliding has occurred in recent years, while some administrative units failed to make any progress at all”.

“The current situation is in violation of both the domestic legal and policy framework and international standards, and directly impedes meaningful reconciliation,” it warns.

The report’s findings are based on the OSCE Mission’s regular monitoring of more than 2,000 schools throughout the country.