Will Bosnia still exist in 10 years? 20? 30?

The dozens of people I spoke to during this trip made clear that few people are happy with the country’s status quo. Politicians maybe, but not ordinary people

Bosniaks certainly seem to have pride in the country, however many say they can’t even be comfortable in their own home because of tensions around the Republika Srpska and the Serbs’ rejection of the Bosnian War as a genocide

Politics aside, many express discontent around unemployment, wages, and corruption, the combination of which is leading to the mass emigration of some of the country’s brightest minds

Many Serbs, meanwhile, don’t think the country should exist at all. They variously accuse Bosniaks and foreign powers of unjustly accusing them of genocide, cutting them off from their kin in Serbia, and misunderstanding their history

So why should the country stay together? 

Some people on both sides flatly say it should not

Others, mainly Bosniaks and outsiders, say that allowing Republika Srpska to secede would be rewarding ethnic cleansing and genocide. The land belongs not to Serbs, they say, but to all the Catholics and Muslims who were pushed off it in the 1990s

While Bosnia is a multi-ethnic country, it’s clear that Sarajevo, the capital, sees Serbs as the bad guy: There’s a memorial to genocide victims, a museum to the Srebrenica massacre, a plaque to murdered Bosnians, cemeteries full of Bosniaks killed in the siege

Regardless of whether the allegations against Serbs are true, why would they want to exist in a country where they are the villains?

The short answer is that many don’t, however those with power don’t yet have the will to shatter the status quo for fear of losing their power, money, or starting another war

How much longer can that hold?