[QODLink]
Witness
Mao in Bosnia
A small Bosnian town is being rebuilt with the help of 40,000 Chinese immigrants.
Last Modified: 28 Jan 2009 12:47 GMT

Watch part two

Filmmaker: Duska Zagorac

Banja Luka was a sleepy provincial town in Bosnia until it rose to international prominence during the Balkan wars of the 1990's becoming synonymous with the upheaval of the conflicts which ripped apart Tito's Yugoslavia.

Since the conflict has ended Banja Luka has become the official capital of the Republica Serbska following the peace agreement in 1995.

The city repopulated with returning refugees and Serb economic migrants from other parts of the former Yugoslavia.

According to some estimates these migrants now make up one third of the population.

Filmmaker Duska Zagorac was one of the many who fled Banja Luka in the early 1990s taking safety in London to escape war.

After 15 years of exile she decided to return to discover for herself what had become of the town of her youth - and she was surprised.

She found that a prime engine of the rebirth in Banja Luka has been a steady influx of Chinese immigrants encouraged to set up homes and businesses because of the economic opportunities afforded by the return of peace.

Source:
Al Jazeera
Topics in this article
Country
Featured on Al Jazeera
In the frozen peaks of Afghanistan's Kunar province, a ferocious clash for supremacy rages amid the mountaintops.
Indigenous community with "third world conditions" sits 90km from diamond mine, prompting fight for resource royalties.
There is a unique and dangerous commerce system at work in Amazonia, where children risk their lives for a few pennies.
Organisations that influence social, cultural and political issues in the US have been hijacked by the far right.
<  > 
join our mailing list

Enter Zip Code
Go