Mostar Serbian community faces challenges in divided city

The Serbian community in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, continues to navigate life in a city marked by ethnic and political divisions. Following the last war, nearly the entire Serbian population was expelled from the city. Before the conflict, Serbs comprised approximately 18 percent of the population, totaling around 23,000 people. Today, that number has dwindled to roughly 4,500 in the city and surrounding settlements.

Sanja Bjelica Šagovnović, president of the Serbian Educational and Cultural Society ‘Prosvjeta’ Mostar, returned from displacement in 2002. She describes a period of intense destruction where Serbian sites, including the Holy Trinity Cathedral, Žitomislić Monastery, and various villages, were burned or mined in an attempt to erase the Serbian presence from the city.

While the Neretva River serves as a physical and symbolic line of division between Croat and Muslim communities, returning Serbs live on both sides of the river.