Reuters

Video letters try to reconcile ex-Yugoslavs

AMSTERDAM, Nov 25 (Reuters) - A television project is trying to rebuild bonds between former friends and neighbours in the Balkans who were turned against each other by the wars of the 1990s that led to the eventual collapse of Yugoslavia.
AMSTERDAM, Nov 25 (Reuters) - A television project is trying to rebuild bonds between former friends and neighbours in the Balkans who were turned against each other by the wars of the 1990s that led to the eventual collapse of Yugoslavia.
In 20 episodes, former friends, neighbours and colleagues separated by the bloody disintegration of the six-republic
Yugoslav federation exchange emotional video letters, seeking to renew contact and restore trust.

The first three episodes of the "Videoletters" project had their premiere at the International Documentary Film Festival in
Amsterdam late on Wednesday.

The full series will be broadcast simultaneously by the national televisions of Serbia and Montenegro, Kosovo, Croatia, Bosnia, Slovenia and Macedonia from April next year, the project's authors Katarina Rejger and Eric van den Broek said.

The Dutch filmmakers say they have designed Videoletters as a reconciliation and conflict-resolution tool. "This was a war based on ethnic cleansing. Neighbours, friends, even families fought one another," said Van den Broek. "After the war people don't talk to each other any more. There are doubts, there are rumours, anger and guilt," he said.

The slow breakup of ex-Yugoslavia, which finally vanished from the map in 2002, was responsible for Europe's worst conflicts since World War Two, with Serbs and Montenegrins fighting 'fellow Yugoslavs' from Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia.

Videoletters' first episode brings together two young Bosnians, Emil and Sasa, who were best friends before the 1992-95 Bosnian war. Sasa, whose father is Serbian, joined the Serb army, and Emil, whose mother is Muslim, had to flee. They never spoke to each other again, torn apart by rumours that

Emil committed crimes against Muslims during the war. After
exchanging video letters they put an end to gossip and mistrust and meet for the first time in 10 years.

The two filmmakers, who act as postmen and mediators, plan to launch an interactive website (www.videoletters.net) in April next year, where other people can search for lost friends and load their own video letters.

The 25-minute episodes have been filmed in the last five years but encountered obstacles as many in former Yugoslavia regard communication with "the other side" as difficult and dangerous, Van den Broek and Rejger said. "People had many reasons to be scared ... And we had Dutch plates so people thought we might be from the Hague tribunal," Rejger quipped, referring to the U.N. court based in the Dutch city that is trying war criminals from the former Yugoslavia.