Snježana Znaor has been fighting for 20 years with powerful figures in Mostar who are blocking the renovation of her house

Snježana Znaor from Mostar, currently residing in Zemun, has been waging an unequal battle for the past 20 years with powerful figures in the city on the Neretva, reports the Patria news agency.

The city authorities of Mostar are avoiding repairing her house on Bulevar, which is certainly one of the authentic symbols of the city of Mostar.

She and her 19 extended family members are waiting for the day when they can finally spend the night in their house. Snježana has called and written to every politician, official and minister, not only in Mostar but also at the state level.

She has addressed the Mayor of Mostar, Ljubo Bešlić, countless times, asking him to grant her and her family members the basic human right to return and renovate the house. Apparently, her pleas ended up in the trash can.

Ownership relations are clear, and the house possesses all the necessary documentation, projects and permits for renovation. Snježana is persistent in her struggle and says that no powerful figure will ever break her into selling this ruin for a pittance.

She says she is not asking for any charity from anyone, but only the right to live normally in her own house. She wonders where the funds intended for renovation ended up, and by what criteria they were distributed. She directed the same questions to Mayor Bešlić, suspecting, she says, that by deliberately not renovating houses along the line of former war conflicts, Mostar is being left divided.

Today, Snježana lives as a tenant in Zemun. She is ill and survives on a small pension left to her by her deceased husband.

- Mostar and my Mostar people are my dream and my desire. I dream that one day all of us from the family will return to our home and live side by side as we once did, says Snježana, who has applied to all public calls for donations over all these years.

Donation disappeared

At the beginning of 2006, she finally found herself on the official list for donation allocation, but after months of waiting, she learned that the money approved for her house renovation had been redirected for the construction of a music school.