Flags on every corner: Kozarac shows how to mark Bosnia and Herzegovina's Independence Day

The streets of Kozarac are decorated today with flags of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In this town near Prijedor, Bosnia and Herzegovina's Independence Day was marked more festively than in all previous years. In the early 1990s, one of the greatest crimes against Bosniaks was committed here. The Army of Republika Srpska imprisoned thousands of people in camps, killed them, or expelled them.

Life is now returning to the town, and so is the spirit of multinational Bosnia and Herzegovina, as it was for centuries before.

State Minister of Civil Affairs Adil Osmanović told Patria that the people of Kozarac today taught a lesson in patriotism to all citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

- It was magnificent, emotions stirred  – Osmanović said. Together with numerous delegations, the minister laid flowers at the memorial to the fallen Bosniaks, built in the center of Kozarac.

Kozarac is one of the most successful examples of the return of Bosniaks to Republika Srpska. The diaspora living around the world does not send money only to relatives. Their money has also launched some factories that employ returnees and create new value, Patria writes.