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Change in the Balkans: the Trials of Transition

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Change in the Balkans: the Trials of Transition Change in the Balkans: The Trials of Transition Alexia Tsagkari Benjamin Arifi Dimitar Iliev Ivan Cadjenovic Milos Stanic Octavian Coman Shqipe Gjocaj Tamara Opacic Vladimir Kostic Zdravko Ljubas fellowship.birn.eu.com CONTENTS Editor’S FORWARD / 3 / UNsafE HavEN: SMOKE AND MIRRORS: ABOUT THE PROGRAMME / 58 / LIFE AND DEath FOR A MacEDONIAN PARTNERS / 59 / LGBT REFUGEES SPY MYSTERY BIOGRAPHIES OF FELLOWS / 59 / Alexia Tsagkari / 4 / Benjamin Arifi / 10 / PARALLEL PROFITS: LAWLESS LAKE: TOXIC Taps: BulgaRIA’S MEDICAL EX-SMUGGLERS FIND ARSENIC IN WatER DRUG DEALERS NEW FISH to FRY STIRS CANCER FEARS Dimitar Iliev / 17 / Ivan Cadjenovic / 22 / Milos Stanic / 27 / Published in 2017 by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Regional Network Branilaca Sarajeva 14/I, 71 000 Sarajevo Bosnia and Herzegovina Editor: Timothy Large Local Editors: Ana Petruseva, Besar Likmeta, Gordana Igric, Gordana Andrić, Dušica Tomović, Jeta Xharra, Marija Cheresheva, Marian Chiriac, Srećko Latal and Sven Milekić Fatal INactioN: VICIOUS CYCLE: SELECTIVE AMNESIA: Proofreader: Anita Rice HOW MEaslES MADE Kosovo’S BattERED CRoatia’S Holocaust A COMEback WOMEN SYNDROME DENIERS Designed by Miloš Sinđelić Octavian Coman / 32 / Shqipe Gjocaj / 38 / Tamara Opacic / 43 / All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, or stored in any retrieval system of any nature, without the written permission of the copyright holder and the publisher, application for which shall be made to the publisher. © ERSTE Foundation Open Society Foundations and Balkan Investigative Reporting Regional Network 2017 PARTY GAMES: AccESS DENIED: HIDE AND SEEK WITH DivoRCED DADS BALKAN FELLOWSHIP ELECTION Cash FIGHT FOR KIDS FOR JOURNALISTIC EXCELLENCE Vladimir Kostic / 49 / Zdravko Ljubas / 54 / Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence 2017 / 2 / fellowship.birn.eu.com Editor’S FORWARD hat is driving change in the Balkans? Judging Much of the reporting bristles with the pent-up how profit-hungry middlemen are contributing to held hostage by a growing number of revisionist Wby the stories in this volume, a better question energy of what might be, if only… If only laws shortages on pharmacy shelves. Bulgaria has some voices. might be: what is holding it back? For these are tales were enforced and human rights respected. If only of the laxest regulations on the trade in Europe and of societies held to ransom by the status quo. the authorities did their job. If only people stood attempts to clamp down have met resistance. In Serbia, Vladimir Kostic’s investigation into up for liberal values and pluralism. This tension illegal campaign financing by the ruling party In interpreting this year’s theme, 10 journalists between the what-is and what-might-be gives the Ivan Cadjenovic takes us to the biggest lake in highlights a culture of impunity amid creeping chosen for the Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic stories their power. the Balkans, where Montenegrin and Albanian authoritarianism and clientelism. The failure of Excellence hunted for signs of change in areas as poachers are devastating fish stocks. This is a prosecutors to act is a sign of interference from diverse as human rights, the environment, gender The big catalyst for change, of course, is EU swashbuckling tale of tech-savvy former smugglers deeply embedded political interests. issues, family values, healthcare, electioneering, membership. Half a dozen countries featured who find it pays more to electrocute fish than And in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia nationalism and identity politics. here are already in the club. Five others — Serbia, to traffic guns or narcotics. Allegations swirl of and Montenegro, Zdravko Ljubas shines a light Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro and Turkey — corruption among the lake’s rangers. What they found were dramas of entrenchment are candidates. Whether the promise of accession on divorced fathers who are fighting for access and intransigence: the stubbornness of vested lives up to its potential is a preoccupation of many An investigation by Milos Stanic reveals that to their children in societies where mothers are interests, the doggedness of corruption and of these narratives. almost a million people in Serbia, Croatia, Hungary seen as natural caregivers. The system is stacked organised crime, the pervasiveness of traditional and Romania are exposed to carcinogenic tap water against them, especially in Bosnia where family bigotries. In the tug-of-war between the actual and the with arsenic levels above the legal limit. His story law does not recognise joint custody. ideal, other recurring themes include the rise of highlights the failure of the authorities to protect All in all, these are stories of dashed hope, missed From the freshwater wildernesses of Montenegro illiberal forces, impunity for wrongdoing and the public health and meet European targets. opportunity and frustrated potential. They are to the back alleys of Istanbul, we see the enduring straightjacket of history. narratives of backsliding and dereliction of duty. failure of institutions to safeguard the public good In Romania, Octavian Coman examines the Alexia Tsagkari’s exposé of the persecution of and protect the vulnerable. We learn of tricks used complacency, bungling and discrimination that led lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, LGBT, But they also provide tantalising glimpses of tender by the powerful to rig the system in their favour. to a deadly measles epidemic, offering a cautionary asylum seekers on their journey to a safe haven shoots of positive transformation that just might, We count the human toll of discrimination. tale for the rest of Europe about what happens when in Europe makes for disturbing reading. Many with a little watering, spring up between the cracks authorities fail to bring marginalised communities of intolerance, vested interest and corruption. But do not be fooled by the weight of inertia in LGBT exiles face shocking abuse from host into the fold of national healthcare. these tales from Southeast Europe. While some communities and fellow refugees and are let down Indeed, many of the features and investigations in news subjects have change written all over them, by the humanitarian system. Shqipe Gjocaj reveals how Kosovo’s isolation from this collection suggest a twist on the old maxim, international instruments of justice give rights activists the subtler transitions sometimes speak the Benjamin Arifi’s investigation into one of plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose: in the loudest about where societies are heading. few levers for change when it comes to protecting Balkans, the more things stay the same, the more, Macedonia’s great political mysteries — who was women from domestic violence. Her portrayal of behind a deadly shootout in 2015 in the town of perhaps, they do in fact change. These days, change in the Balkans is often women in fiercely patriarchal societies caught in a Kumanovo? — shows the level of distrust and insidious and regressive. From the capture of cycle of discrimination and abuse is eye-opening. ethnic division in a country still reeling from a public institutions by political elites to historical corruption scandal that brought down the long- revisionism and a growing intolerance toward Tamara Opacic shows that EU membership entrenched government. diversity, reactionary tendencies are clawing back has done little to make Croatia crack down on Holocaust denial despite new laws against the ground and digging in. In Bulgaria, Dimitar Iliev delves into the murky world Timothy Large belittling of genocide crimes. Here is a country of ‘parallel trading’ of prescription drugs, showing Editor, Balkan Fellowship And yet, and yet. haunted by the ghosts of its World War II past and for Journalistic Excellence Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence 2017 / 3 / fellowship.birn.eu.com Alexia Tsagkari Istanbul, Leros, Kos, Athens LARA, A TRANSGENDER REFUGEE FROM SYRIA, WAS STABBED IN THE BACK BY LOCALS NEAR A CAMP ON THE GREEK ISLAND OF LEROS. PHOTO: ALEXIA TSAGKARI andy knew right away the customer was crowd six months earlier, on December 17, 2016. It dangerous. Most men who cruise Istanbul’s was the last time she saw her alive. UNSAFE HAVEN: Taksim Square looking for sex tend to move S Like Sandy, Warda was a transgender refugee from around nervously or feign nonchalance. But this man had menace in his eyes. Syria. Both had fled war and persecution in search LIFE AND DEATH FOR of a safe haven in Europe. They made it to Istanbul “From his style, you could tell he had no money,” where, ostracised by locals and other refugees alike, she recalled. “We warned her not to go with him. they had to sell sex to survive. He looked suspicious. But she didn’t listen. She LGBT REFUGEES “Three hours later we called her on her phone, needed the cash.” but it was off,” Sandy said through tears, mascara Shunned, abused, murdered. For many Sandy was standing in the same place in Taksim running down her face. “So I went back home LGBT asylum seekers in Turkey and Square where she had watched her friend, Warda, and found her covered in blood. I could barely Greece, every day is a struggle for survival. follow the Turkish man into the Saturday night recognise her.” Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence 2017 / 4 / fellowship.birn.eu.com Sandy showed a picture of the murder scene on her cell phone. Warda was slumped on the floor with a huge gash in her side and lower back. The murderer had disembowelled her, slashed her throat and cut off her genitals. “Eventually, the police came and took her body,” Sandy said. “We wanted to give her a proper funeral, but they wouldn’t let us. She was buried like a dog.” Warda was 30, the same age as Sandy. Her final resting place is a cemetery on the eastern outskirts of Istanbul where wildflowers grow by her unmarked grave.
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