Štefica Galić (born 16 March 1963) is a Bosnian-Herzegovinian journalist and human rights activist. During the

Croat–Bosniak War The Croat–Bosniak War or Croat–Muslim War was a conflict between the Bosniak-dominated Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia, supported by Croatia, that lasted from 18 October 1992 to 23 February 19 ...

, Galić saved about a thousand people from internment in a detention camp. She is a vocal critic of

nationalist Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...

politics. Since September 2019, Štefica Galić has been protected by the

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet (assembly), Diet") is the lower house of the Germany, German Federalism in Germany, federal parliament. It is the only constitutional body of the federation directly elected by the German people. The Bundestag wa ...

Wartime activities

Štefica Galić is an ethnic

Croat The Croats (; , ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and other neighboring countries in Central Europe, Central and Southeastern Europe who share a common Croatian Cultural heritage, ancest ...

from the Herzegovinian town of

Ljubuški Ljubuški is a city in the West Herzegovina Canton, a federal unit of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Kravica (waterfall), Kravica cascades lie within the city, near the settlement of Studenci, ...

, in southern

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...

. In 1992, the

broke out, part of the larger

Bosnian War The Bosnian War ( / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. Following several earlier violent incid ...

and the more larger

Yugoslav Wars The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related#Naimark, Naimark (2003), p. xvii. ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and Insurgency, insurgencies that took place from 1991 to 2001 in what had been the Socialist Federal Republic of ...

. The

Bosniaks The Bosniaks (, Cyrillic script, Cyrillic: Бошњаци, ; , ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to the Southeast European historical region of Bosnia (region), Bosnia, today part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and who sha ...

of Ljubuški were rounded up by the

Croatian Defence Council The Croatian Defence Council (, HVO) was the armed wing of the self-proclaimed Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia, a breakaway entity unrecognised by the international community and accused of ethnic-based violence during the conflict. It exis ...

on 15 August 1993. Štefica Galić and her husband, photographer Nedjeljko "Neđo" Galić, worked to prevent the deportation of the Bosniaks of Ljubuški to the

detention camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...

s of Dretelj, Gabela, and Heliodrom. The Galićs falsified

affidavit An ( ; Medieval Latin for "he has declared under oath") is a written statement voluntarily made by an ''affiant'' or ''deposition (law), deponent'' under an oath or affirmation which is administered by a person who is authorized to do so by la ...

s for the people interned in the camps to prove they had a relation outside of Bosnia and Herzegovina they could move to rather than stay at the camps. According to the testimonies gathered by the Gardens of the Righteous Worldwide organization, the couple rescued about a thousand people from camps, two thirds of the total Bosniak population of Ljubuški. Repulsed by the treatment of their fellow denizens, the Galićs moved with their three children to

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

, Czech Republic, in late 1993. They refused the benefits accorded to refugees, insisting that they were not the expelled ones. Homesickness forced them to return to Ljubuški a year later, where they were stigmatized as Yugo-nostalgics and "

commies Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, distrib ...

". Supporters have praised Štefica Galić as the "

Schindler Schindler is a German surname that is derived from the German word "schindel", which means " shingle". This suggests that the original bearers of the name were in the roofing business. Variations and alternate spellings of the name include: Shindl ...

of Ljubuški". In 2019, Galić published an article about the murder of civilians in Ljubuški in 1993.

Journalism

After her husband's death in 2001, Galić became a journalist. Following the airing of Svetlana Broz's film about the rescue of the Bosniaks of Ljubuški in July 2012, Galić was physically assaulted by a war veterans' association activist. The attack was condemned by the United States,

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

, and

OSCE The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is a regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization comprising member states in Europe, North America, and Asia. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, the pr ...

representatives. Posters placed around the town branded them "enemies of the Croatian people". Two years later, Galić left Ljubuški and moved to

Mostar Mostar () is a city and the administrative centre of Herzegovina-Neretva Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the historical capital of Herzegovina. Mostar is situated on the Neretva Riv ...

, where she also receives threats. Since 2010, Galić has been the

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The editor-in-chief heads all departments of the organization and is held accoun ...

of the independent

online magazine An online magazine is a magazine published on the Internet, through bulletin board systems and other forms of public computer networks. One of the first magazines to convert from a print magazine format to an online only magazine was the comput ...

Tačno.net, which opposes

ethnic nationalism Ethnic nationalism, also known as ethnonationalism, is a form of nationalism wherein the nation and nationality are defined in terms of ethnicity, with emphasis on an ethnocentric (and in some cases an ethnostate/ethnocratic) approach to variou ...

in Bosnia and Herzegovina and features authors from other

former Yugoslav republics The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (commonly abbreviated as SFRY or SFR Yugoslavia), known from 1945 to 1963 as the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as Socialist Yugoslavia or simply Yugoslavia, was a country ...

as well. Galić has stated that she is inspired by ''

Feral Tribune ''Feral Tribune'' was a Croatian political weekly magazine. Based in Split, it first started as a political satire supplement in ''Nedjeljna Dalmacija'' (the Sunday edition of the ''Slobodna Dalmacija'' daily newspaper) before evolving into an ind ...

'' and ''BH Dani''. She acknowledges the

discrimination Discrimination is the process of making unfair or prejudicial distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong, such as race, gender, age, class, religion, or sex ...

against

women in journalism A woman is an adult female human. Before adulthood, a female child or adolescent is referred to as a girl. Typically, women are of the female sex and inherit a pair of X chromosomes, one from each parent, and women with functional uter ...

, but says that the nationalism-inspired assaults on her have made her oblivious to it. In 2017, Galić signed the

Declaration on the Common Language The Declaration on the Common Language ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Deklaracija o zajedničkom jeziku, Декларација о заједничком језику, separator=" / ") was issued in 2017 by a group of intellectuals and NGOs from Bosnia and He ...

of the

Croats The Croats (; , ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and other neighboring countries in Central Europe, Central and Southeastern Europe who share a common Croatian Cultural heritage, ancest ...

Serbs The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Southeastern Europe who share a common Serbian Cultural heritage, ancestry, Culture of Serbia, culture, History of Serbia, history, and Serbian lan ...

, Bosniaks and

Montenegrins Montenegrins (, or ) are a South Slavic ethnic group that share a common ancestry, culture, history, and language, identified with the country of Montenegro. Montenegrins are mostly Orthodox Christians; however, the population also includes ...

. Galić won the International Johann Philipp Palm Award for Freedom of Speech and the Press 2018.

References

External links

Štefica Galić
on Tačno.net {{DEFAULTSORT:Galic, Stefica 1963 births Living people Bosnia and Herzegovina women journalists Bosnia and Herzegovina women activists People from Ljubuški Croat writers from Bosnia and Herzegovina Signatories of the Declaration on the Common Language