Serbia cheers for neighbours in World Cup

Serbia cheers for neighbours in World Cup

While their team isn't playing in the World Cup, Serbian citizens are supporting their neighbours from BiH and Croatia.

For Lidija Cvetic, an attorney from Belgrade, supporting Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia in the 2014 World Cup feels natural.

At 33 years old, Cvetic was born before the 1990s conflicts -- born in Yugoslavia, a country in which Bosnians, Croats and Serbs lived together.

"I was very unhappy when we didn't have anyone from our region to cheer in World Cups and we had to support Brazil or Argentina. Finally, there are our neighbours and those with whom we had lived almost since yesterday," Cvetic told SETimes.

"Bosnia is my first as well as Croatia. I have so many friends in Bosnia and whenever I have visited, before or after the war, I have had a great time. I love the people there, and I'm happy because they have qualified for the first time and the whole region should support them. I'm so sorry I am not in Sarajevo now."

Jovana Prusina, 22, a law student from Belgrade, is not a football fan, but the idea of showing solidarity with neighbours motivated her to cheer for Croatia and BiH.

"I do believe that such little things can be the beginning of real reunion and co-existence and end up at some high level of co-operation," Prusina told SETimes. "I cheer for neighbours exclusively. All of us here are connected somehow with Bosnia and Croatia. I do not know anyone in Serbia who doesn't have anyone there, so it is crazy to not cheer."

The Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR) branch in Belgrade is organising gatherings at the Kulturni Centar Grad bar in the city centre every evening when Croatia or BiH play.

"The idea stems...