Bujanovac is a small town in Southern Serbia with a multiethnic, multilingual population of approximately 40,000 Serbs, Albanians, and Roma. Located close to Kosovo, the area around Bujanovac saw some of the last fighting of the Balkan wars, as ethnic Albanian fighters with a secessionist agenda fought with Serbian police.
The fighting ended when a peace agreement was brokered by the international community in May 2001, but conditions in this part of Serbia remained dire. Trust between ethnicities had broken down and economic opportunities were scarce, with high unemployment and significant brain drain owing to emigration.
