story by: FLORIAN QUANZ (rotary MAGAZINE, GERMANY AND AUSTRIA)

Aleksandra Letić orders a coffee, lights a cigarette, and lets her gaze wander from ​the hotel terrace. Below her lies a picturesque valley crossed by the Drina River.

Then she sits down. She enjoys the tranquility, something she rarely has. ​Aleksandra Letić is constantly on the move. She commutes for work between her ​hometown Bijeljina and the British Embassy in Sarajevo, a three-hour drive each ​way.

Additionally, she is engaged with Rotary on several levels, is currently learning ​Albanian, has written a novel about toxic masculinity, founded a foundation to ​support children, and has two children of her own, along with her husband.

Letić is a doer. "Impossible" doesn't exist in her vocabulary. If a day has only 24 ​hours, she makes it 26. At least, it seems that way. A glance at her professional ​biography makes it clear: Aleksandra Letić is an extraordinary woman.

"Of course, there were death threats – by letter or phone," Aleksandra Letić says ​in a calm tone. "But I was never really afraid." She takes a drag from her ​cigarette, her face showing no emotion. Yet, she has every reason to be ​concerned, even today. "In 2008, a colleague of mine was shot."

For 20 years, Letić worked for human rights organisations, investigating war ​crimes in Bosnia for the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights. The death of her ​colleague was all the more motivation to continue her work.

"It wasn't brave of me, it was simply the right thing to do," she reflects. "I spoke ​with many victims of war crimes. It was about reconstructing exactly what ​happened in each community during the civil war.

“Additionally, we explained decisions of the Hague War Crimes Tribunal on-site. ​We presented the facts, explaining why, for example, someone from Srebrenica ​was sentenced to 40 years in prison."

She deliberately sought public exposure, appeared in the media. It was not just ​about transparency: "If I can do such work as a woman in a patriarchal country ​like Bosnia, then anyone can. I wanted to motivate people as a 25-year-old at the ​time."

Nevertheless, the task was not easy. “When I, as a Serb, show empathy for ​victims of other ethnic groups, it has a greater impact than when two Muslims ​talk to each other."

However, when she spoke with Serbian victims, there were many questions ​about why she, as a Serb, talked so much about Bosnian war victims.

What helped her in dealing with war crimes was her personal distance from the ​war and the country. Aleksandra Letić was born in Bocholt in North Rhine-​Westphalia after her parents had moved from Yugoslavia to Germany in the ​1970s. There she studied economics.

As a student, Aleksandra Letić could not have guessed that she would later live ​with her own family in Bosnia and Herzegovina. To gain practical experience ​during her studies, she returned to the country to work for a human rights ​organization.

As a child, she had no special relationship with the former Yugoslavia. It was the ​country where her grandparents lived.

No more and no less. Her family did not have any war victims to mourn, but ​there were war criminals in their ranks.

"What helped me was that my parents had a clear position on this. It was never ​in question for us that they also had to be held accountable."

She met her husband, who is half Serbian and half Macedonian, by chance in ​Bosnia. "He caught my attention because he rode his bike to the café. Here, ​people usually take the car even for 500 metres.”

They have registered their children as Macedonians with the authorities. They ​did not want to succumb to the hysteria surrounding the three major ethnicities.

For Letić, the ethnic affiliation of people does not matter. She consciously chose ​the Rotary Club Sarajevo from the Federation as a partner club with her Rotary ​friends from Rotary Club Bijeljina – a city in the Republic of Srpska.

"We can achieve a lot. The time is ripe for even more peace work by Rotary in this ​country." Aleksandra Letić wants to connect the ethnic groups. She wants to ​foster peace.

Aleksandra Letić from the Rotary Club of Bijeljina works as a project manager for the ​British Embassy in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia Herzegovina.

For Rotary, she serves as Assistant Governor responsible for several Rotary clubs and ​serves an important liaison between Rotarians in Bosnia and Austria.

Additionally, she is registered as a Transitional Justice Expert and has worked on ​reconciliation efforts in Sri Lanka and Chechnya. Aleksandra Letić speaks five ​languages.