There were 11 suicides per 100,000 people before the 1992-95 Bosnian war. Now, more than seven years after the conflict ended, the rate has risen to 20 suicides per 100,000 people.

Experts blame the increase on the ailing economy, the after-effects of war and an enduring refugee problem which combine to cause various neuroses and depressions which often manifest themselves in violent behaviour.

"The increase in the number of suicides is mostly linked with the bad socio-economic situation among the older population, but when it concerns younger people we could blame the war," said Jekoslav Kovacevic, head of neuropsychiatric department at a hospital in the northern town of Doboj.

"Young men, recruited in the army during the war, suffer psychological problems of high intensity until today. There is a large number of people who are still refugees and the feeling of a lasting crisis among this part of the population has increased," Kovacevic said.

"Aggressive impulses that were present during the war are now returning like a boomerang. Maybe that is the reason why more men commit suicide than women," said sociologist Pejo Djurasinovic.

Just when Ljilja, a 30-year-old Bosnian Serb, thought that things were finally looking up for her family, one morning her husband Sasa laid over a hand grenade and killed himself in front of their house, while their baby slept inside.

There had been no quarrel, no psychological treatment, no signs of his intention, not even a goodbye letter.

Sasa's family and neighbours can't really understand what suddenly pushed him to suicide, but can blame a raft of problems including the 1990s Balkans wars, his status as a refugee, unemployment and poverty.

"I never saw it coming, that he was thinking of killing himself. We had a baby, things would have gotten better I am sure, we could have been happy, but it is too late now," Ljilja said.

The agreement that ended Bosnia's war left the country split into two semi-independent entities -- the Serbs' Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation -- linked by weak central institutions.

Last year police in the Republika Srpska (RS, Bosnian Serb entity) registered 31 murders and 278 suicides among a population of 1.4-million.

A suicide note was found in only 16 of those cases. Relatives of all the other suicide victims can only guess why they have lost their loved ones. Out of the 278 suicides 214, or 77 percent, were men.

"This is a patriarchal region and men are in charge of their families. They are expected to take care of their folks but when that is not possible they sometimes take this solution and kill themselves," Kovacevic explained.

During the Bosnian war some 200,000 people lost their lives, while 2.2 million, approximately half of the country's population, were forced to leave their homes.

A third of householders are still waiting to get their property back throughout the country.

SPACE.WIRE