APExpress 4 – 11/3/2011 3:07:00 PM – AP-APTN-1800: Bosnia Angelina Jolie

The U.S. ambassador to Bosnia-Herzegovina, Patrick Moon, opened an apartment building for refugees Thursday in a small town in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The building in the eastern town of Rogatica was financed by the United States. It will house 13 mostly elderly tenants who were displaced during the Bosnian ethnic conflict of the early 1990s.

The building is named “Villa Angelina” after U.S. actress Angelina Jolie, who had lobbyied on behalf of the refugees. She visited them last year in a run-down building where all the tenants shared one bathroom. Shortly after the visit, local authorities received a $500,000 donation from the United States.

Jolie is a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations refugee agency. The movie she directed, “The Land of Blood and Honey,” set in wartime Bosnia is due for release next month.

Earlier this year, Jolie received an honorary film award at the film festival in Bosnia's capital Sarajevo.