The main reaction from friends and family when I said I was going to Bosnia (or Bosnia Hercegovina – BiH – its full title) to stay with my daughter, Rachel, who is working in Sarajevo for the Organisation for Co-operation and Security in Europe (OSCE), was one of concern. Yes, it is safe – the war finished 16 years ago but the evidence is still all around.
My trip via Vienna was without incident but nevertheless I was pleased to see Rachel’s smiling face when I emerged at the airport. We walked out into the balmy night, it was the end of September, and hopped into a taxi. We did a lot of hopping into taxis in Sarajevo, they are very cheap and seemed instantly available whenever we needed one. I was keen to see the flat where Rachel has been living for the last year; it was on the top (3rd) floor of an early 20th century building on the embankment of the river Miljacka next door to the Iranian Embassy! Just keep your fingers crossed that no-one in Bosnia has the urge to lay siege to Iran but I think they have enough local problems to concentrate on. Being up in the roof the flat has interesting shaped windows, from which you can see and hear the river. The entire city is ringed by the Dinaric Alps, scene of the winter Olympics in 1984 and more recently under siege from 1992-1996.
Sarajevo has an eclectic mix of buildings. Although most of the evidence of Ottoman rule, which lasted for four centuries, is limited to the low merchants’ buildings in the old town, lining the river bank are numerous beautiful buildings dating from annexation by Austria-Hungary which lasted for only 40 years. The setting is somewhat spoilt by large, garish advertisement hoardings on one side of the river. Soviet-style concrete tower blocks jostle alongside modern glass fronted skyscrapers and interspersed are war torn ruined and shell marked buildings. Mosques abound, particularly in the old town with its narrow cobbled streets, which now cater for locals and tourists alike with numerous hostelries serving traditional Bosnian food and souvenir shops.
BiH today consists of two entities – the Federation of Bosnia and Hercegovina which is largely Bosniac (Muslim) and Croat, and the Republika Srpska which is primarily Serb; Bosniacs, Croats and Serbs are officially recognized as the constituent peoples of the territory of BiH.
Ironically, in view of the recent war, Sarajevo was historically famous for its traditional religious diversity with Islam, Orthodoxy, Catholicism and Judaism peacefully co-existing for centuries and was know as the ‘Jerusalem of the Balkans’. I wanted to get to grips, even if only superficially, with recent history so we hired a car and drove through the beautiful peaceful rural countryside along the Neretva river to Mostar. Mostar is the fifth largest city in Bosnia Hercegovina, famous for its iconic bridge built in 1566 under Ottoman rule. In 1992 after BiH declared independence from Yugoslavia the city was subjected to an 18 month siege by the Yugoslav People’s Army, followed by intense fighting between the Bosniacs and Croats, with many historic buildings, including the bridge destroyed. This symbolic ‘rainbow arch soaring up to the skies’ - 28 meters long and 20 meters high - has been rebuilt and is once again popular with visitors waiting to catch sight of a young bronzed youth diving into the river below – for a fee, of course.
Our next trip took us to Srebrenica, scene of the massacre of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys by Serbian forces in July 1995. Our guide showing us around the vast memorial was 13 at the time and only by chance escaped death because of his age. His older brother and cousins disappeared, their remains yet to be recovered. The narrow white columns of the Muslim graves stretch in all directions, interspersed by green columns marking recent burials. Work continues to identify the bodies disinterred and thanks to DNA the remains of over 5000 victims have been claimed by their families. Once a year in July a ceremony takes place to bury the bodies identified during the year. We saw the warehouses where the young males were told by the UN ‘peacekeepers’ to gather outside the town only to be led away by the Serb forces and murdered.
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It is hard to fathom the failure of the UN – and the international community in general - to stop the killing in Bosnia . When Sarajevo came under attack by Serb artillery in April 1992, the UN forces pulled out to avoid casualties. There is a chilling TV documentary showing the UN commander in Srebrenica shaking hands with Ratko Mladic (military leader of the Bosnian Serbs now on trial at the Hague) and accepting gifts from him. UN personnel became well aware of massive violations of human rights and humanitarian law committed by all sides, yet did nothing. Although they never succeeded in protecting civilians from attack, the UN eventually took seriously its obligation to investigate war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity in the former Yugoslavia and established the International Criminal Tribunal which has now issued indictments against 75 individuals.
To be sure, atrocities were committed by all sides in the war, which resulted in a total of around 2 million people fleeing their homes. All citizens of Bosnia who were ousted from their homes now have the right to return, but this often means living among members of one of the ethnic groups they were enemies with during the war – and often their homes have been destroyed or are unsafe due to the remaining unexploded mines which still plague the Bosnian countryside. One woman returned to find her house still intact but with an enormous, overpowering Serb Orthodox church build virtually in her front garden. There are numerous examples of such insensitive re-building.
It was an emotionally exhausting and at times grim visit for me. At the very least I had a better understanding, if still only superficial, of the recent tragic events in this war-torn area and of what Rachel is doing there. I have to say that I don’t feel very hopeful for the immediate future of this part of the Balkans.
Jenny Quillen
PS Since I wrote this the title has become somewhat ironic. Two days ago the American Embassy in Sarajevo was attacked by a gunman – Rachel was inside the building at the time.
