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Published: September 2nd 2006
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Sarajevo Rose
Outside the entrace to the tunnel. I think that the most lasting impression I will have of Sarajevo, and Bosnia Herzegovina in general for that matter, is that left by the Sarajevo Roses spread out throughout the city. A Sarajevo Rose is created when a mortar or artillery shell hit a piece of pavement. The force of the strike and the shrapnel create a flower like pattern and as the Government decided to fill in any of these spots that killed 6 or more people with red paint a shape not unlike a rose is formed. This along with the many pockmarked buildings from rocket fire and snipers bullets, are a very sad reminder of that shameful part of modern history.
I arrived in Mostar, a city closer to the coast, at about 7pm and as there were no more trains to Sarajevo that night was forced to spend the night there. This worked out for the best however and I really enjoyed walking through the town for a few hours, exploring the winding streets and having a few beers with a French guy I had met on the bus. We sat at a pub near the Mostar Bridge which was famous in the past for
Mostar Bridge
It feels much higher when you stand on the top and look down into the rushing water. having the men of Mostar jump off of it and is now famous because it was unnecessarily destroyed during the war. It was recently rebuilt and is really amazing to walk across and look down into the water. I had dreams of jumping off of the bridge as well but as my train left at 8am in the morning I unfortunately was not able to do this. The fact that it was 30m high and you had to pretty much sign your life away before jumping, naturally, had nothing to do with my decision. :P
In Sarajevo I spent most of my time just walking around the old part of town and exploring little side streets. In the centre the marks of war have been almost entirely covered up but as you get further out you start to see ruined houses and buildings covered in pockmarks. I had a very uneasy feeling as I walked down "Snipers Alley" past the Holiday Inn, where the journalists stayed during the war. This was one of only 2 ways to get from one side of the city to the other and Serbian Snipers always had their sights trained on it. I also
Sarajevo - Old Town
Awesome little streets in the old part of the town. had a similarly uncomfortable feeling as I walked across the Old Latin Bridge near the old town, for a similar reason but in a very different time frame. That bridge is where Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in 1914 which precipitated the First World War.
On my last day I signed up for a tour of some of the most interesting parts of the city and I really enjoyed it. The only bad thing was that our tour guide was a bit of a clown and kept reminding us that he had been rated the best tour guide in Sarajevo for the past 4 years and had been called "The Voice of Sarajevo!". At first I thought that he was kidding but as the tour progressed it became very clear that he was just very proud of himself. We visited the remains of the tunnels that supplied Sarajevo with food, electricity, information and most importantly weapons during the 4 year war (1992-1995), which incidentally is the longest siege in modern warfare. The Bosnians were forced to dig these tunnels 5m under the airport for a distance of 800m in order to get the desperately needed means to protect themselves,
War Tunnel
Part of the 800m long tunnel that kept Sarajevo alive during the siege. which the UN had put an embargo on. As you can imagine the UN is not looked up to as a model of a protecting force in Sarajevo and the Columbian drug lords who the Bosnians were eventually forced to buy the guns off are held in only slightly lower esteem. Now Ive always been pretty critical of the UN and the role that they attempt to play in the international community but after hearing about their "screw up" in Sarajevo I think that my cynicism is justified. When NATO eventually stepped in to stop the bloodshed they ended the siege in 5 days with intensive bombing of the Serbian Army emplacements.
On a happier note I was lucky enough to visit while the Sarajevo Film Festival was in full swing, the biggest film festival in Eastern Europe. As I checked into my hostel they had 1 spare ticket to a documentary so I snapped it up. It was called "5 Days" and was all about the forced removal of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip by Israeli Soldiers. I thought that it was very good and definitely gave the viewer a very real look into those stressful 5
Map
This map shows the Serbian army implacements around Sarajevo and the airport is where there is a thin neck of free land. The tunnel was dug under the airport to the "Free Bosnian Territory". days with personal interviews with both the Israeli Soldiers and the Jewish settlers. The Film Festival seemed to bring the town alive with lots of people walking around promoting it and brightly coloured signs up everywhere. As I walked around the streets I kept my eyes open for visiting celebrities like Bono and Nick Nolte but with no luck.
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Penny
non-member comment
Your comments on the inefficacy of the UN in Sarajevo are interesting Joel. We learned in Rwanda of the UN not responding to the crisis there and thereby being culpable in the genocide that resulted. Kofi Annan later apologised but that is little comfort to the 900,000+ killed and the many left scared both physically and mentally by that atrocity. Hopefully they will do a better job in Lebanon. Thanks again for the opportunity to share your travels. Love Penny