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Published: December 7th 2006
Don't forget '93
Monument to the war.I left Dubrovnik at 8 in the morning on the 12th on the way to Mostar. The granny I had been staying with asked me what were my plans and I foolishly told her what I was truly doing. On the bus I met Mic, a friendly english guy whom had some interesting adventures in Croatia. We followed the coast for a while, which was really amazing, and then went inland. We didn't get stamped in and we never really figured out when we entered the country as you could still see croatian flags well into Bosnia. The landscape was beautiful, rugged and mountaineous.
Okay, before I go deeper into the blog I'll try to explain the war in Bosnia as it's such an important part of the live of the people there. But it's a bit complicated because the war was just a few steps on the "order scale" above "anarchy". First, the difference between bosniaks, serbs and croats is simple: religion. Bosniaks are muslims, serbs are orthodox and croats are catholic. They speak basically the same language (but don't tell that to them, of course) with only few differences in dialect. Bosnia used to be part of Yugoslavia
Pigeon square
I loved this spot. I spent so many hours on the cafe, drinking bosniak coffee. (a country consisting of 6 republics: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia (the most populous republic with the capital, Belgrade), Montenegro and Macedonia). But during the 1980, sepatists feeling started to rise in most republics, especially after the death of Tito in 1985. After Slovenia and Croatia had declared independance, Bosnia (under their first government elected in multi-party elections) decided to have a referendum. The bosnian serbs decided to boycott it so there was a 65% turnout and 99.43% vote for independance but then the bosnian serbs decided to create their own Republic of Bosnia (called Serbs republic of Bosnia, and later Republica Srpska (in an attempt to make it unpronouncable to foreigners)). Yugoslavian forces officially respected the referendum and left Bosnia but in practice, a lot of their weaponry and soldiers stayed in Republica Srpska, including the commander Ratko Mladic, who is currently wanted by the International Tribunal at The Hague but is still hiding somewhere.
Now what must be remembered here is that officially, the conflict was a civil war, with Serbia not having a role. It was bosnian serbs vs Bosniak/bosnian Croats. Serbia was not involved officially although they obviously helped the bosnian serbs. At first the goal
Man praying in Mostar Mosque
Maybe he is asking that the situation will remain peaceful. of the bosnian serbs was to preserve Yugoslavia but then it changed to create a "Greater Serbia", that is add part of Bosnia (and Croat serbs in Croatia were fighting to add parts of Croatia to "Greater Serbia" also) to Serbia. This, in itself is not necessarily bad, the borders of countries often don't make too much sense and there were large parts of Bosnia that had a very high percentage of Serbs. The problem is that the bosnian serbs wanted too much, and the way they tried to take it. They wanted Sarajevo, the capital of the country but it was mostly under Bosniak control. So they decided to attack.
On April 5th 1992, the real war started with the killing of a bosniak in a Peace March in Sarajevo by a bosnian serb sniper. The bosnian serbs took the surrounding hills of the city and started the siege. They hadn't planned to besiege the city but they were unable to take it as the bosniaks fought hard. Sarajevo is built in the center of several hills, like the bottom of a nest. This turned it into a death trap as the bosnian serbs controlled the hills and
Bosniak coffee
I had maybe 20 of those in 3 days. It's turkish coffee in the pot and turkish delight in the espresso cup. Good deal for 50 euro cents. could snipe at will at the city. For a long time the city was completely cut off from the rest of the world but then the UN took the airport to send humanitarian supply to keep the sarajevans alive.
But then, just to complicate things (and I'm overly simplifying everything here, the real situation was even more messy), the bosnian croats decided to stop being allied with bosniak and cut a part of the country for themselves, to create a "Greater Croatia". They were stopped at Mostar which was under siege for 9 months. They destroyed most of the Old City, including the famous bridge Stari Most but didn't manage to take it. Eventually, in 1994, the american government put pressure on bosnian croats and bosniak to force them to become allies again. In 1995 the bosniak/croats took the initiative and captured several parts of western bosnia but peace was eventually brokered when NATO bombed the bosnian serbs positions around Sarajevo and Belgrade which forced the bosnian serbs to capitulate.
The peace treaty was called the Dayton agreement which was agreed in November 1995 (after 3 years of siege in Sarajevo) and separated Bosnia in 2 part: Federation
of Bosnia Hercegovine (Bosniak/Croats) containing 51% of Bosnia (including Sarajevo) and Republica Srpska (Serbs) containing 49% (which include some of the hills around Sarajevo). There has been peace for more than 10 years now and Bosnia is still licking it's wounds. But it is recovering.
Back on travel, at Mostar there was a welcome party waiting for me. The granny had done some calls and a cute woman was waiting for me to give me a room but in the meantime I had decided to stick to Mic's plan which was to do Mostar as a day trip and head to Sarajevo because 1) Mic was cool, 2) There's not that much to see in Mostar and 3) I couldn't wait to get in Sarajevo.
Mic had some letters to send so we went to the post office which is on the former line of control between the bosniak and croats. Even if the events happened 12 years ago, you can still see the scars in the building around there. One almost completely destroyed building with a graffiti that read "Fuck the war" was particularly moving. We walked around town a bit more until we found the famous
Bosnian countryside 2
I apologize for the reflection of the bus window. bridge. It was really a beautiful piece of architecture (the original dated 500 years ago). There was a small museum that showed how the bridge was destroyed, showing picture of every month in 1993 and how the muslims tried everything to save it from croats bombardment (like hanging tires off the brige to deflect the shells). But ultimately the bombs prevailed and the bridge was destroyed. The bridge was linking 2 parts of the muslims territory which is why the croats wanted it destroyed. The man in charge of the place told us a bit about how it was in 1993 and where the croats where positioned in the city and around it, he had trouble containing his anger when he was talking or his disgust when talking about the croats.
After this I bought a souvenir, something which I almost never do. It's a pen made out of a bullet shell! Tought it was cool. We also went to the orthodox church which was nothing more than ruins, not surprisingly since it is now on muslim territory and serbs and bosniak don't particularly love each other. We had great view of the city up there.
We took
Bosnia and Canada, public telephone brothers!
These public phones are exactly like the ones back home! What's up with this? I've never seen that model outside Canada before! Bosnia and Canada, public telephone brothers! another bus at around 3 to Sarajevo and the ride there was absolutely amazing. We had been told the train was more senic but I quite enjoyed the bus. There was snow on the pass before the town but thankfully not in the city. After quite a bit of walking around and asking random (but always friendly) stranger, we ended up finding the hostel near Pigeon Square. There was a 24h patisserie right next to it which had amazing borek and desert so needless to say that's where I ate. We were both pretty tired so we didn't go out but we decided to book a city tour given by a travel agency/hostel nearby.
The tour the next day was quite interesting. After a good borek breakfast (these things are amazing, you can eat them at any time of the day) we hopped on a van with our guide Almyra (sp?) and a few other people. The tour was about the siege in Sarajevo. For 3 years, Sarajevo was besieged by the serbs; something we all heard about on the news constantly, even if I was a kid back in the day I remembered the daily news about Sarajevo.
We were shown various places in the city like the place where the war started, sniper alley and a few others and then went in the hills toward the airport and the tunnel.
The city was completely blocked from the rest of the world at first, but then the UN took the airport to send humanitarian supply. The terrain behind the airport was under bosniak control so supply could be moved in and out of the city through the airport. But at first this was a problem because the airport could still be reached by serbian snipers so making the run through the airport was extremely dangerous. Almyra, trying to get food for her and her mother, had to do the run once (the price of food was much cheaper on the other side and they couldn't afford to buy any more food in Sarajevo). She was spotted by the UN which put a spotlight on her, after which she was shot by a serbian sniper on the foot. The UN took her to the hospital but to this day she doesn't know why they seemed to try hard to make it easier for serbian to kill people (I
must assume it was because they had to appear neutral or something).
But then the bosniak decided to build a tunnel under the airport, so bosniak engineers designed it and it was built by hand within a few months. It was about 800m long and was crucial for providing the city with more food, everyday items that the humanitarian aid didn't send (toothbrushes etc), gas for heating/cooking and also weapons. The UN had no problem sending food on the claim that it was a nonpolitical act but sending weapons was of course not possible while still claiming neutrality. So the tunnel greatly improved the quality of life for sarajevans, it decreased the price of vital goods inside the city and allowed people not to have to risk their life by running over the airport while at the same time allowing the citizens to defend themselves better.
We went to the tunnel where we were shown a little documentary about the war and visited the tunnel, but only the 25m that remains as the rest collapsed after the war. We also went to the sephardic jewish cemetary overlooking the city which was damaged by serbs trenches and fighting.
Fuck the war graffiti
This is taken from the former front line in Mostar, where the scars of the war are still highly visible. Almyra was a very interesting guide since she had been in Sarajevo during the siege and was very open about how life was in the city and how she felt about it, and how she felt about the peace today (like how she deals with bosnian serbs etc). Apparently serbs and bosniaks now talk to each other but sometimes relations are very strained and people often ask her what religion she is and if it's not the one they want to hear they stop talking to her. But she said repeatadly that they have to learn to live together. If one thing is sure is that no one want a war anymore.
After the tour was done I spent some times walking with Johnny, a irish guy who was on the tour, another englishman (whose name I forgot) who was also on the tour and Mic around Sarajevo. We took a few sights such as the National Library and the Latin Bridge, where Franz Ferdinand, the heir of the Austro-Hungarian empire was killed, the event that started WW1. We split off because we had different things to do (I had to buy shoes) but met again in the evening
in the local brewery's pub to have a few beers before heading back to the guesthouse's restaurant where we had some delicious burek before going out in some bar where we met Alastair, an englishman who had been living in Moscow for a few years and Brendan, a crazy ozie guy that could just come from Australia who was planning the next stage of his trip which would consist, to quote him in "Sniffing cocaine off a hooker's ass while snowboarding in Switzerland. He had quite a few stories to tell, like when he jumped in a UN car in Kosovo which was heading to a serb enclave to have a party and he ended up totally drunk 15 km from Prishtina and he thought it would be a good idea to walk from the enclave to the capital but through the fields, not the road. Funny character. We had quite a bit of fun that night.
The next day I went in the National History Museum which had a section on the recent war as well as about the history of Bosnia. Both were very interesting. There was a woman guide in the museum which provided with explanations
and translations when necessary (for free!). The part about Bosnia history was not as interesting as they were mostly interested in attempting to prove that Bosnia had been a nation for hundreds of years and was therefore a proper nation.
The museum was placed right on sniper alley, which was a place right in the middle of serbian sniper's range and totally exposed. Right next to it there's also the Holiday Inn where all foreign journalists would stay during the war. Both the hotel and the museum have been repaired but you can still see the damage nearby.
I didn't do much that day aside from the museum. I chilled on Pigeon's square, the center of the Old Town, in one of the cafe that serves amazing bosniak coffee for 50 eurocents. I had so many of those, my caffeine level must've been sky high during all my stay in the city. We had another "good piss" (as Johnny would call it) that night with pretty much the same group of people, although I had a bit too much to drink. The guy who was working at the guesthouse told us about a joke he liked to make
Mostar's famous bridge
Rebuilt in 2004 after the Croats destroyed it. to backpackers who ask him for direction: "Oh that hostel, no problem you just turn on your first right and walk straight into the minefield, then turn left and walk past the machine gun. It's Tuesday today so they shouldn't be firing so you probably don't have to run. Then your hostel is right there.". Some people actually believed him. Classic.
I also remember a comment made by Almyra about iraqi (she worked for NATO in Iraq). The iraqis wouldn't believe that she was muslim because she acted and dressed like an european and she had massive problems with the iraqis men working under her as they didn't like taking orders from a woman. She said that iraqis were shit people, and albanians too (not sure why in that case). I just found it very interesting that despite being muslims, bosniaks have so much more in common with europeans then pretty much any other muslims ethnic group. You see a few veiled women in Sarajevo (although most of the time they're old babushkas) but it's fairly rare, although people who visited before the war said there were less before. But Almyra was very proud to be muslim despite not
being religious at all or having anything in common with other muslim people and I guess that if I had been besieged for 3 years because another group don't like my religion I'd be proud of it too. She said that religiousness and the number of "fundamentalist muslims" in Sarajevo had increased a lot after the war.
Mic didn't join us as he was heading to Belgrade that night, a day before me. I had planned to spend 2 nights in Sarajevo but I had fallen in love with the city. The people are nice, the women beautiful and the old town was pretty.
The next day I just spent lazying around, not doing much. I talked with a french guy from the hostel who had been living in Cameroon for a few years, walked around the city, stopped at a pastry shop or cafe and talked with the owner/waitress or read a book (their pastries shops are too good though, it would be unwise for me to live there too long). I also bought an amazing little book made by Sarajevans during the war which was a "travel guide" to Sarajevo under siege. It's written in a
dark humorous kind of way but shows very well how the people used to live. I'll quote a few things from the book here.
"Sarajevo is a city of slender people. Its citizens could be author of the most up-dated diets. No one is fat any longer. The only thing you need to have is your city under siege - there lies the secret of a great shape."
"It is very good for your hair, which becomes silky and shiny. Lack of water makes the people of Sarajevo very close to medieval knights and to French Monarch."
"The main dishes of 1992 are macaroni and rice. You wouldn't believe in how many ways they can be prepared!"
"November temperatures were very nice. Meteorologists have informed us they were very high, by comparison with times no one remembers any more: about 9 degrees C (Centigrade) in the apartment. It was warmer to take a walk than to sit inside. Fortunately everyone can get warm while searching for food and water."
War recipe:
"Cheese a la Olga Finci
4 demi-tasses of milk powder (bought at the black market)
1 demi-tasse of oil (from humanitarian
aid)
1 demi-tasse of water (boil it first!)
0.5 demi-tasse of vinegar or one lemon
1 small spoon of garlic powder (present from a good friend)
Mix it all with a plastic spoon which can be found in the USA lunch package. The mix will thicken immediately, just like a pudding. If you were lucking enough to grab a bunch of expansive parsley, cut it finely, pepper it, and add it to the mix. All should be taken to your balcony, where the temperature is -10 C; you can as well leave it in your kitchen, where it is only -8. It should get hard. Even if you had other ideas, this dish has to be served cold. Enjoy!"
"Passionate love is being expressed here by a handful of wood, a bucket of coal, a complete edition of books which lacks humor and poetry. Could you spare some Vladimir Illich Lenin? Last winter has proven that his books burn well."
Anyway, for you Politically Correct people around here, this book was written by people who were in the city in the war and all sarajevans who I talked with said they liked that book. It was also very
informative about the live of the people. Good read, but you won't be able to find it unless you come to Sarajevo! Limited edition only!
I had dinner with Alastair and Brendan before heading to the bus stop for Belgrade. Now this was a bit complicated as it was in Republica Srpska. There was public transport going there but I got off at the wrong stop and ended up having to walk a few kilometers on foot. I had no watch on me as I had lost it the day before so I had no idea if I was gonna make it on time but I arrived a few minutes before the bus left and managed to get a ticket.
Sarajevo has to rank in the top 3 of my favorite city. The people are amazing, the food is great and the city is just beautiful. I understand why it was chosen as a olympic city, why the serbs wanted to have it and why the bosniaks fought so hard to defend it. I hope the situation will stay peaceful. I didn't get as much of a bad feeling as in Kosovo about the future but there are
still lots of underlying tensions and external events could leave to trouble again. The same could have been said in Europe in 1945 so hopefully the outcome will be the same in Bosnia.
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Marina
non-member comment
hi
Hey Victor, It sounds like you are having an awesome time. I've read quite a few of your entries and really your journey sounds amazing. I can't believe that you've seen all these amazing places and experienced all these new things! Anyways, I was remembering some of the good times TA'ing last year... Seems like so long ago... Take care! Marina