Today we left Sarajevo after exploring a bit more. The nailing jelly reference is that every time I think I understand the underlying problems in the area, it becomes nebulous and fuzzy again. But I will keep trying.
Background....in 1991, following the breakup of the USSR, Slovenia declared its independence.. quite honestly, no one but the Slovenians cared. They speak a language no one else does, they;re just tucked up there next to Austria, and so there was no big flap. However, when Croatia followed soon after, there was a lot more concern. Serbia, the Bosnians, almost everyone saw it as a major step in the dissolution of Yugoslavia and for various reasons, there were many who did not want that.. fear of becoming a minority in another nation's area, fear of losing power, resources, etc., etc. It's all complex and tied up with power and the powerful. When Croatia resurrected its old checkered flag, it became inextricably tied in many minds with the flags that flew in conjunction with the Nazis in WWII (The Balkans have a long memory and concentration camps make hindsight all the more keen). Best guess is that about 100,000 Serbs died in Nazi concentration camps... so they were particularly revolted and stricken by seeing that flag fly.
Then there's Bosnia in the middle.... look at a map (I'll post one on here) and you can see that Croatia needs its area to avoid being a very indefensible and odd shaped country. Odd shape isn't a matter of vanity, but rather an impediment to governance,to defense, and to development. So, there is more fear that Bosnia will also br4ak away.
Now it's more complicated by the multiple ethnicities.. and that's not all that clear because about 1/3 of all marriages were interethnic..so who the heck is a Muslim? An Orthodox Christian Serb? A Catholic Croat? None of the above, some of the above, all of the above. Argh.
In Serbia, we learned there hasn't been a census taken since 1991 so no one really knows either the population or the ethnic makeup. Who is going to trust any other group to take the census? Who's going to answer the questions?
In the early '90's, the best guess is that there were no majorities in the area... Muslims and Serbs were 35 to 40% each with Catholic Croatians being a smaller number. Maybe.
The Serbs' big interest and the motivation for their actions, was to keep the area intact with them more or less in charge. In April 92 an agreement was worked out with the help of international intervention, to create an independent, multinational Bosnia. However, the Serbs did not want to be a minority in this state, so they started shooting. They literally brought in the heavy artillery, particularly around Sarajevo and all hell broke loose. Every man of a soldier's age was co-opted by some group and the population suffered. Visible among the aggressors were types that hadn't been seen since WWII... double eagle flag, orthodox beards, insignias that resounded from WWII. At first it was Serbs against the Muslims. Sort of. Then, within about a year, the Catholic Croats jumped in and blew up bridges here and there, and started fighting as well. There was a lot of symbolic cultural destruction, such as the library I mentioned yesterday
It became a three way bloody conflict. Those who were controlling the conflict forced others who weren't combatant to become aggressors. For instance they would force them to participate in the slaughter of their erstwhile neighbors at gunpoint... thus spreading the hatred and deepening the fault lines The Serbs set up concentration camps and started to fill them. ALL groups committed atrocities of some sort. Those committing them were a small minority, while people of all groups suffered great loss and devastation.
We are in Mostar now... here the no man's land was dominated by what they call "Snipers' Alley." For a year and a half, the children of Mostar literally lived underground, hiding in horrendous conditions. No school, no life, just survival barely. Lisa says that occasionally people were able to commit random acts of normal living, but the concept of normal during those years was certainly now what you and I would consider normal. The famous bridge of Mostar was blown up (the word Mostar means "Place of the Bridge". ) The old Ottoman bridge that connected the parts of the town has now been rebuilt.
So.... let me share some of the places and stories.
I forgot one of yesterday's stories and it's a light hearted romp compared to some of what I've been writing. Near Sarajevo we followed a happy little one lane road (our new driver is named Ed and he's a delightfully good driver with an optimistic heart!) We found an old Ottoman era bridge (no longer accepting automotive traffic, but it looked as though it could). The story is that the bridge existed during Ottoman times and was the main entry way to the area. Given the ferocity of the mountains, most places only had one entry! The Great Suleiman had sent a new governor, Rustem Pasha, to govern Sarajevo and environs and the local dignitaries all gathered at the bridge to wait and greet him (there was generally a happy acceptance of the relatively humane Ottoman rule during this period, at least here The day was hot, the vizier was very late, and the partying began. Pretty soon, a local loony (exactly the word our guide used for this part) began diving off the bridge at dares, the potent potables flowed freely and many became inebriated. They had reached the jocose state of drunkenness by the time the late pasha appeared with his entourage.. and they were all raucously laughing at the goings on. Rustem Pasha was highly offended at the lack of appropriate ceremony, and being just a bit full of himself, decided they were laughing at him and his appearance. So he rode on by, paying little attention those city dignitaries who were still hoping to greet him.
And his first official act was to outlaw public laughter, making it a whippable offense. Our guide suggested that the Bosnians have been laughing at disaster ever since.
That was yesterday. We had dinner last night at a restaurant called (in translation) the Spiteful House. Long story, but the short version is that it is very old. A number of years ago it stood in the way of developing roads along the river that runs through Sarajevo, and they called for it to be demolished. But this happened in an enlightened period of respect for property rights and the owner refused to sell, no matter how sweet the pot. Finally, after much importuning, he agreed to sell if, and only if, they would have the building moved brick by brick and reassembled at another location. It was done and the food was worth it. We also had a kitty there,much to the annoyance of a party of otherwise very nice Italian tourists.
As we left Sarajevo this morning we first swung by the cemetery where Gavrilo Princip and his co conspirators in the death of Franz Ferdinand are buried. Princip himself was only 19, and thus was not given the death sentence, but he died in prison. Those of adult age were executed. We were told that depending on what regime was in power, there sometimes were statues in town extolling the virtues of Franz Ferdinand, then they'd come down and there'd be tributes to Princip and the Black Hand. Back and forth. Now there is only a mild plaque that is very neutral in nature.
We then went in search of the "Tunel Museum" (that's their spelling, not mine.) During the siege of 92-95, the only route in and out of Sarajevo crossed a no man's land including the runways of the local airport. The UN forces inexplicably held that air field and turned the lights on every night so that snipers and artillery on the highlands could fire on anyone out in the open. As food, water, medicine, oil, weapons, everything, became scarce, there was a desperate need to have people get out and bring back the needed items. Over 500 people were killed in the no man's land till a local group decided to dig a tunnel under the runway and out the other side. For more than four months they worked on it, round the clock, making a tunnel that was about 5 feet high (maybe a little more), a yard wide, and having a little rail track in it so they could bring carts of materials in.... during the time it was used, no one used it to escape.. it was controlled by the Bosnian forces but it as used to bring in survival goods. we saw a film of its employment and one of the items brought in was a live goat.. milk to provide for the children who were under siege. Today the entrance to the tunnel is a museum of sorts, in the home where the tunnel started. It is hard to find... we drove around the neighborhoods of that part of Sarajevo till finally someone gave us the right directions. The man who spearheaded the building is still running the museum with his sons. Fascinating stuff.
Then on to mountain roads. This is glorious country side but it reminds me of a drawing made by a 1st grader, with straight up- and down jagged mountains and narrow valleys in between filled with rivers of bright blue green water rushing through. There are layers upon layers of mountains off as far as the eye can see. It's easy to see the impact of physical geography here. The roads, by the way, are amusing little attempts to allow passage... there is certain amount of road construction going on so our driver decided to take "the old road" to avoid it. That's when I moved to a middle seat from the window. If I can't see it, we won't fall off. So far it is working. The hard part is passing another large bus on the side of a mountain. Ed, the driver, has a favorite line in English (which he actually speaks pretty well): "NO problem!" That an my blue bead and we're fine. I hear tomorrow's mountains down to the coast make the past ones look like foothills. My prayer life is rich.
We also made a visit to WWII. At one juncture as Nazi forces were subduing the Balkans, the partisans, led by Marshall Tito, who is still a great hero here, were trying to rescue a bunch of their wounded men and bring them back across a nasty little river deep in a canyon. The Nazis got a lucky hit and blew up the bridge that they would have to use. Tito announced that they would not dream of leaving any wounded behind, and organized a fast and frantic effort to build a variety of pontoon bridge, rescued every wounded man and brought them to safety, then dismantling their makeshift bridge before the Nazis caught up again. Today the WWII bridge still dangles from the hillside and it is quite spectacular.
One of the things we have noticed is that there is significant investment here by Turkey. At least one of the bridges that has been restored had a huge Turkish flag flying side by side with the Bosnian flag.
We ended the day's explorations about 10 miles from Mostar in a picnic area a lot like Sabino Canyon with more water for those of you familiar with Tucson. Gorgeous, fresh breezes, old Ottoman houses to look at, craggy cliffs, a bunch of caves in the mountains and a rock wall that had our rock climbers aching to go straight up it to the old Pre-Ottoman fortress on the top. (There were rules, however, there are rules about everything here.. the hotel rule card here says we cannot do laundry, dry cleaning or cooking in our room! I understand but have never seriously attempted dry cleaning in a hotel room!) We had a great leisurely lunch that began about 2 and ended close to 5 pm... some of us asked for Turkish coffee afterwards (everywhere else they have called it that to distinguish it from Nescafe instant, the OTHER coffee.) Our very nice waiter informed us that here it is BOSNIAN coffee. Whatever, it was good.
We are one night here, in a very nice small hotel. It has lovely amenities including a jacuzzi, more than one light in the room, internet, and air conditioning that works very well ( our air conditioning worked in Sarajevo, but turned off automatically every time the door was opened or the window opened.) The nicest gesture, too.... when we arrived hot and sweaty from the drive, the hotel management greeted us with wine glasses full of Tang. It never tasted so good!
I'll put pictures up in a minute!
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