Bosnia-Hercegovina
part of the On the Road travelogue
This former Yugoslavia republic was completely shattered by the recent
war. Violence is held at bay only by the continued presence of international
troops. But even without gunshots, for many people the war is
not yet over. About half the people in the country have been displaced
from their homes and their former lives, living crammed in transit camps,
or squatting in abandoned buildings. That's maybe two million people.
Unemployment is an affliction at about 70%. While relief organizations
can feed and clothe war victims, without jobs, there is little hope for
the future - no rebuilding, no improving conditions, no moving back home.
And without work, idleness in close quarters without private space breeds
irritability and despair.
The countryside is beautiful, filled with
mountains, rivers, and rolling hills. But even this is not the same:
besides the sight of thousands of empty shells of ruined houses, there
are hundreds of mines which litter the
landscape, uncharted, slowly adding to the number of casualties.
And bitterness and hatred among people continues to burn. I think
the brutality of this war was equal to any that has come before.
People need to be able to move forward, to get on with their lives, if
the scars are going to heal. But that is going to require a lot of
rebuilding, a lot of jobs, a lot of mediation, a lot of pain, a lot of
work.
On Location
I met up with my friend Paul and the rest of
the film crew in Sarajevo. The team was
returning to Bosnia to continue work on a documentary film on post-war
reconciliation. We spent about a week vanning around to various locations,
interviewing people around the country. The first day we took the
mountain road to Gorazde. This is the strip of land created by the
Dayton agreement to connect the isolated island of land with the rest of
the Federation territory. Because of the strategic importance of
this road, it was heavily patrolled by the UN troops
(SFOR). It's a pretty road, winding among the mountains. We
stopped to film the scenery at many spots,
and finally arrived in town. We stayed in the old-age home! and once
settled went out for a well deserved beer.
The next day we filmed up in the hills, new
construction set off against the many ruined buildings.
Down by the river we saw the bridge across the river, and the planks
set underneath that were placed during the war. This was so people
didn't have to walk exposed on top of the bridge, but could go underneath.
The next day we went to Zenica and filmed a house
being rebuilt. You could see where a shell put a hole in the
front of the building. It was great to see progress being made in
reconstruction, but so many more houses are still in
pieces. We also visited a gem of a man
who had been resettled into a reconstructed home. He had completely
rebuilt his life - cow, rabbits, fish and all. It was great to see
such a positive attitude towards moving ahead. We also did a number
of interviews with people who were living in a refugee camp. This
was a series of small cookie-cutter dwellings, consisting of one common
room and one bathroom, and each housing two families in separate 9' x 12'
bedrooms. Many compared camp life to being in prison: you have food
and shelter, but no privacy, and no one has jobs to pay for the bus into
town. After a long day we wrapped up with a little
pizza party.
Thanks to our local contacts, we visited a
trasit camp, where people had been moved out of the cram of 1500 displacees,
all living inside a Coca-Cola plant outside of Sarajevo. Now there
were over 100 men, women, and kids living in two large
bunk rooms with one common room.
We went to the town of Maglaj where there is a destroyed
railroad bridge, forcing residents to drive over 12 km up to Doboj
and back to reach the next town, 2 km away. (Which, by the way, means
driving from the Federation to the RS side and back.) Here we met
another contact, a US colonel, who took us to another camp for an interview.
(We even got to ride in his HUMV!) The woman
had lost her father, brother, and husband in the war. She had a job
with SFOR, which was about the only good thing she was positive about.
We also got permission to visit a mosque,
for some footage of the Friday service.
Sarajevo
Back in Sarajevo, I had a day to walk around and see a
little bit of the city. It's in a beautiful setting, nestled
in a valley between two ridges. Unfortunately this made it an easy
target from shelling from above. There is a great town center, with
a broad street lined with shops, and even an old
section of town. Though there is more or less a normality in
the city, there are plenty of reminders of the
war. As I was heading back to Prague, I noticed the anti-tank
barriers in the parking lot of the airport.
Recommended Reading:
If you're headed out this way, you might want to check out the following:
-
Yugoslavia : Death of a Nation
This is the book that was given to me as an introduction to the area. Find out what happened to this once hopeful nation.
-
There are no guidebooks out there worth a damn. If you are going to go, find a guide with local knowledge, and watch out for the land mines!
This page hosted by 
Get your own Free Home Page
