As i said, i will be talking by themes about my trip to Bosnia (and more…).
So here we go…
I will start by giving you a bit of background about Sarajevo, Bosnia, and other terms and words…
Geography
Sarajevo is the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina. It is extended along a big river (Miljacka) from east to west. It is located in a valley, so surrounded by (very nice) mountains. Part of Sarajevo lies in the mountains, and roads can get very steep sometimes.
You can find in Sarajevo more than 400000 people.
I am about to say something that might look stupid to you… but Sarajevo looks a bit like the idea i have of Grenoble, in France (but i have never been there): a charming city, not too big, not too small, where you can see mountains from almost everywhere, with a very nice old town, lots of tramway lines as the principal mean of transportation… a city with character and something authentic.
Late history
In its late history, Bosnia and Sarajevo have known many influences. There was Ottoman influences for more than 400 years, then Austrian/Hungarian influences from 19th century til 1917 (you can still witness very nice buildings from that period), and then communism came after the WW II (you can also witness this influence, this time in all the ugly residential buildings in the suburbs), personnalized by Tito. In the 90s were the Yugoslavian Wars (yes, yes, Yugoslavian Wars : my brother just told me that wars were at a different time in Croatia, Serbia, … so it’s better to talk about them plural), and during the Bosnian War there was a big German influence (German army?) , and one of the consequence is that the currency they choosed after that war was directly related to the German Mark (i.e., with a fixed exchange rate). So, for example, now for 1 euro you can get very exactly 1,95 KM.
Mix of influences.
In France we tend to mix the terms Bosniak and Bosnian, and yet there is an important difference in that terminology.
In Bosnia-Herzegovina you can find three kinds of people: Bosniaks (mostly Muslim religion, 50% of inhabitants of Bosnia, they are speaking Bosnian), Serbs (Orthodox religion, 35% of people living in Bosnia – Serbian is the language spoken in Serbia and Montenegro) and Croats (Catholic religion, 15% of people – Croatian is the language used in Croatia). In Sarajevo, there are a lot of Bosniaques, around 80% of people. Talking about Bosnian actually refers to the language they speak in Bosnia Herzegovina and to all the people living there, without distinction of religion or cultures.
This mix of influences is one of the charm of Bosnia and Sarajevo. You can hear several times a day the muezzin singing – he is the man in the mosque that calls for prayer. And then, 5 minutes after, that would be the catholic church’s bell calling for prayer as well. And i have visited (for the first time in my life) a mosque from the inside (in Sarajevo) and a Orthodox church (in Montenegro)
You can find mosque all around the city, as well as Muslim cemeteries : from his flat located at the 10th floor, my brother can count 25 mosques, and see at least 5 or 6 cemeteries. You also find muslim graves in green parks… You have to remember that many Bosniaques were killed during the War in Bosnia : when you have a look at those cemeteries, most graves concern people deceased from 1992 to 1995, and people dead until 1997 consequently to the war.
About the Bosnian War
When i heard about my brother going to Sarajevo, the first images that came to me were of wars and destroyed buildings. For us foreigners, it is hard to think about Sarajevo without relating it to the war.
Most western countries haven’t been on a war for more than 60 years (at least on their own territory), so obviously it is really interesting to go to a country that was under siege and destruction just 15 years ago.
I have to say, it is sometimes impressive. And it makes you think a lot. About the luck we have in France, Belgium or Spain. About how people went on with their lives here, in spite of all the horrors they have seen and lived. Also makes me feel a bit uncomfortable to be there, witnessing as a tourist the destroyed buildings and the bullets.
I remember growing up with the images of Sarajevo destroyed…According to recent and official studies, at least 100.000 people found death in this conflict between 1992-1995.
Now, you can still find remainings of old destroyed buildings, bullets are everywhere on the walls… but people you meet in the street were actually there during the war. It is a weird feeling to be in those streets where history happened…
Its obviously hard to sum up the causes of the war and the war itself. You would need hundreds of years of history, to understand the tension of this part of the world, and some social information as well. Bosnia-Herzegovina was a really mixed country, as i said earlier. History is full of conflicts in the Balkans, and it would be too easy to conclude that one community was better than the other one.
After the fall of communism, things started to get bad in Yugoslavia. In the federation of Bosnia, power was dispatched between the three leading communities, but soon enough, even though Serbia and Croatia federation were trying to split Bosnia federation, Bosnia-Hercegovina declared itself as an independent country, leading to a war held by Serbs (who would later be joined by the Croats).
Everybody started fighting with each other, but this time, in this 1992-1995 conflict, Serbs attacked the most. Soon Serbs were circling Sarajevo, making a siege that would be the longest siege of a european city in the modern world : for more than 3 years, Sarajevo was surrounded by Serb force. History always tend to repeat… Serbs built some camp of concentration, raped Bosniak women, prevented the citizens to get any food or drink.
All this under the eyes of the United Nations, that just provided the country with some Peacekeeping Forces (Casques bleus), that dind’t have any right to use their weapons… and were just supposed to « keep the peace », in other words, not do anything, not try to make peace…
Anyway Bosniak organized and resisted, even without the help of UN forces. They built a tunnel under one of the hills, that they used for food and drink transit, a tunnel that Serbs never discovered. They built up a military force and won some important battles… Serbs replicated with some big massacres: Markale massacres, and Srebrenica massacre. Eventually, the International community did something and pressured Milosevic (the Serbian dictator) to stop the war.
The story in the Balkans is very interesting… I didn’t even mention Mostar here, who was another symbol during the war, symbol of the confrontation between Croats and Bosniaks… Croats and Bosniaks started the war as allied against Serbs, but then decided to join the latter ones. That went so far that Croats even destroyed the symbolic Stari Most bridge, to prevent Bosniaks to go to the other side of the city…
For more information, you should definitely go visit wikipedia, its full of information! The english Wikipedia page about the war is really big, and i was just trying to give you some introduction about the war…
Stay tuned for other articles about this trip…
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