The "Other Side"

I have completed the last stretch of my Bosnia journey. Right now I am in Berlin visiting with friends and family before I return home to the US on the 15^th. I was on a train for over 26 hours from Sarajevo to Zagreb; Zagreb to Munich; and finally Munich to Berlin. I couldn't help but feel I was being transported through time during the trip. I was cutting right through the heart of Europe and where many critical and historical events took form over hundreds of years. Most haunting and surreal was my trip from Sarajevo to Zagreb. The train traveled north from Sarajevo in the Bosnian Federation part of Bosnia for about two or three hours before arriving on the “other side” in the Serbian part of Bosnia in the town of Doboj. Signs in the station were suddenly printed in both latin letters as well as cyrillic; a new train crew with different uniforms arrived on board (like the postal service as well as telephone networking, they seem to be administered by different bodies in the Republic of Srpska from the Bosnian Federation in the south), and suddenly more police with big batons and pistols made a presence on the train. To be honest, I wasn´t quite sure whether passengers would have to present their documents and passports to the police!

The next big stop, about a six hour journey from Sarajevo, was Banja Luka which is the capitol of the Republic of Srpska. I was actally planning to make a visit to BL for a day to get a perspective of how life is in the Serbian part of Bosnia, but then I was having such a spectacular time in Sarajevo and decided to spend an extra day there. I kept asking people in Sarajevo if they knew anything about it or whether it was worth visiting. Most said it wasn´t anything special and wasn´t worth my time. The Lonely Planet Guide for the Western Balkans, which is essentially the bible for the traveller through former Yugoslavia, mentioned that an earthquake in 1969 destroyed 80% of the town and that local Serbs in the town destroyed all 16 mosques, most of which had been standing for more than four hundred years.

So before I explain more about the journey north into the “other side”, let me try to briefly explain as how I understand it, how the current borders or territories of the two entities in BiH, Republic of Sprska and the Federation of Bosnian Herzegovina, were drawn up. In 1990, Yugoslavia which was formally made up of 6 republics (of which Bosnia was one) was starting to crumble during the big wave of changes that occurred in Europe in 1989 and 1990. Slovenia first declared independence in 1990; then Croatia in 1991. War ensued between a newly independent Croatia and Yugoslavia (controlled by the Serb-run Yugoslav army and Slobodan Milosevic, the Serbian Communist leader of Yugoslavia who pushed for the idea of a greater Serbia) as conflict embroiled over an area of Croatia where 600,000 Serbs had lived for centuries. Amongst all this chaos, Bosnia declared independence in early 1992 (after 99% in Bosnia voted in favor of independence), wanting an out of an economically instable and corruptly run Yugoslavia and was soon recognized as a new member of the UN. All over Bosnia, Muslims (many being Muslim only by identity but non-observant religiously), Serbs and Croats had intermarried and spoke the same language. The new government was to be made up of Muslims as well as Serbs, Croats and people of mixed parentage and it also refrained from creating an army. Sadly, Milosevic and Serb nationalists led many Serbs in Bosnia into believing that they would be persecuted in an independent Bosnia led by a Muslim dictatorship. Serbs in villages and towns started taking up arms against their neigbors and the Serbs nationalists also had arms from the Yugoslav army. Very quickly conflict began between the Bosnian army (which was defenseless) and the Serbs. Many cities and towns were “cleaned” of its Muslim and Croat residents and became strictly Serb territories. In the south, fighting broke out in Mostar in 1993 between Muslim and Croats who had first fought against the Serbs together. Pretty soon, everyone was fighting everyone. It wasn´t until 1994 (I believe) when NATO started getting involved. When the Dayton Peace Accord was signed in 1995, the two entities Republic of Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovnia were created. The Republic of Srpska is the territory in Bosnia captured by the Serbs during the war whereas the Federation is what was not captured by them. This is just a very brief explanation and please feel free to comment if you feel I haven´t accurately portrayed and explained the events and their results. I of course cannot do justice in this explanation to all those who lost or risked their lives in this conflict; had to flee their home; and of course the countless people, Serbs included, who risked their lives to defend their neigbors during this sad chapter in history.

From Banja Luka, the train chugged north to Omarska and Prijedor and then finally to the border with Croatia. As it travelled along, I saw beautiful rolling, green hills and farms with dome shaped hay stacks. New homes had been built and children were seen in various places riding their bicycles. Seeing the occiasional Serbian flag hanging in windows and the lack of mosques was however a sad reminder what changes had happened in the landscape only 15 years before.

Questions that remain after my travels and volunteer work in Bosnia (and Croatia) this past month are whether peace will sustain. Is having two separate political and administrative entities in Bosnia really conducive to creating a Bosnian identity whereby those who perscribe to it believe in living in a unified Bosnia regardless if they are Muslim, Serb, Croat or of mixed parentage? As someone who has only been a traveler in this country and is by no means an expert, I do not know the answers to these questions. I hope however that the behavior I saw demonstrated by Firefly kids at the camp while they cheered for each other during a football match, enthusiastically waving the Bosnian flag and chating the country´s name, is indicative of how the young generation will bring things forward in the Bosnia.

For a better understanding of the war in Bosnia and its history, I recommend “Love Thy Neigbhour: A Story of War” by Peter Maas. He was a correspondent with the Washington Post during the war and in this book, he explores the universal question of why war between neighbors happens. Using the example of Bosnia, he examines the events that far too often have occurred and will happen again in all parts of the world.

I have also attached a map of Bosnia with some markings which may be helpful to see where Brcko is as well as the where the lines are in BiH that separate Republic of Srpska and the Federation.