BALKANS: Take the Tour to the Past

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic Reprint | | Print |

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina, May 15 2006 (IPS) - Eleven years after the war ended, Bosnian capital Sarajevo still stirs the hearts of many with memories of hardship not easily forgotten.

A ‘war tour’ attracts thousands every year to 19 sites that speak of the cruelty of war during the three-and-a-half year siege by Bosnian Serbs.

Zijad Jusufovic (40) created the war tours several years ago. “Visitors wanted to know what happened here, why it happened, and is there a future,” Jusufovic, now a licensed tour guide told IPS.

Sarajevo lost 11,000 people during the siege, more than during the German occupation in World War II. Serbs shelled the town daily, while snipers targeted civilians from surrounding hills.

Muslim forces loyal to the Sarajevo government defended the city of 400,000. The war was fought under the nose of the United Nations protection forces.

Peace came in 1995 after wartime leaders signed the internationally sponsored Dayton peace accords. All three, Franjo Tudjman of Croatia, Alija Izetbegovic of Bosnia and Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia are dead now. Bosnia-Herzegovina became a federation of two entities – the Republic of Srpska (Bosnian Serb Republic) and the Muslim-Croat Federation.

The five-hour war tour dubbed ‘Mission Impossible’ includes Kosevo stadium, once lavishly reconstructed for the Winter Olympic Games in 1984. Its auxiliary soccer field was turned into a graveyard during the war.. It is now covered with white mezars (Muslim tombstones).

Overlooking Sarajevo the tour takes you to Trebevic hill that was used for Serb sniper and shelling positions. The surroundings are still mined, and 466 people have died from mines since the war ended. De-mining is a slow and costly process.

Jusufovic’s war tour takes visitors to the ‘first victims bridge’ over the Miljacka river where two young women protesting against the war were killed by Serb snipers the day the war began, Apr. 6, 1992.. Close to it is the ‘Romeo and Juliet bridge’ that became the escape route for mixed couples who tried to flee Sarajevo. It led from Muslim to Serb areas.

In pre-war times, 17 percent of Sarajevans were in mixed marriages. Two mixed marriages were recorded in 2005, according to official figures.

Sarajevo now is almost a completely Muslim town, with only 35,000 Christians living there, and some 700 Jews. The population has shrunk to 320,000. Many who fled during the war never returned, regardless of ethnicity.

The pre-war population of Sarajevo was half Muslim and half Christian, including Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats. There were also more than 1,500 Jews.

“This is sad, but little can be done,” says Jusufovic. “Bosnia is a place where people lack jobs and a good education.”

Bosnia faces 40 percent unemployment. The schooling system is different for Muslim, Serb and Croat children in the areas under their respective control. History and geography are taught differently in each area.

Among the ‘tourist’ spots is the Markale market place in downtown Sarajevo where 67 people were killed in February 1994 in a mortar attack. It remains a bustling market, filled with vendors and shoppers.

The red back wall now bears the names of the victims, and has been covered with glass. A white stone in front says Sarajevans will never forget.

“But times go by and wounds are healing,” says 65-year old vegetable vendor Munir Sabic. He is one of the survivors of the 1994 attack. “Our heads should be turned to the future, not the past. That is what I’m trying to do, although I come here every day for the past 30 good or bad years.”

Jusufovic and Sabic say the international community did help with the reconstruction.

“They did help us rebuild roofs over our heads, but little was done for the recovery of our minds and souls,” Jusufovic says. “The consequences are still felt, but despite everything one has to believe that good times are coming.”

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) research on the consequences of war says 54 percent of people in the 3.6 million Bosnia-Herzegovina still feel the effects of war events on their everyday lives. More than 100,000 people died in the war.

But there is real tourism too, that is not a a visit down the lanes of war memories.

Cross the street from Markale marketplace into the old Bascarsija, the Ottoman-era centre of Sarajevo, and it is swarming with tourists. You see Japanese bidding for silver plates and ornamented coffee pots. Or Americans rushing towards the famous Persian carpet store Isfahan. Time stands still in Bascarsija, as it used to.

One café draws large numbers of visitors. It is called Tito, after the former leader of Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito. Tito died in 1980 after ruling the country since 1945. Yugoslavia fell apart in the bloody wars of the 1990s.

Memorabilia of Tito’s era covers the walls of the café, while World War II era phones and typewriters stand on tables. The central wall depicts a famous battle in which Tito’s partisans beat the Germans.

“We had to make a place like this for so many people who believe Tito’s times were definitely better,” owner of the café Robert Vajda told IPS. “But now it’s the young who make up most of the crowd, and tourists who are interested in Tito’s times, when we all lived happily together.”