Breaking: Sarajevo

This week the TV show "Breaking Borders" went to Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I was really looking forward to this episode because I have been to Bosnia (as well as Croatia and Montenegro) and always wanted to go to Sarajevo. The show did a really good job of showing the conflict as well as the  3 years+ siege of the city. It also got all the sides together. There were two Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims), a Serb, a Croat and two foreign journalists (one from Norway and the other from Germany) that were all involved in some way during the Bosnian War. They even made a side-trip to Mostar. I went to Mostar and had a great experience with the locals there. Even though they couldn't speak English and I couldn't speak Croatian/Serbian/Bosnian (other than "Hvala" - or "Thank You") they - perfect strangers - helped carry a person in a wheelchair, that was with me, over the cobbled, uneven streets of the old part of Mostar right to the old bridge. They were even willing to carry it over the very steep bridge, but we didn't need them to. I don't know if they were Bosniaks, Croats or Serbs. All I know if they saw someone who needed help (I never asked for any) and helped without wanting anything in return and before I knew it they were gone. I have rarely seen so much genuine help and kindness from strangers than I did in Mostar. Most people around the world see those who need help and look at them, but offer no help - even when you ask for it. I experienced really kind and helpful people throughout my stay in Bosnia, Croatia and Montenegro.

 

 I remember living in Germany when the Yugoslav Wars were going on (in fact my dad was a peacekeeper in Croatia and Bosnia after the Wars ended) and saw the photos of the concentration camps and especially the killing of people in Sarajevo. That was the same time I was learning about the Holocaust in school too - not an easy thing to do living in Germany and seeing people who were in their 60-70s on the streets and wondering what role they had during the war. We read "Anne Frank" and were told the phrase "Never Again" and yet in the Stars and Stripes and on AFN we saw the same thing happening and NATO, the UN, the US, and everyone else doing nothing for years to stop it - the same way the world did nothing during the Holocaust.

 

Back to the episode: the show did a  very good job in bringing the sides together. I wish they could have spent a little more time on their dinner conversation. The Bosnian Serb did what has become typical in declaring that everyone was a victim and not just the Bosniaks or Croats. They (the Serbs) also deny that there was genocide regardless of the facts, the planned massacres and international recognition that there was genocide. The Bosnian Serbs (with aid from Serbians from Serbia) committed the vast majority of ethnic cleanings and massacres during the war. That is a fact - regardless how you try to spin it. Living in denial or trying to belittle what your side did just to make yourself feel better won't  change the facts. Of course every side (Bosniak, Serb and Croat) killed, rape, etc. That was war. But not every side had a detailed plan to torture people in concentration camps or massacre whole villages and towns  the way the Serbs did. With respect to Sarajevo. I have read numerous accounts of the Serbs, who had the city completely surrounded for over 3 years, shooting and killing innocent men, women and children  whether they were Bosniak, Croat, Serb or part of the UN. They simply wanted to kill people. They (the Serbs) did the same thing in Dubrovnik, Croatia - which I stayed in - despite the city being demilitarized in the 1970s and posing no military threat to anyone.

 

There is still a high degree of tension throughout Bosnia. Many places (including Mostar) have separate classes for the Croat, Serbian and Bosniak children. They attend the same school, but at different times and learn different views of the war and their history. I can't imagine living in a country where inter-ethnic marriages were the norm for decades and then suddenly each side wants to kill you because of your last name or whether you use the Cyrillic or Latin alphabet for the same language. And today you are supposed to live as though the war never happened. That you didn't have people you know killed by people who were once friends. Things won't get better in Bosnia until each side recognizes what they did. Sweeping it under the rug will only keep the tension right at the surface and that could lead to violence once again.