Historic Sarajevo

Sarajevo, is set in a narrow river valley and has a long history dating back hundreds of years.  It is at the corner of the Muslim, Orthodox and Catholic worlds.  The old town, the furthest east, is the Muslim quarter.  Here the buildings are tighter together and have fewer stories.

Remnants of a 1500's building, which was a "hotel"

Sarajevo's largest mosque.

Turns out I'm a fan of Bosnian (Turkish coffee)

Even the sludge at the bottom!

The mixing of religions and cultures.

Sarajevo's Catholic Church

And its Orthodox church

Moving west, the architecture changes and we're in 18th century Europe as in the 1870's the Austro-Hungarian Empire took control of Bosnia and brought in its style, architecture and government.

I love how this man is playing while carrying his grocery bag!

From this may, you can see Bosnia's position in empire of Austria-Hungary.  With Serbia next door.

On June 28th, 1914, a Bosnian Serb (supported by Serbia itself) who wanted separation from Austria-Hungary and thereby unite all Serbs and thereby Slavs (sound familiar?) killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and that led to a series events that led to World War I.

And here's the actual corner!!!

And we arrived on the night of the 99th anniversary.  So we had to walk over there and stand on the historical site!

Srebrenica, Bosnia-Herzegovina

The Flag of Bosnia-Herzegovina, which was assigned by the Council of Europe.

Driving west from Belgrade, you cross the Drina River and enter into eastern Bosnia.  Yes, most of us think of it solely in terms of the war during the 1990's.  But, Bosnia, up there with Montenegro, was my favorite stop in our tour of countries that were born of the ex-Yugoslavia.  The beauty of the countryside is as good as anywhere in Italy and other parts of western Europe.

Before I get to the more serious parts of this post, Brian and I stopped when we saw this beekeeper and his son.  This is why I have Brian along....to see things like this and actually stop and engage!!

Can you spot the queen bee?

Standing in Bosnia, looking into Serbia.  Could be Switzerland, eh?

Brian and I could have taken a more direct route between Belgrade and our destination, Sarajevo, but I wanted to visit Srebrenica, which is this town I heard about so much but knew little about.  This is what I learned.....

Background...as always.  Bosnia (I will always mean Bosnia-Herzegovina) declared its independence from Yugoslavia, but it was a country that had a pretty even split between Bosniaks (Muslim), Serbs (Orthodox) and Croats (Catholic).  When the country declared independence, the Bosnian Serbs (the first is always the political and the second is the religious affiliation) decided to become their own country within Bosnia.  The Bosnia Serbs, lead by Radovan Karadzic and his military leader, Radko Mladic, were well armed and terrorized the Bosniaks, most famously in the Siege of Sarajevo (future post).  But one of the MOST horrific things the Bosnia Serbs did was follow through on their pledge of ethnic cleansing of the areas they deemed to be Serbian territory.  This is where we come to the town of Srebrenica, which was an enclave of Muslims in eastern Bosnia, which is predominantly Serbian.  The Serbians wanted complete geographic continuity.  So in towns throughout eastern Bosnia, they rounded up non-Serbs and forced them out.  The most horrific case was in the Srebrenica, which is the bottom half of the middle tail that sticks out of Bosnia in the east.  By 1993, as towns throughout the area were "cleansed" the Muslims gathered in Srebrenica.  The United Nations declared the town a "safe zone" and sent peacekeeping forces.  But the Serbs did not demilitarize and they made it more and more difficult for aid to get through.  Then, in early June 1995, the Serbs take over Srebrenica. On July 11th, 1995, Muslim refugees were in a compound in the town of Potocari, about 5 km north of town.  And on June 12th, boys and men were separated and the massacre of some 8,000 Bosniak men and boys had begun.  Some men decided to take their lives into their own hands and left to compound and hiked out, trying to make it to another safe area.  Some of these men were in the hills for months and finally exited after the Dayton Peace Accords were signed in November 1995.

A minaret in the town of Srebrenica.

A house that still has holes from the gunshots from during the siege on Srebrenica.

The hills around Srebrenica

On the site of the Potocari refugee camp, now stands the site of the memorial to the victims of the Srebrenica Massacre.

Most of the victims were buried in mass graves. As the bodies are exhumed, and identified, they are buried here and given a headstone.

This headstone was different from all others.  A google search revealed that this man, a Bosnian Croat (therefore Catholic) was a resident of Srebrenica and stayed in town through the entire siege with his friends and neighbors.  He was also massacred.  His family wanted him buried here at the memorial.

The names of each known victim is inscribed in a memorial.  Two entire columns here with males with the same surname.  The small name between the surname and given name is the name of the father.

On the grounds of the memorial is a place for visitors to answer the call to prayer.

We ran into this group who were pointing out names and then went to some tombstones.  When they came back I asked what their connection to this memorial was.

This man was a former resident, probably not much older than me, of the Srebrenica area and lived here in the 1990's.  He's a Bosniak.  He escaped the massacre and was sponsored by his brother who was living in the United States and emigrated to Connecticut as a refugee.  He brought his son back to see his former home and to visit the graves of his three uncles who were victims of the massacre.  He spoke of his incredible anger and frustration at the lack of help the people of Srebrenica were given and how the world basically gave up on them.  He just threw up his hands a lot. This was an incredible moment, to talk with this man and the other members of his family.

Three of the Buric's were my friend's uncles.

If you want to know more about the genocide and watch some videos that are just so sad, click on Srebrenica Genocide Blog.

Belgrade, Serbia

Next stop......Belgrade, Serbia

Serbia is an Orthodox Christian country, but as we drove through southern Serbia, mosques were prevalent.  It's a sign of how mixed up, ethnically and religiously this part of the world is.

Belgrade, the capital of modern day Serbia and the former Yugoslavia.  I have met a friend who is Serbian who grew up here and longs for the days when Belgrade was a prosperous and cosmopolitan city.  When we visited it still had lots of people around and was modern, but I think he means that there was this air of invincibility that he misses.

There still is evidence of the bombing of 1999, when NATO bombed Belgrade in reaction to its actions in Kosovo.  My friend said that during the wars, his life was put on hold.  College was put on hold and he spent years just hiding and avoiding having to go to war.

Vienna, Budapest....Belgrade.  All European cities that lie on the banks of the Danube River.

High on a bluff above the river stands Kalemegdan, a fortress.  I've seen enough of those in my life, but the park surrounding it was beautiful and full of old men sitting around!

Tito's Home in Belgrade

As we approached, this old man was selling the book he authored.  I hoped it was a Tito biography.  It ended up being a survey of Tito's philosophy.  Too dense.

The Nikola Tesla Museum!

I seriously need/want to take a course on electricity.  This is the famous egg demonstration.  By sending current through the coil on the bottom, it creates a magnetic field that makes the egg spin on end.

All of a sudden people are holding light sabres (just florescent light bulbs).  This from the magnetism from the electric current.

Yes, there are still Yugo's around!!

Brian and I also stopped by this underground bar.  Started as a place to gather during the bombings of 1999.