Out and about in Mostar

Last night and this morning on our walk around town I had been impressed to see Muslim and non Muslim women intermingling as they walked and waited in line for the bus. Racial harmony. Staying in our pansion is a Bosnian woman who left during the war and now resides in American. She has returned for a holiday with her American husband and 2 children. She talked a little about the war and the devastating results which you can see today. Directly across the river from us on the hill side is a huge cross. She talked of the Croat Catholics on that hill side firing down on the Muslims and Serbs who lived on this side of the river. Ethnic cleansing. The house she lived in and destroyed was down the street very close to one of the many cementaries that you see in the middle of the town, all with graves of people who died between 1993-5. She told us they are mostly Muslim people buried there as the access to the bigger cementaries further up the hill made the population an easy target for the Croat soldiers.

When asked although Bosnian by birth she regards herself as American. Both she and our land lady say they won't forget, but they just want to move on and live their lives. Our land lady was 18 she said and she talked about taking refuge in the cellars of their houses. Both women stated "politics". I've heard that one word mentioned over and over again. Isn't that the way with war. A few men? with political aspirations make the decisions with millions of citizens caught in the crossfire and who suffered the ravages of such wars. So sad and sad too that the rebuilding process takes so long. The people we have talked to and mixed with on both sides of the river, are kind, cheerful and helpful whatever their ethnicity or their religion. Always it's the people who count.