Mostar -- The Muslim-Croat Federation of Bosnia and Hercegovina.
(a.k.a. pretty much no Serbs)

When I had been in RS (Republika Srpska), I innocently asked the man working the desk at the Tourism Office (I think I was seriously the only tourist Trebinje had had that entire year, judging by the stares I received when I walked down the street in my pack) what the demagraphic breakdown was of Serbs to Croats and Muslims in the city.

"What is it, like 90 percent Serb?" I asked.

He glared at me; could've frozen lava with his eyes.

"Probably more," he said.

"Was it like that before the war?"

He didn't appreciate my curiosity.

"What are you, a journalist?"

Okay then...

So I was pretty glad to get the hell out of there and into Mostar. But what I wasn't prepared for was the amount of destruction left over from a war that ended over ten years ago. In Mostar, it really looks as if it ended ten days ago in some places.

Like this, the former front line. It seemed like every other building was a bombed-out crater. American, Dutch, EU, all sorts of governments and groups had signs up proclaiming ownership of reconstruction for this building, that building. Trees grew out of the shells, showing that despite what men may think, we are pretty insignificant in the eyes of nature. It was an eerily beautiful sight, to see the continuation of this life in the ruins of such death, I must admit.


But, as you can see above, progress has been made. But in Europe's second-poorest nation, and one that is racked by infighting among the various ethnic groups inside its borders, progress moves at a snail's pace.


The fact that some of the signs are in English is a good sign: It means that tourists are once again flocking back to Mostar, which for years held the distinction of possessing one of the most beautiful bridges in the world. But the Old Bridge was destroyed by Croat forces in the war, and was only rebuilt less than two years ago. The reason I complained about the fact that, in Croatia, prices were much higher than I had anticipated is because of all the tourist revenue Hrvatska receives. Bosnia is cheap. Hopefully for them, a rebuilt bridge and improved political landscape could change that fact someday through the foreign dollars brought to its towns and villages.


The hill in the distance is where the Serb forces were pushed back behind in the early days of fighting in Mostar. The Muslims were caught in the middle between them and Croat forces, who lived on the western side of the Neretva River. Serb paramilitaries would launch mortars, indiscriminately, at Muslim positions, while Croats would do the same.