Never Forget

I think I have found a country with a worst track record than Bulgaria in History. We are visiting Sarajevo, and I am learning from the young tour guides about the turbulent history of the country of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Early on they were ruled by the Ottomans, not know for their tolerance. The Austrian-Hungarians liberated them, only to end up causing the start of WW1 through an unfortunate set of coincidences. For some unknown reason, Archduke Ferdinand decided to return to the site of an attempted attack on his life, pause his open car on a bridge, and give the killer a perfect shot from the road side cafe. That brought the Nazi's and Croatians who set up concentration camps that killed 90% of the Jewish population.

The one portion of their history that Bosnians look back on with nostalgia, is when President Tito united the region of Yugoslavia under communism. The area prospered, was well organized, and did not differentiate according to religion. In 1984, Sarajevo proudly hosted the Winter Olympics. Tito's death caused chaos, with the Serbs taking control of the army, and attacking Bosnian Muslims. At this time Sarajevo was over 80% Muslim, and in 1993, they found themselves under siege by the Serbs who took control of the surrounding mountains. For years the city residents lived in basements hiding from mortar attack and sniper fire, without food, water or fuel. The Bosnian Army only were able to hold off the Serbs by the use of a tunnel under the airport runway. This is how they got weapons, rations and fuel into the city. They also set up mine fields around the airfield, which are still active today.

There doesn't seem to be money or interest in cleaning up the mess now that the war is over. The city's buildings are still pock-marked by mortar damage, and the gravestones in the Jewish cemetery are riddled with bullet holes by the sniper fire.  Snipers found it quite easy to intimidate the population of Sarajevo by setting up above the city on the mountains once so proudly used for ski and bobsled competitions.  The tour guide suggested that the communists had built these  Olympic structures so well, there was no way of destroying them when they were used against them later.

The link below is how I think the Bosnians feel when they try to move ahead into their future.

Playing Soccer with Shock Collars.