The Wild East

"The driver hadn't tried to kill us, but was just avoiding a missing piece of road."

Wednesday 31-7-01 onwards.

The Bosnian border hadn't proved to be overly difficult. We did not get stamps in our passports. I was a little disappointed, and I think this may have been a fiddle by the border guards (I'll explain later).

We were in Republica Srpska- the Serb Republic- an unofficial country inside Bosnia-Hercegovina. Srpska is where the Serbs live- i.e. the Bosnian Serbs.
Like the rest of former Yugoslavia it is now ethnically cleansed.
All the muslims have been forced out, and Serbs living elsewhere (Croatia, Sarajevo) have fled into Srpska. There were Russian and Serbian flags everywhere.

Since the Bosnian Serbs have been blamed by the international community for the Bosnian war, they are pariahs, and have been labelled fascists. The USA, and UN have denied Srpska access to Aid, or loans, making it one of the poorest places in Europe, and as a result an extremely anti-West place.
The countryside was very beautiful, with lots of trees, hills, and gorges.
Mark got talking to Amir, a man the same age as us, with blond hair and shorts, also travelling to Sarajevo. We discussed politics and the Yugoslav war. Things are still economically very bad in Bosnia, unemployment of nearly 50%, and an average salary of under $2000.

Amir never wanted Bosnia to join the EU- an organisation only for rich, big countries he thought. He thinks things will improve in Bosnia, but only very slowly, perhaps in the region of 50 years.
There are currently 3 main regions in Bosnia-Hercegovina: Bosnia proper the central bit, 95% muslim, Hercegovina in the south 95% Catholic Croats, and Srpska Orthodox Christian Serbs. Before 1991 everywhere was inter-ethnically mixed.

As we trundled past some of the houses were neatly destroyed, with the next-door houses unaffected. All houses had some symbol spray-painted on the front of them- presumably marking what nationality/religion the occupiers were. About 70% of the houses had a huge Russian/Serbian flag flying in the front garden.
They looked to be the richest houses.
The train was moving extremely slowly. Amir said this was because there were no barriers at level crossings, so the train has to keep whistling every 30 seconds, and travel at 30mph.

We eventually got into Bosnia proper (the federation)at about 2pm, and the Cyrillics changed into latin script. The villages remained very poor, mainly with dirt tracks, and the destruction became mote widespread- created by artillery.
We past near Tuzla, and got to Zenica at 5.30pm- all famous places a few years ago. The track had been very winding, and slow for the past 3 hours. Bosnia is a mountainous place. There were dozens of cars rusting and abandoned by the roadside, stripped of all their valuables.
Me and Mark assumed that the passengers had attempted to escape from the violence but had been picked-off by tanks and Snipers at roadblocks.

At 7pm we eventually got to Sarajevo, the journey had taken 10 hours. I was feeling quite nervous of what to expect- homeless, refugees on the station platform, gangs of thugs, people selling Kalashnikovs?
The station was totally bare, there were no shops, no cafes, no left-luggage, and it was deserted apart from the people getting off the train. All that remained were a set of abandoned, burnt-out carriages. We turned left, when everyone else headed right, and were on our own. The passing cars were making a real racket, like a motorbike revving up. Maybe they have to put diesel into a petrol tank or vice versa.
I don't think even 10% would pass the British MOT!

The roads and pavements were a real mess, badly broken up, and sometimes just a dirt by the side of the road. Sometimes there was just a big hole where the road had collapsed, and the cars swerved round it- nearly hitting us.
No tourists, no services, few adverts. "You don't have to worry about a crush of tourists just yet"!!-lonely planet.
I suddenly felt a twitch of fear in my stomach. Had it been a good idea to come here I thought looking at a shelled block of flats? Everywhere seemed deserted, there were no other pedestrians.

We crossed an abandoned railway over waste ground. It was in my mind that there are an estimated 1million land mines around Sarajevo, location unknown, especially in the suburbs, but we were following some people in front, so I presumed it was safe. Looking back it probably wasn't the safest option.
We actually saw a black man (!) as well wandering round. He was probably trying to escape back to Somalia(!) Or maybe he was an off-duty peace keeper from Africa.
Our intended port of call was the pansion train hotel, the only one we could afford. It was difficult to find, some boys playing football on an abandoned tennis court had to show us, and when we got there it had closed down.

Oh Sh*t- where now??!!
The only option was to walk 2-3km to the east. It would be dark in a little over an hour….
We scrambled up an embankment (land-mine risk again!) and poor MT was only in sandals, and back onto the main road, intending to head east.
The next problem was the tunnel: A twin unlit concrete monstrosity heading through the hillside, with a blue haze of pollution build up outside.
One tunnel had been abandoned, so all the traffic was shunted through the right hand one. We went in on a pavement that was less than 1m wide.
The lack of lights meant we had to feel our way along the wall. Every so often there would be a hole made by tank shells……..

There was a sudden roar behind, and a car (one headlight working) was heading straight at us on the wrong side of the road.
At the last minute it swerved away and rumbled past. The driver hadn't tried to kill us, but was just avoiding a missing piece of road.
Then I could see some people in front heading towards us, silhouetted by car headlights.
Who were they?
Muggers?
Homeless refugees?
Escaped criminals?

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