Bosnia Past and Present
Monday August 21, 2006
The once-definitive Yugoslavia travel book, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West has seen its relevance come and go - but the significance of its popularity remains. Yugoslavia, which once bundled Bosnia, Croatia, Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, and Macedonia under one "Land of the South Slavs," has been a region of unrest for centuries. Black Lamb and Grey Falcon captures the essence of political disputes that were raging in the Balkans during the 1930's.
Today, the region still reverberates with the horrors of the Bosnian war. A Bosnian mass grave has been found, the bodies exhumed, and evidence gathered. Transported from Serbia across the border to Bosnia, over 1,000 bodies were buried in a once-secret location.
Despite an ultra-grisly past, Bosnia, along with Herzegovina, is gradually becoming more tourist-friendly. While unpopulated areas may still contain the danger of land mines, cities and well-traveled roads are quite safe. For an introduction to travel to Bosnia, see Bosnia and Herzegovina Travel Basics.
Sarajevo-Sehercehaja Bridge Photo Credit: Asim Abdurahmanovic © 2004
Comments
There is always life after something horible as a civil war. In fact these ugly events in the history may yet serve their purpose in the present and future. The people of Serbia and Montenegro should learn from the mistakes of the past and not dwell on them anymore.