All these years later, the Bosnian War is still being sorted out. After a very drawn out eight-year trial, Radovan Karadzic has been found guilty earlier today by The Hague for genocide and war crimes including the Srebrenica massacre. I'm glad on the one hand that some justice has been served, but sad that it took so long to find and try him.
Full story:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35893804
A terrible chapter, indeed. Here's a story from The Guardian just a couple of days ago about how he is still honored as a great guy by loyalists, this at a student dormitory, no less:
Plaque unveiled in Bosnian Serb stronghold as UN tribunal prepares to release its verdict on the former Serbian leader’s role in the 1990s conflict
If you (anyone) can loop this topic into how this might affect or influence your travel experience, your travel forum's webmaster would thank you. :)
While this does not affect travel to Bosnia in any day-to-day sense, it does add to our understanding of the Bosnian War, and likewise our understanding of what we see when we visit Bosnia. My wife and I were in Bosnia, Croatia, and Montenegro last year, and seeing a country with such a conflict so fresh is very different than seeing an old US battlefield where the scars of the Civil War or the defense of the Alamo have been erased by time. One thing I appreciated so much of our time in the Balkans was seeing the resiliency of the people -- that they were working to make things like they were before the war: not making Yugoslavia whole, but rather just continuing on in their lives without the hate or fear of their neighbors. The people have built bridges (literally in the case of Mostar), but there is still a lot of work left to do. One of my most memorable Europe travel experiences was crossing that bridge at Mostar, making my way through the Old Town, and then to the city park that became a cemetery in 1993.
Visiting Bosnia is a worthwhile experience. In one picture you can see the two extremes of humanity -- people from different backgrounds working side by side when there is a shelled out building just behind them. The history of the Bosnian War is still being written. And even today another chapter of Radovan Karadzic was closed. You can travel to Bosnia today without understanding the war and it's aftermath, but if you do, you will miss the real beauty of the place that goes beyond the Old Towns and the turquoise rivers.
Well said Mike.
