Book Review: As Long as Sarajevo Exists

"...there are no windows left in my city--all of them have been shattered by explosions..."

Pg. 191

[Brief history of Bosnia in case you needed a refresher - like I did. Yugoslavia was run by a guy named Tito. He was well loved, known as the benevolent dictator. He managed to keep all of the factions in check. But he died in 1980. By the 1990's, the country was fracturing. Slovenia and Croatia declared their independence. Bosnia became its own country, too. Within Bosnia there are Bosniaks (Muslims), Croats (Christians), and Serbians (Serbian Orthodox). These groups co-ruled the country. But Serbia had plans to create a large Serbia which included portions of Bosnia. There were many Serbians living in Bosnia, Croatia, and other parts of the Balkans. Serbia, along with the Serbians in these countries fought to take control of the land to become part of Serbia. Ethnic cleansing of the Muslims in these countries due to wrongs Serbians believed their people had received in the past was part of their program. The Bosnian parlament voted to become a country. Over 60% of the voters voted for it. The Serbians were very upset about it, and laid siege of Sarajevo the day after the vote.]

This book, more than anything else, shaped how I processed this entire trip. I had read about 3/4ths of it on my way into Sarajevo. It gave a lot of history about the war, and it is written by an absolutely incredible writer who lived in Sarajevo through the entire war - and reported on the whole thing. 

I'm not sure you could find a better source for perspective. My post about the media explains a lot of how this book opened my eyes to the greater Balkan issues. Beyond that - here were some quotes I found incredibly moving:

"For here he was, this friend from my youth, praising the "Republic" which was being built on mass murder and enormous human suffering..." 

         

        The truth is, I think it was a good thing that Serbia didn't win in their attempts to make a greater Serbian state for this reason. If this is how they were to start their country, what would have come later? Keep in mind that in Yugoslavia - although Tito was greatly loved - there was still a great deal of corruption, the media was controlled. There were things that everybody knew but no one could talk about. There were good things about the communist era (so Dragon, the man who works at one of the museums we visited said. It was not a bad life for him), but there was also bad.

The question that I kept wondering about though - is what kind of propaganda do you need to be producing to get this kind of viciousness from your soldiers and country? It had to be incredibly moving to prime them for war. This answered my question:

Pg. 163 - "In the year before the war, Kurtovic had participated in the SDS project of opening up mass graves of the victims of Ustasha atrocities in the Second World War. The Serb nationalists would open those graves, excavate the bones of the dead, and then carry those bones in processions through Serb villages in Bosnia organizing mass rallies at which the priests and politicians of the SDS, as well as leaders from Servia and Montenegro, would offer the remains of those who were killed half a centruy ago as evidence of a new conspiracy to exterminate the Serbs. The excavations were thus part of the campaign to prepare the Serves for the war that was to follow; to make them believe that the killing, humiliation and expulsion of their neighbors, Muslims and Croats, even those born long after the Second World War, was essential to the judge and legitimate "defense of threatened Serbhood.""

One of the most moving scenes is where he and one of his reporters head to New York to accept an award. It is winter in Sarajevo. They have no heat, no electricity, no telephones. All of the glass windows in the city have been shot out. Getting to and from work involves dodging sniper bullets. And at their layover in Germany they experience this:

"Thus traveling on our new Bosnia-Herzegovina passports, we boarded the Lufthansa plane for Frankfurt to find ourselves -- two shell-shocked travelers from the dark underworld that Sarajevo had become--transported to a place filled with Christmas trees, light, and festivity. The pre-Christmas atmosphere at the airport was as beautiful as it was unreal. "Do people here have any reason to think about other people's misfortunes?" we wondered, as we shared a drink before getting some sleep to be ready for for the next day's flight across the Atlantic." - Pg. 192

That image was powerful one, I thought.

He got injured at one point and ended up in the hospital. His observations:

"The hospital was one of those places in Sarajevo where you were directly confronted with the tragedy and pain of the war. The doctors were performing true medical miracles. Without electricity even for x-rays, there were times when they were forced to operate by the light of miners' lamps. Often there was no water, making it difficult to have enough food for either the patients or for the staff, and every day the numbers of seriously wounded grew." Pg. 182

Lastly - two more thoughts on the value of the newspaper:

"...Oslobodjenje is a very good paper for all those who do not wish to read only their own opinion. Sometimes it criticizes me, and sometimes I dono't agree with what it says, but that is the way it ought to be in a democracy." President Izetbegovic. Pg. 223

"Dissent at the heart of democracy--this had been the teitmotif of our struggle at Oslobodjenje. In its pages we had tried to practice as we preached, and hoped that those who governed Bosnia would recognize that a society that allowed no space for a multitude of voices would lapse into tyranny." Pg. 234

I bought a copy of the paper even though I don't understand the language at all. I've had a habit of buying a paper in every country I visited anyway. This time just had more of a back story.

And as we were driving to the airport, we randomly saw the building that produces the paper.