Hatred Smolders in a Divided Land

Recently, I returned from being a supervisor in Bosnia for the municipal elections. Pale, the city where I was assigned, looked pastoral with grazing sheep and cows, the ubiquitous haystacks and vegetable gardens, which I came to realize were essential to survival in a country with 80% unemployment.

However, underneath the seeming tranquillity lurk fierce hatreds and animosities built up over decades (even centuries) of injustices, exploitation and cruelties and inflamed by political leaders. The stories I heard of rape and plunder, the sight of buildings bombed into skeletons, the fear of Bosnians never being able to return to their homes again (half of the population of Pale, or 16,000 people, are refugees), left an indelible impression upon me. Pale is the stronghold of Radovan Karadzic, indicted as a war criminal. Before leaving the U.S., I told my family that we would never be sent to Pale because there was too much anti-American feeling. NATO bombs helped bring the Serbs and also the Croats and Muslims to the peace table in Dayton in the fall of 1996.

But the plans for the municipal election went forward. The election attempted to steer the country toward democracy and to allow its displaced citizens to return home to vote. It will take more than one election to cool the flame of hatred, but it was a step forward in democracy. In my precinct, 1,419 people were registered to vote; 1,376 of that number actually voted.

This trip was also my closest exposure to land mines. During our training we were told that from 1 million to 3 million mines were placed in Bosnia during the four-year war and that 1.5 million land mines remain there. We held the smallest land mines, about 1 1/2 inches in diameter, and learned that they were strong enough to blow off a child’s hand. We tried to lift the heaviest ones, 10 to 12 pounds. They would explode under the weight of a tank and send fragments up to 120 meters. Eighty percent of the casualties from land mines are civilians, usually women and children.

Before her death, Princess Diana visited Bosnia and called attention to the plight of land mine victims there. We came home from Bosnia convinced that the U.S. should sign the ban on land mines treaty.

Is the situation in Bosnia hopeless? It will certainly take time to dispel the hatreds at work there. One of our group said the country needs amnesia pills. An optimistic project involved a camp offered this past summer to all children: Muslims, Croatian and Serbian. It was an opportunity to play and learn to live together once again. There were more applicants than the camp could accept. It will take the children to forget the past.