Saturday 23711

woke up from a good nights sleep here in Sarajevo, to go to the oldest Serb orthodox church in the area. little did we know that this was less about the church, and more about the life story of this guy named Dragan (like our bad ass bus driver, and our tour guide).

the little i have about the church is; all Christian Orthodox churches, Russian, Greek, Serbian etc, have an angry old lady mopping, and this church has a coffin with the preserved remains of a holy baby, though i nor our Mladen know what the baby did to deserve, this, but im sure its important to end up in the oldest Church in the Area.

also the little museum thing has some really old Orthodox Bibles, pictured below

these are my notes on the story of Dragans life



... before the war there were 3 nationalities living in Sarajevo without a problem, his best friend was Muslim, they did everything together.

Prior to the war ethnic background was unimportant, they went to their different churches, but they attended eachothers family/religious events.

When communism fell, the ethnic tensions began to rise, while the speaker invited his Muslim friend to events. In 1990 his Muslim friend stopped inviting him to events, because the father said the Serbs are his enemies.

When the division lines were drawn, he and his friend were in the Serb area of Sarajevo, Dragan took all his money and drove his friend and his family to the Muslim portion of Bosnia. Dragan continued to send money/supplies to the less nice Muslim part. His Muslim friend lost his brother in the war, while Dragan lost 14 members of his family, though Dragan did not begin to hate his friend or their people.

After the war, and Sarajevo was given to the Muslims, over 150000 Serbs moved out of the city, including Dragans family. When he was moving out, his friend came to visit, and claimed Dragan was a Chetnik and oppressor of the Muslims, and told him to leave the Muslim territory.

They moved to the Serb areas of Bosnia, his families Sarajevo apartment was taken by Muslims, when Dragan came back to claim the rest of the families stuff, he was beaten by a group of men, including his friend. Dragan blamed the media, and the war and his friends father, rather than his friend.

After the law was passed which allowed people to reclaim their pre-war property, he went back to claim his families property, and came upon his friends mother living and working there, upon seeing him, she cried and hugged him, explaining that the friend and father had joined the Wahabbi movement. In 2001 through the Wahabbist channels, Dragans friend went to Afghanistan, and was killed. The first person the friends father called was Dragan, and he told Dragan that his son wanted Dragan to know that he was the best friend he could have had. Dragan attended the funeral, and under the fathers protection, and a month later, the father killed himself.

After coming back to the states, Dragan first visited his father, and then his best friends mother. Dragan still visits his friends mother, she understands the ethnic differences and appreciates that Dragan never took to extremes. She has very much love for him.

Besides his friends family, Dargan helped 5 other families to escape to Muslim territory, of the 6 families 2 are still in touch, and 3 families deny they got any assistance at all.

The situation now is very difficult, because all three constituent portions of the Bosnian government have political parties which run on ethnic campaigns, claiming that their group has been victimized by all others.

Things should be getting better, but its not.

Also, side note about Jews

During the war, many Jews left the city through their own channels, and the perception is that they are more aligned with the Serbs and Croats, however all three sides respect the relative "neutrality" of the jews

Sooner or later Bosnia should be getting better, hope is not dead, though the current political elite will stall that change.

overall Dragan has hope for his country.

on a less somber note, the city is really cool, narrow twisting roads between houses, cobblestones, it was very quaint, i got lost with my friends, and eventually broke away from the friends and wandered around by myself, though i did not feel uncomfortable at any time, so overall its a pretty cool city, once it stops raining i should be able to explore fully, with picture of some of the many mosques around here.

hopefully we will get to see that marketplace that was mortared which brought in NATO. also i don know if i mentioned it yesterday, and the internet is too slow for me to reload the previous post. Sarajevo is placed in a strategically idiotic place, in a bowl of mountains, and during the war the city was surrounded and shelled by the Bosnian Serb guns for much of the war. We came down those hills, we tread the very path that Bosnian Serb forces used to dominate the city throughout much of the war. thats kinda cool.

aright, till tomorrow after Srebrenica