My mother just drove through Croatia/Slovenia and Bosnia/Herzegovina. She found a Muslim tour guide who had survived the War/Ethnic Cleansing. And I thought her insights were very enlightening. Her Her name is Alma Elezovic. She and I got along great and shared a lot of spiritual connections. I specifically asked her to share the Muslim story and sights with me, as I felt I needed to get my head around the war/revenge problem. She was a victim of the horrible 1993 ethnic conflict, and, as a Muslim, was bombed out and starved, becoming a refugee and losing family and friends. This was the story of everyone I met there; they all feel the war was just a manipulation through the use of fear-mongering media to rouse people who were poor from the ending of the Yugoslavia alliance. Each said that only the politicians wanted the war—“no one asked us.” Interestingly, I also heard young and old say that they liked life better under that Socialistic regime, when the standard was for the common good and not greedy, as it is now under capitalism. They did, however, want to be nationally independent: Slovenians wanted to be in a Slovenia, Croats wanted to be in a Croatia, not to be pasted together as they were, after the First and Second World Wars. There are old resentments and fears from a very long history; this was not just a war that was religious. It was obvious from the 1993 ruins that the Croatians had sat on the hills around the city and bombed the Muslim population endlessly--from the Catholic Church (Croatian Christian) west there was little damage. I found the people hoping to turn a new page. The old bridge (Mostar’s name means “bridge watcher”) was built during the time of the Ottoman Turks as a bridge between the east and west. East Ottoman Empire and Venetian Western (also Austrian Empire) worlds were to be bridged here. The town felt it was the bridge between old “Muslim Mostar” and new “Christian Croat” Mostar. It was destroyed during the war and rebuilt with the same stones and technologies as the 16th-century bridge. It is supposed to represent the re-bridge between the two cultures today. We can only hope. Alma kept stressing that both Muslims and Christians believe in sharing and caring for all, and she and her fellow Mostarians are trying to move on. She emphasized that water for drinking and mosque-related cleansings were two important Muslim goals, as well as education and libraries. Women can, and some do, wear the scarf; however, many in this town do not. I came away hopeful, but also wanting to not think about war anymore.
Posted on: Fri, 08 Nov 2013 18:39:32 +0000
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