Imagine the city that you called home became a battlefield. Imagine that the city became split right down the middle and people who were once neighbors are now being forced to fight each other to survive. This was a reality for the people of Mostar.
The first week in Bosnia we had the opportunity to travel to the Herzegovina region of Bosnia and to the city of Mostar. We were able to walk through the city of Mostar and learn about its history, both ancient and modern. We came to learn about what had transpired in the city just twenty years before.
The war in Bosnia saw the city of Mostar divided into two parts based upon ethnicity. The Croats held the western part of the city while the Bosniaks controlled the eastern parts of the city. People who may have once been neighbors were forced to fight one another. The Old Bridge which had long been a symbol of the city would be used by the media as symbol of the division among the people of Mostar (the media commonly referred to the bridge and river as the dividing line while an nearby street was the actual dividing line between the two forces). The Old Bridge would be destroyed by Croat forces and come to further symbolize the depths of the division among the people.
Over twenty years have passed since the war and the Old Bridge that Mostar has become synonymous with has been rebuilt, but it may take more time for the bridge between the people of Mostar to be rebuilt. The city still retains some of the ethnic divisions it once held with the different groups occupying the same parts of the city they did during the war. Some signs of division can still be seen in the city. The two parts of the city have become connected once again, but it may take more than some stone and mortar to bridge the gap between the people of Mostar.
