Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
A ruined mosque is a silent reminder of sectarian fighting in a now thoroughly Serbian,
and therefore Orthodox Christian, town.
Remaining impartial is an ongoing challenge. It's so tempting to think of the
Muslims—who were brutalized in many parts of Bosnia-Herzegovina—as the “victims.”
But when traveling here, I have to keep reminding myself that elsewhere in this conflict,
Serbs or Croats were victimized in much the same way. Early in the war, outcast Serbs
migrated to safety in the opposite direction—from Mostar to Nevesinje. On the hillside
overlooking Mostar are the ruins of a once-magnificent Serbian Orthodox church—now
demolished, just like that mosque in Nevesinje. Travel allows you to fill out a balanced
view of a troubled region.
Considering the haphazardness of war, I remembered how in France's charming
Alsace (the region bordering Germany), all towns go back centuries—but those with the
misfortune to be caught in the steamroller of war don't have a building standing from be-
fore 1945. I recalled that in England, the town of Chester survived while the Nazis leveled
nearby Coventry so thoroughly that it brought a new word into the language for bombing
to smithereens—to “coventrate” a place. And I remembered the confused patchwork of
Dubrovnik's old and new tile roofs. These images—and now this sad, ruined mosque—all
humanized the bleak reality and random heartbreak of sectarian strife and war.
