Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
plums. They cleaned up the roads to the venues, dug out the buses from the drifts, and
groomed the trails.
It worked. Some 1,400 participants from 49 nations took their shot at a medal. The IOC
president at the time, Juan Antonio Samaranch, proclaimed the Sarajevo event “the best-or-
ganized Winter Games in the history of the Olympic movement.”
Thencamethewar.NationalisticfervorhadbeensimmeringinYugoslaviaforalongtime,
with each of the country's major ethnic groups—Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs—driven by
centuries-old dreams of their own pure state. In 1991, the worsening economic situation and
a few radicalized politicians blew the lid off. Hostilities broke out in Croatia, and it wasn't
long before Bosnia and Herzegovina went down the same road. The Bosnian Serbs, led by
Radovan Karadžić, struck first. In 1992, with the whole world watching live on TV, military
and paramilitary bands pillaged villages and laid siege to Sarajevo, shelling Muslim neigh-
borhoods—war crimes for which Karadžić would be charged after he was finally captured in
2008.
The Olympic venues were not spared. Bjelašnica and the surrounding villages, where
MuslimsandSerbslivedsidebyside,became thefrontlineoftheattack. In1993,theresort's
liftswerewrecked,theslopesmined,andthehotelstorchedbyBosnianSerbforcescomman-
ded by the notorious general Ratko Mladić. The Olympic bobsled track on Mount Trebević,
above Sarajevo, became a snipers' nest for the Serbs, who fired down on the Muslims below.
The edifice of Zetra Hall, the site of the hockey and figure-skating events, was shelled from
the hills. Its ice rink served as a makeshift morgue, the wooden seats providing material for
coffins.
When the war ended in 1995, Bosnia and Herzegovina won independence, but it was
divided into two autonomous, mutually hostile entities: the Muslim-and-Croat-dominated
Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska. Even the
resorts became spoils of war: Bjelašnica was given to the federation, while Serb-controlled
Jahorina, which was left largely unscathed by the conflict, joined Republika Srpska.
Only recently have the old wounds begun to heal, thanks in part to a new generation of
kids who don't hold their parents' grudges. Vilić is one of these kids. Though his family was
kicked out of its Sarajevo home by Serb paramilitaries and had to move to another neigh-
borhood, his memories of the war are surprisingly fond. “It was the best time,” he says.
“Everything was anarchy! We stole gas from the cars! Of course, during shelling we would
hide in the basement.”
Vilić used to be part of the National Youth Alpine Team and won third place in an Interna-
tional Ski Federation race in 2003. Still, career options for a would-be professional skier are
slim in Bosnia. These days, Vilić studies architecture in Sarajevo, works for a ski-repair ser-
vice, and spends the rest of his time in the mountains with Madstyle Team. Sometimes they
go to Jahorina, sometimes to Bjelašnica.
