The calm waters of the Drina

You can think of a place where so epic atrocities were committed and at the same time is so beautiful. On eleven stone arches, the bridge over the Drina river floats, for more than four centuries ago, and connects the two banks of the river, which formed the epochs of a raging border between the Orient and the Occident.

Today, there are in Bosnia, many bridges, and the Drina is not a everything of rousing power, but between the dams is silent. Silently the water on this autumn afternoon, under the soft gray stone arches, and also on the Kapija, the balcony widening in the middle, it is quiet up on the rattling and rattling plastic toys of children. A Boy is swinging an orange mini machine gun, his buddy comes in with a noisy yellow car in the hands of the walkers, contrary to ran.

"Shall I read you the plaque?" Then the Boy starts, for eleven years, he is and means to recite Vehbija, a Muslim Name, to what it says in Arabic script carved in stone. "See, Mehmedpasa, the Greatest among the Wise and Great of his time / Fulfilled the vow of his heart, / And with his care and his zeal / he Built a bridge over the Drinafluss." A homage to the Grosswesirs, the in 16. Century had of this miracle plant. No, no, no, no he can't read Arabic, pushes the Boy modestly afterwards that he had learned the Translation by heart, from the book of Ivo Andric.

of Course, "The bridge on the Drina", the masterpiece of the Nobel prize-winning Yugoslav writer who spent his Childhood in Visegrad and the bridge to the main character of his story made. It players, officials, and love sick, stroll about, and then the Austrians, and to put the Bosnian town on their efficient administration until they blow up in the First world war, parts of the bridge.

you Want to know more precisely what happened in 1992 here, you have to search long.

But what was not there? Things that Andric was not able to write, because they only happened after his death in 1975? All the atrocities of the previous centuries to the realities overshadow? Visegrad, so it has formulated the UN war crimes Tribunal for Ex-Yugoslavia, was "one of the most comprehensive and ruthless campaigns of ethnic cleansing in the Bosnian conflict exposed". Serbian militia expelled and massacred the Muslim inhabitants. You want to know more about 1992 happened here, you have to search long. "The small town for a big holiday," as it is called in the tourist brochures, is putting a lot of effort to adjust the traveler the look on your youngest and hässlichstes Chapter.

in 1991, 63 percent of the residents of Visegrad Muslims. Six years later, with only less than one percent. The winner of the German book prize 2019, Sasa Stanisic, a native of Visegrad. In his book, "origin," he says, as he played before the war with his cousins there, on a staircase sass, shop and dolls spanked. The cousins are now living in France, he was in Hamburg. "About the Visegrad we no longer speak since Visegrad," he writes.

The Republika Srpska in 1995 by the Dayton Treaty, adopted Serbian Republic of Bosnia, had been created "in an area that has never been a Serbian state had existed", said at the time, Serbia's President, Slobodan Milosevic, had stoked the conflict: "This is a historic achievement." So Serbs and Muslims today live in two countries, but under the umbrella of a state United; Visegrad is located in the Serbian part.

you are lucky, you meet in the city on people like Edin Karaman. He is of Bosnian Muslim and works as an agent of the government for the support of returnees. Of people who are, at the time, fled in good time before the massacres of the Serbian militias – and have decided not to accept the "ethnic cleansing" of their homeland as a permanent condition.

dispute the word genocide

Karaman, a tall man with blue eyes and upright posture, up below a hill. Passing the Muslim cemetery, on the graves with the year of death 1992 to form a separate, huge field. On a tomb stone, two plush bears, the Boy who is buried beneath it, the backrest was just seven years old. "His father was a friend of mine," says Karaman.

The word genocide, the authorities of the white Stele at the entrance to out carve, survivors have it painted in black letters, new, out. Which, in turn, are covered now with white color. "It is a constant struggle to find the truth," says Karaman.

He turns onto a dirt path, running towards a house with a freshly whitewashed white facade. Only those who approach close, sees the gunshot Residue at the non-renovated outer wall of the basement. At least 59 people are here on 14. June 1992, burned alive, they were driven by Serbian militias, and then explosives were thrown at them. Among the dead of the statements was, according to witness a two-day-old Baby.

Muslim Bosnians have to leave the house with their own money to mend it, to protect it and the municipality already had plans, the ruin, demolish, and build a road over it. From the facade, however, traces of albumen and Yolk run down; someone must have thrown the eggs only a few days ago against the walls. "Because mans looks," says Edin Karaman. "It's been brewing anything more."

Handke in 1996 was in Visegrad and tells of it in his "Summer Addendum to a winter journey" .

if you Want to talk to Karamans supervisors, the mayor of Visegrad, must pass between all sorts of Scenes. The municipality has established in a new building right in the middle of "Andric grad", an artificial history of the landscape, which the Serbian film Director Emir Kusturica with the funds of the Bosnian Serb government left on a tongue of land to build, where the leads next to the river Rzav in the Drina. Kusturica wants to make a film of Ivo Andrics the factory, it is called.

Here is a poster that announces an event of Kusturica on the wall: "Peter Handke – the Apostle of the truth". Handke, who in 1996 was in Visegrad, and tells it in his "Summer Addendum of a winter journey" of it. The doubts therein, reports the New York Times about the massacre of Muslims four years earlier. His cooling dip in the Drina tells, where the refreshment was so carefree but then: "No water, see the water body stories, in the mouth let it come!", listed Handke.

Srpska, Serbia, Russia

Mladen Djurevic, the mayor, a strong man with a carefully contoured three-day beard, takes on the end of a meeting table space, on the four flags are lined up: the city coat-of-arms of Visegrad. The flag of the Republika Srpska, the Serbian part of the Republic, in present-day Bosnia. The neighboring Republic of Serbia. And the Russian state flag.

"The bridge changed neither the years nor the centuries, with the most painful turns in human relationships."Ivo Andric, the author of

He had a bad experience with the foreign press, he says First: It was a British reporter there, the asked him everything Possible to Ivo Andric and the bridge, and in the end you have written, especially about the war in Bosnia. "That's not fair," says Djurevic with a firm eye on the visitors.

Ivo Andric has written a sentence in his bridge chronicle, probably still applies today: "The bridge has changed neither the years nor the centuries, with the most painful turns in human relationships. All of that went over them, as the restless water flowed beneath its smooth and perfect arches then."

Created: 09.12.2019, 21:28 PM