Today was a full day in Sarajevo that we spent in 2 halves. We elected to go on a tour with the same guy, Halid who took our whole tour group for a shortened tour of the city yesterday evening.

We set off in a minivan, first passing by an area called "sniper's alley" where there was a sculpture of mother and child, commemorating one of the 1600 children who were killed there when the city of Sarajevo was sieged for 3 years between 1993-1995...all because Bosnia had expressed the desire to become an independent nation and Serbia was having none of it. The mother of the child depicted in this statue is still alive but very tortured by her experience and I think we saw her begging on a street in the old city during the evening. Along that same strip, we were able to see the large number of bullet and mortar holes (concrete structure with bricked segments which were used to fill the mortar holes) in buildings.

After the breakdown of communism following the death of Tito in 1980, Serbia managed to retain much of the military equipment, but were a landlocked country with ambition. In Sarajevo, the population is majority muslim Bosnians with significant numbers of croats and serbs too, each represented by their own religion. The Serbians claimed to be just doing some military exercises in the mountains that surround Sarajevo, but then "surprise" they turned aim at the city. They bombed strategically in an attempt to demoralise the locals, aiming at city library where all the significant religious books were kept plus historical records, they bombed the mosques and catholic cathedral that still show the mortar and bullet holes, they destroyed the electricity infrastructure and blocked access to the city, except at the airport which the UN had access to. Through this location, the UN were allowed to supply food and water to the citizens but no military action was allowed.

Out of desperation and defiance, some of the locals plus from the surrounding regions that were free Bosnia owned and controlled, a group of miners built a "tunnel of hope" by hand, under the airport runway. It is 800m long, hand dug, 1.15m high and about 1.5m wide. This access became a life source to the city. Along the inside wall of the tunnel they wan electricity, telecommunications and fuel. Just enough to maintain essential infrastructure such as the hospital and comms to the people outside (for a select few). Most of the citizens were unable to move about very much, except after dark. There was no electricity or ability to work. The UN fed and watered the population using unused ration packs from the vietnam war, some 30 years prior. We heard that the people made emergency hand made guns etc. The Croatians and Indonesian's supplied weapons to the Bosnians inside the city through this tunnel. The miners used sand bags to put the soil in so as not to arouse suspicion of what was going on. Our driver told us that during the war, his mother had gone through the tunnel out of the city to buy a cow. It would not fit through the tunnel coming back, so she painted "UN" on its side and then at night-time, she hurried along the runway back into the city with a UN vehicle acting as cattle dog pushing the animal forwards. Apparently, in the same night, 3 other people attempting to do the same were killed as were the cows. Schooling was very minimal (1 week in a basement of a building for year 1 students!).

After a second strike at the community marketplace by the Serbians, the US entered the war and it ended very shortly after that. We were able to walk through 100m of the tunnel, see some of the mortar shells and the bullet riddled house at the entrance to the tunnel. Amazing persistence and resilience, but with 11000 or so locals killed (population approx 200000).

WE also travelled to the bobsled track that was used in the 1984 winter olympics and were able to see the holes that the Serbs exploded through the side in the event of Bosnia attack on their positions high up in the mountains where they planned to point their machine guns through. It never came to that. We saw the ruins of the 5 star hotel that the serbs had used as headquarters overlooking the city...they had a massive advantage. It seems that rather than try and storm the city, their intent was to demoralise them into begrudging surrender to the Serbian leaders rather than to completely take by force, hence minimising the likelihood of further conflict. But, it would have been easy to shoot the city from there. Last stop was a Jewish cemetery, complete with bullet holes in the gravestones as Serbs and Bosnians lived on either side of it and once war broke out, they shot at each other over the graveyard. Crazy stuff.

We enjoyed some of the local dish of Cevapi with Kalmak (cream stuff) with pita like bread but a bit thicker but not quite pide, for lunch. Smoky, meaty, greasy but not overpowering. Bought some great souvenirs too and enjoyed speaking to an older gentleman at one of the copper shops about how sad some of that time was. He said that some of the local Serbs were so sad by what their countrymen were doing that they committed suicide. Walking through the streets, we entered the Serbian orthodox cathedral. Noted no bullet holes in that bit, and watched an energetic game of street chess...they were very good. Back to hotel and a rest for the evening after some more cevapi and spinach/cheese "pie" (like burek) with yoghurt sauce. Yum.

Everyone smokes...inside. Restaurants, hotels, cafes. Surprising. Tomorrow, we head out towards Trebigne via Mostar.