The new 'Old Bridge': a story from Mostar.

Built by love and destroyed by prejudice, it proudly lent its shiny and uniquely arched back to us Mostarians for centuries. To a merchant, passerby or royalty, we were all the same to it. "Stari Most", the Old Bridge with its two towers, was built in 1566 in honour of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent of the Ottoman Empire. The Old Bridge was the first founding stone of Mostar, a fairy-tale city of poetry and sleepy, narrow and winding streets. Not surprisingly, Mostar derived its name from the medieval guardians of the Old Bridge, who were called "Mostari".

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The Bridge witnessed and symbolized four centuries of multi-ethnic life and cosmopolitanism of Bosnia and Herzegovina, connecting its east and west areas. Its old eyes have seen much of history unfold, withstood earthquakes, floods and warfare, but always remained, like its people, stoic in its beauty, serving as a living testimony to the unique tolerant civilization of Bosnians. It saw the Ottoman Empire blossom and crash, to be replaced by the Austro-Hungarian and Yugoslav Empires and Communist Yugoslavia. It has been a time machine of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a testimony to our long traditions, prosperity and culture.

Even the Nazi regime respected the "Old Father". A few of "our own" ironically were the ones whose hearts were poisoned by hate and whose minds were blinded by propaganda, who hated the Old Bridge because it represented our multi-ethnic coexistence. The Old Bridge stood as a thorn, a painful reminder of the truth to these propagators of "ethnic cleansing", who argued that my people never lived in harmony. If they could only destroy the "Old Father", they grotesquely believed that the spirit of Mostar could be forever crushed.

These attempts not only to physically but also mentally divide the Croatian and Bosnian populations of Mostar finally succeeded when the Old Bridge collapsed under fire from mortar shells in November 1993. Scattered reminders of the noble civilization sunk deep into the waters of the Neretva River. The people of Mostar, who remained strong in the face of constant shelling, persecution and even concentration camps, cried for the first time after the Bridge collapsed. The symbol of strength and immortality was shattered by ignorance.

Perhaps the pain of losing the bridge could best be described by the words of Croatian journalist Slavenka Drakulic in the Observer: "Why do we feel more pain looking at the image of the destroyed bridge (in Mostar) than the image of the massacred people? Perhaps because we see our own mortality in the collapse of the bridge. We expect people to die; we count on our lives to end. The destruction of a monument to civilization is something else. The bridge, in all its beauty and grace was built to outlive us. It was an attempt to grasp eternity. It transcended our individual destiny." Fortunately, the story does not end with destruction.

The story of the Old Bridge and its people, whose lives are mystically interwoven, continues into the future to a new Old Bridge. Miraculously identical to the old one, the new Old Bridge was opened on 23 July 2004. To many in the outside world, the opening was a gesture of goodwill towards the reconstruction of the Old City of Mostar and towards erasing unpleasant traces of war, in what used to be one of the most popular tourist destinations in the region. The 1998 appeal of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for its reconstruction was positively answered by five donors--Croatia, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey--as well as by the World Bank and the Council of Europe Development Bank.

The opening ceremony brought together representatives of 52 nations and various organizations, including Great Britain's Prince Charles. The event drew well-deserved international attention, focussing on bridging both the physical and mental divide in Mostar. "The destruction of this great bridge a decade ago brought home to millions around the world the full force of the evil that was happening here ... I hope that they believe that its reopening today will be an equally powerful moment", said Lord Patty Ashdown, the international community's representative to Bosnia.

There is something bewitching about standing on the new Old Bridge, which has risen from the dead after eleven long years. It is like levitating between the turbulent past, challenging the present and hopefully caring for the future. Thoughts are being blown by magical winds pushing from both sides of the paradise-green Neretva River--thoughts of 11 years of eternity. There are over 11 years separating yesterday and today; 11 years since any multiethnic class has graduated from my "Gymnasium Aleksa Santic": 11 years between childhood and adulthood; 11 years since our playground has been turned into a cemetery; 11 years since my classmate Lejla stood in front of her house on the "Bosniak side" of Mostar, only to be cut into pieces by a mortar shell directed at the civilian population of Mostar; and 11 years of inter-ethnic suspicion and sectoral politics. Are these "eleven years" now really over? The Old Bridge now looks the same. Why can't we, the Mostarians, be the same again too?

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Maybe it is because there are still too many sites outside Mostar's "Old City", where signs warn of building collapse: "Pozor, opasnost od rusenja". These sites deserve more attention, as much as is deserved by those young people who continue mentally to experience a violent past, victims of post-traumatic stress disorder. Recovery for them, like my Croatian friend Marko and many Bosnian friends, presents a really difficult test of mental reconstruction.

However, the reconstruction of the Old City of Mostar to its old splendour deserves a big cheer! With its beautiful medieval old city, numerous cafes and restaurants with a breathtaking view, and low-cost accommodations and food, it is now eager to reinvigorate tourism. This industry, which blossomed before the war when thousands of tourists swirled into Mostar, is necessary for the economic recovery of the city. Besides being a romantic place to visit, Mostar also has a spiritual dimension, as it is just half an hour away from the famous pilgrimage of Medjugorje (also in Bosnia), where it was said that the "Virgin Mary" made an apparition to a group of school children long before the 1992 war. Not surprisingly, the message of Mary was one of peace--a warning which was ignored. Mostar is also only just over an hour away from cool Croatian beaches. Many service-oriented Mostarians have made their living from tourism and they expect to continue to do so. However, the international image of Bosnia and of Mostar as a dangerous war zone is damaging and should be revised (the war ended with the signing of the Dayton Peace Accords on 21 November 1995). This might prove to be a difficult obstacle to overcome, since bad news spreads faster; but with time, it can be accomplished.

The opening of the new Old Bridge has given us hope that there could be a new beginning, although traces of the past are hardly undetectable. Admittedly very impressive, the culmination of the opening performance for many was not the brave leap of six Mostarian divers from the bridge into the icy Neretva River, accompanied by the sound of the dramatic "Carmina Burana" music, nor was the high point the colourful fireworks. For me, the most important highlight was the joint singing appeal of both Croatian and Bosnian children of Mostar. Standing on a rock under the illuminated Old Bridge, a three-year-old Croatian boy led the choir into a powerful song: "Samo da rata ne bude" (Let there be no war). Although some of these children could barely pronounce the "r" in the word "war", the message was clear--a message shared by most adults and children today, in the hope that the rebuilding of the Old Bridge will contribute to rebuilding old friendships and inter-ethnic harmony among all people of Mostar.

Admirela Balic has been involved in promoting human rights and ending the genocide and war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. She also worked on humanitarian relief with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Tanzania, and on the Kosovo reconstruction with the UN Mission in Kosovo.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]