Bosnian ski resort helps heal war wounds
by Samir Krilic

The Associated Press    Translate This Article
6 February 2006

MOUNT JAHORINA, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) - In 1984, this ski resort hosted some of the world's top athletes at the Sarajevo Olympics. Just a few years later, notorious war commanders and their troops took shelter here, turning a symbol of harmony into one of ethnic hatred. Today, as another Winter Olympics begins this week in nearby Italy, Jahorina's ski slopes are slowly becoming trails to reconciliation as skiers from all countries of the former Yugoslavia come to ski—and put the past behind.

At bars and cafes, Slavic Muslims, Croats, Serbs, Slovenes, Macedonians sit next to one another and sip tea or the traditional Bosnian plum brandy, sljivovica.

``It is interesting to hear Serbians speak in their dialect after years and years,'' said Mladen Zonjic, 37, of Zagreb, Croatia. ``Definitely it is surreal to see us all sitting next to one another and even order drinks for each other after the war that we fought.''

Jahorina, at 6,276 feet, is just southeast of Sarajevo, bordering another mountain used during the 1984 Winter Games, Mount Bjelasnica. It offers 12.5 miles of trails for alpine skiing.

The peace agreement that ended the Bosnian war of 1992-95 left the country divided into a Bosnian Serb mini-state and a Muslim-Croat federation. While Bjelasnica and Sarajevo were left in the federation, Bosnian Serbs got jurisdiction over Mount Jahorina and the facilities here.

Neven Lazaravic, owner of a ski rental shop on Jahorina, welcomes the new spirit of harmony.

``War is over. We all have to move on and try to look more like any other European country,'' said Lazaravic. ``Without Croats, Muslims or Slovenes, Jahorina is nothing—just a beautiful, empty mountain.''

Every year, more and more winter sports fans have been coming to Bosnia to enjoy its untouched nature.

``It is all so natural here, one can ski anywhere on the mountain, not just on the slopes like elsewhere in Europe we've been. I'm so glad we came here,'' said Janja Libnik, a 25-year-old from Slovenia.

Drinking tea at a bar, Dzenan Hadzic, a 43-year-old Bosnian Muslim, talked about the changing mood on the slopes.

``When the war ended I thought I would never again come to Jahorina and ski here. I was afraid that someone might attack me because I am Muslim and to be honest I did not want to come here and spend my money in Serb territory,'' he said.

``I still remember when I came for the first time in 1996 skiing season, I was masked with a turtle neck and goggles so nobody could recognize me. But things changed and now I feel just as much at home here as I do in Sarajevo.''

Like Hadzic, hundreds of other Sarajevans visit the mountain every weekend to ski.

But not everyone shares the feeling of reconciliation. Some still remember that during the war, Jahorina was a headquarters of Bosnia's most wanted war crime suspect—Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic.

``I will never ski on Jahorina again. It was Karadzic's shelter and is still a Serb mountain and I do not want to spend my money there. Bjelasnica is our mountain,'' Senad Ridzic, a 45-year-old Muslim said while taking a break from skiing on Mount Bjelasnica.

Since Bosnia's war, in which 260,000 people were killed and 1.6 million were left homeless, local officials and private entrepreneurs have been doing their best to bring Jahorina back to where it was during its glory days in the 1980s.

New hotels have been built, old ones reconstructed and ice skating rinks built. But more is needed.

``We need new lifts that are modern and with more capacity. Until this is done we cannot expect European guests in great numbers,'' said Dragan Sokolovic, deputy director of Jahorina's Olympic ski center.

Sokolovic is convinced Jahorina has a bright future.

``In the entire former Yugoslavia, only on Jahorina can you see Serbs, Croats, Muslims and others from former Yugoslavia, skiing, drinking and singing together,'' he said.

``Jahorina's highest moment was during the 1984 Winter Olympic Games, the lowest was during the 1992-95 Bosnian war. Now we have to work hard to restore its image of one of the most beautiful ski resorts on the Balkans,'' he added.

Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.



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