Aftermath: Bosnia's Long Road to Peace: Chapter Two: Past and Present

$Men smoke cigarettes and drink coffee at one of Sarajevo\'s many coffeehouses. Drinking coffee is a local pasttime, but also a reflection of Bosnia\'s high unemployment rate, which hovers near fifty percent. April 2002.$
$The day after ceremonies marked the opening of the rebuilt Mostar Bridge, one of the town\'s legendary jumpers prepares to throw himself off the more than eight-foot-high bridge. The old bridge, built during the Ottoman Empire, was long a symbol of Bosnia\'s cultural heritage before it was destroyed in the 1992-95 war.$
$A Roma woman with her daughters-in-law and grandchildren stands in front of a makeshift home in the village of Strazenica. During the war, gypsies were also \{quote}cleansed\{quote} by Serbs; these gypsies were forced to leave their homes and have returned to rebuild.$
$Vendors at a street market; many Bosnians eke out a living in the \{quote}gray\{quote} market, selling cheap goods tax-free. October 2000.$
$Serb refugees live in a schoolroom being used for \{quote}temporary\{quote} housing. After the end of the war, \{quote}collective centers\{quote} were set up all over the country, in schools, gymnasiums, old warehouses and other spaces to house tens of thousands of refugees. The centers were meant to provide shelter for three months only, but in 2000 -- five years after the end of the war -- more than 10,000 people were still living in extremely difficult conditions in these centers. October 2000.$
$Dining room of one of the many \{quote}motels\{quote} that have been built along roads outside towns across the country.$
$At left is a \{quote}rose\{quote} of Sarajevo, which marks one of the mortar blasts fired at the city by Serb forces. Mortar blasts leave a pattern that looks like a flower; after the war, blasts that killed large numbers of people were filled in with red as a commemoration to those who died. September, 2002.$
$While crowds line the banks of the Neretva river, competitors line the top of the famed Mostar Bridge, ready to begin what locals say is the city\'s 448th annual jumping and diving contest. The competition was held just eight days after the newly rebuilt bridge was opened.$
$At a bus stop in Sarajevo, an election poster for the moderate \{quote}Stranka za BiH\{quote} party (Party for Bosnia Hercegovina) reads, in rough translation, \{quote}Through investment, to new jobs.\{quote} The slogan is a reference to the country\'s troubled economy, and its unemployment rate of nearly fifty percent. The man in the poster is Haris Silajdzic, who served as prime minister during the war. In this election, all the moderate parties were defeated, as voters returned nationalist parties to power. September 2002.$
$High school girls pose for a picture on prom night in the town of Bjeljina, where \{quote}ethnic cleansing\{quote} began in April 1992. Serbian paramilitary forces and local Serbs attacked the city\'s Muslim community, killing some 500 people and forcing the rest of the Muslim population to flee. Few Muslims have returned to the city, which is in the northeastern part of the country, along the border with Serbia.$
$Mulim teenagers in the hall of a university dormitory wing still being used for \{quote}emergency\{quote} housing five years after the end of the war. Each room housed one family. October 2000.$
$Roma who were \{quote}cleansed\{quote} by Serbs in the early months of the 1992-95 war return to rebuild their village.$
$Window reflection from a one-car passenger train that runs between Sarajevo and the town of Konjic, about forty-five minutes to the south. Before the war, the former Yugoslavia had one of the best rail transit systems in Europe. Bosnia\'s rail system was virtually destroyed during the war and is only slowly being rebuilt.$
$A forensic anthropologist takes a break from cleaning the remains of a recenty-exhumed victim of the Serbs\' 1992 \{quote}ethnic cleansing\{quote} campaign against Muslims. July 2001.$
$Window reflection from a one-car passenger train that runs between Sarajevo and the town of Konjic, about forty-five minutes to the south. Before the war, the former Yugoslavia had one of the best rail transit systems in Europe. Bosnia\'s rail system was virtually entirely destroyed during the war and is only slowly being rebuilt.$