Bosnia looks to life after Milosevic

Damaged buildings such as this pensioners' home are daily reminders to the people of Sarajevo of the destruction of the Bosnian war that ended in 1995

From CNN correspondent Nic Robertson in Sarajevo

On the outskirts of Sarajevo refugees flee for safety. It's Bosnia... and Serbian gunmen are on the warpath again.

But this time round it is the movie makers calling the shots, not the wartime nationalist leaders.

Nation building is the real tableau playing out here. And news that Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosovic, who many hold responsible for the war, may lose power to Yugoslav opposition leader Vojislav Kostunica is encouraging some.

PANORAMIC VIEW Click here for a panoramic image of Sarajevo's historic downtown district, the Bascarsija

Jacques Klein, the U.N. chief in Bosnia and Herzegovina, said: "It is dramatic because we have always said until Belgrade and Zagreb have democratic government much of what we do here is problematic."

Analysts have long predicted that Bosnia's problems would be easier to fix once the three nationalist wartime leaders were gone.

Croatia's President Franjo Tudjamn died last year and Bosnia's wartime leader has announced he will step down. Only Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosovic is left clinging to power.

For Bosnia, the next steps on the road to recovery are November's elections. The western-backed Bosnian Serb leader, Milorad Dodik, believes his anti-nationalist camp could benefit from the departure of Milosovic.

Dodik said: "The message coming from Yugoslavia means that the Serb people now support the democratic opposition of Serbia and a new president.

The Oslobodjenje building, headquarters of Sarajevo's main newspaper, was destroyed early in the Bosnian war. It has been left as a monument of the city's destruction. The newspaper still functioned throughout the war, despite the shelling.

"It means Mr Milosovic's policy does not have support in Serbia and shouldn't have here either."

Despite delivering some hope for a better economy in the Serbian towns of Bosnia, Mr Dodik may still lose to wartime nationalist parties allied with Mr Milosovic.

The town of Pale was once the stronghold of Bosnia's nationalist Serbs. The sentiment here is scrawled on the side of a building: "We want war, peace is death."

Five years of peace have yet to deliver any substantial economic benefits. The talk now is of survival. While some criticise Mr Milosovic and question the war, most say they back nationalist parties.

Klein added: "When we have a democratic government in Belgrade there will be much less fantasies here about partition.

"The Serbs here will actually start thinking about their role in Bosnia Herzegovina and no longer be goaded and financed by and led by a Belgrade regime."

A call for civility: "Tolerance is the only way to achieve peace and harmony," says this billboard in Sarajevo

In Sarajevo, the mental scars are as common and deep as the physical ones. Many remember the Yugoslav opposition leader Vojislav Kostunica as a Serb nationalist who backed the siege of their beloved city.

Mirza Hajric, advisor to the Bosnian president, said: "There is nobody worse for us than Mr Milosovic and we would like to see him go. On the other hand Mr Kostunica who might replace him is very much a devil we don't know."

Less than positive endorsement maybe. However, the realisation here change is coming.

October 3, 2000
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September 30, 2000

Bosnia Herzegovina: ministry of Foreign Affairs
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Mocvement for Democratic Serbia

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