Sunday, May 29, 2011

Travel Blogging IV

Dubrovnik, Croatia - They say civil wars are the bloodiest wars, for sure they do the most damage. None of this “honorable opponents” stuff in the Balkans. In the civil war hereabouts each side treated the other side as vermin, something to be exterminated. Probably there were few prisoners taken. Hence charges of genocide in the World Court in the Hague.

On Saturday evening we visited a Croat village near the Bosnian border. It was occupied by the Serbs during the civil war; they destroyed all buildings for which they had no immediate use. I’m not picking on Serbs, I expect Croats did the same when the tables were turned.

Serbs inadvertently did our villagers a favor. When the refugees returned they rebuilt the village and now have relatively new homes instead of the ancient hovels they once occupied. The charm of antiquity is mostly gone but antiquity is nicer to look at than to live in.