"We'll Pay Whatever the Price"

In Pale the reply to the usual salute "What's up" is: "Everything is as usual, ripped". Whatever the association, it is correct, because, as they say, everything is ripped - their country, their clothes, their souls.

"We thought the war would last a fortnight, but now I can not see the end of it. I want peace, any kind of peace, as long as it enables me to live a normal life. Living with two little girls and a baby, I have to survive on 150 dinars which my husband, who spent three years on the front line, earned last year, and another hundred in vouchers which he received in the past six months. I think we would have been better off fighting a social than a civil war. The war is supported only by those who have sent their sons abroad, filled their cases with German marks and hide every time they hear a single gun shot ", complains 38-year old Vida.

She also claims that it was over a year ago that she could last afford to buy fruit or vegetables for her children, and that the available products (the price of which is marginally higher than in Belgrade, but converted into marks the ratio is 2:1), only serve as a reminder of the different social positions.

"I am very thankful to people who send humanitarian aid, but I think that all of it which is distributed by the local council ends up in private shops", Vida says.

Other women, most of whom are on "compulsory leave" and therefore effectively unemployed, share Vida's views but have little influence on their husbands because "Bosnians are traditionally stubborn, and also they listen to a different story, on a daily basis, on the front line".

"They know everything best. When someone asks me about the strategic situation on the battlefield I say: wait 'till I get home and ask my wife!", one of the soldiers from the Jahorina brigade told us. His front line colleagues share his opinion that "there are people who have found a way of making money from this war" and that "the army is not receiving the appropriate treatment", but they did not want to name the persons responsible because, as one of them put it, it would amount to "declaring himself a public enemy".

"Divisions are enormous and people are astonished how we can even survive in these conditions. But, the war makes one adapt and we joke that we might one day have difficulties getting used to better conditions", Mirko Berjan, director of Famos, a factory which produces engines an which is currently "held" by the Serbs, told us. The factory's western gate is also the dividing line of the Eastern sector of the Sarajevo front.

"That is the area where the future of events in Bosnia will be decided", he adds, "because the decision to hand over the airport to UNPROFOR proved to be a mistake. It effectively cut off Ilidza, area where most of the Famos employees live, so people, knowing that the production mustn't stop, have to travel during the night in order to start work in the morning, either in the factory or on the front line."

The road which leads from the Western section- Ilidza, to the Eastern- the Famos factory, the only Serb-held part of Hrasnica, in fact marks the line of the Sarajevo battlefield and the ring which is the Serb-held part of Sarajevo. In more peaceful times, when the road used to go from Ilidza via Hrasnica, the journey to the factory took around 10 minutes. Today it is a 140km long journey, which, because of the proximity of the front line, takes full five hours.

"Nothing is logical in war", Zare, one of the men who has to make this journey every night, agrees, but adds "it would be worth our while to travel even further if that was the way to achieve our goal. In order to achieve peace, Sarajevo must be diviled across the left bank of the river Miljacka; without that, there is no future". His reply to the question "at what price?" is: "Since we already started, we'll have to pay whatever the asking price".

When referring to their former neighbours, kind words are used only when talking in the past tense. In the present tense, the only positive characteristics of Muslims they acknowledge is that they work hard like moles ("because they dug several tunnels through the mountains") and that one thing Serbs could learn from them is that smart moves ought to be substituted for spite.

That is why, as they explained, they were not particularly bothered by the fact that the world and Belgrade media forgot that Milosevic did not capture, and therefore could not release, the UN hostages.

"The whole scenario was worked out buy the Bosnian Serb leadership, when they figured out that the option with Yeltsin which had been offered would be less beneficial", one of the people from the very top of Serbian leadership told us, after we promised him anonymity. People generally share Karadzic's opinion that the current standing of the Serb Republic in Bosnia can be improved only by strengthening Milosevic's position. For that reason, save for claims such as the one that Belgrade television cuts out pictures of Karadzic from its reports, they watch special programs about the freeing of hostages, which they jokingly call "It is I, Leclerc" (Allo, Allo), mainly without much interest.

It seems that the whole fuss about the American pilot also bypassed them. That is, on the eve of the spectacular rescue, the Pale TV received an announcement, from the top levels of leadership, that an important event is about to take place, followed by the information that the pilot is alive and some indication about his whereabouts. The operation, or "show program" as it was called was, however, left first to the Marine corps and then to the World media. Journalists in Pale who are said to be well informed, interpreted the affair as yet another gesture of good will rewarded by the decision of the US not to send ground troops even as far as Italy.

Even the story about the recognition of Bosnia failed to provoke the anticipated excitement. It is partly because it is thought that nothing worse than the current war can happen as a result, and partly because it is believed that Milosevic "can be wise at times and ought to be respected until he commits such an act of treason".

It is mostly the situation on the ground which has shaken the confidence of both those on the front, and those in Pale. "We thought that the blockade on the Drina is only a part of Sloba's (Milosevic) game, but it turned out that he cares more about the monitors than about us, so now we feel very much alone in terms of food, fuel and ammunition", one of the fighters from the Rajlovac Brigade told us, adding that "the Turks haven't forgotten Alija (Izetbegovic)".

Media censorship, mostly evident in the absence of any news from the military, fuels everyday roomers about the "fall" of some place in to the hands of the Muslims. The majority are convinced that these are the concluding moves. Bosnian Army is trying to take over territories which would fill in the space of the imaginary boomerang which is marked on the map by Trnovo, Kalovnik and Ulog in the south and by Mount Ozren in the North, while the Bosnian Serb Army is concentrating on taking over the Srebrenica and Gorazde enclaves.

Though they do not like talking about it, the fighters think that such a development indicates that, on the ground, with new casualties, a settlement is being reached, one that the Serbian and Muslim sides could have settled at the negotiating table, but never had the courage to do so.

The whole affair creates a kind of fatalism. " The timing of the beginning of this war didn't depend on the people from these parts, irrespective of whether they were Muslims, Serbs or Croats, and neither will the timing of its end", one of the soldiers in the trenches told us, and while beating the ground with his hand added- " The only thing I know is that my roots are in this region and have been here for the past 200 years. I cannot go elsewhere in search of my crust of bread. If nothing else, I am at least entiteled to an area of Bosnia a yard by two in size"

Bojana Lekic, Radio B-92 reporter