Bosnia

Is Bosnia still at war?

I was reading my brand new LP guide on Croatia, and to my great surprise I discovered that I would have to go through Bosnia briefly to get from one city in Croatia (Dubrovnik) to another (Split) by bus. I've been using a Rough Guide on Croatia for a while and had never noticed this (granted, I was not really paying a lot of attention).

I have never imagined going to Bosnia (like I had never thought about going to Palestine).

And I know nothing about Bosnia. Here's what I've gathered from wiki -

Country name - Bosnia and Herzegovina (not just Bosnia) / 波斯尼亞黑塞哥維那.

In the country there are three entities - 1) Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina 波黑聯邦, 2) Republika Srpska 塞爾維亞共和邦 (very confusing cause there is another country called Serbia) , and 3) Brčko federal district.

In 1) above there are divisions called cantons, something like provinces.

Then there are 100+ municipalities throughout, and 4 official cities (something like our 直轄市 I think) including Sarajevo.

All in all I find the information very foreign and exotic. haha.

And all the names are very confusing. Serbia x 2, then there are also Marcedonia x2, although one is in Greece and the other is called Former Yugoslavian Republic of Marcedonia (FYROM). hmmm.... a mess ...

Found this article on FYROM on the internet (written in 1995), not sure if it is still true today ->

FYROM

On my way to Belgrade, I saw big politics in action for the first time. Greece has a conflict with the Former Yugoslavian Republic Of Marcedonia (FYROM) about the country's name, flag and constitution. In Greece everyone calls the country Skopje and don't think they have any right to the name Marcedonia.

On the Train to Belgrade, I passed through FYROM. On the way up they had one flag and on the way back they had a new one. When I was living at home in Denmark, I thought the conflict was ridiculous. But after I have talked to a lot of Greeks and Serbs, I can understand the importance of the question.

No part of the original Marcedonia lies in FYROM. The situation is as if the island Zealand in Denmark would call itself Prussia and put the German eagle in their flag. Said that, it is illogical that Greece didn't protest when FYROM was a part of Yugoslavia and called itself Marcedonia.

History means a lot to the people on Balkan. On the way to Belgrade I talked to a Greek called Pascal. He was on his way to Serbia to join their army voluntarily. I asked him why ? Greece and Serbia had always supported each other in wars, so therefore he went up there to support Serbia. Serbia has whole army units, which consists of voluntary Greeks !

As a Dane it was very difficult to understand this way of thinking. When I came back to Athens, I talked to my Greek friend Yanis about it. He said it was exactly what he would like to do. Yanis is a computer programmer, intelligent and modern, but in Greece history means a lot to even young and modern people.