Back to Bosnia

Visegrad & the dark hidden secrets of the Bajna Basta hydro-electric dam Very in the beginning of the Bosnian war the Serbs already started with massacres and ethnic cleansing in East Bosnia which ultimately ends in the Srebrenica massacre. During the Bosnian war I had never the opportunity to travel through East Bosnia, but presently it is safe to pass the former war zones between the Serbian and Bosnian parts. Only some signs are presenting that we passed the former battle zones. Visegrad The Višegrad Bridge was commissioned by Grand Vizier Mehmed Paša Sokolović, who exercised power over a long period at the summit of the Ottoman Empire during the reign of three sultans as a tribute to his native region and a symbol of trade and prosperity. Construction of the bridge took place between 1571 and 1577. Major renovations of the bridge have taken place in 1664, 1875, 1911, 1940 and 1950–52. Three of its 11 arches were destroyed during World War I and five were damaged duri...

  Santici, Busovaca and Ahmici During a few months in 1995 I was based in Santici. It was decided to merge the Support Command of Dutch Bat compound Lukavac together with the existing Transport battalion in both Busovaca and Santici. Due to the fact that after the Danish tank battle (beginning 1994) with the Serbs close to Tuzla (see also blog 8), the road from Tuzla to Srebenica was closed by the Serbs it was impossible for Support Command to drive from Tuzla to Srebrenica and the available route was via Sarajevo. Therefor it seemed more sufficient to move Support Command closer to Sarajevo however the history showed that after the move also nearly zero logistics to Srebrenica was allowed by the Serbs so this move hadn’t a lot of impact.   Destroyed village at the other side of the compound fence   Life line to home (1 DM/minute)     Hundreds of both volunteering conscription soldiers and the more professional m...

Traveling through Central Bosnia   Central Bosnia From Lukavac we traveled via Doboj, Maglaj and Zenica to Busovaca and Santici located in the Lasva Valley which was one of the epi-centres of the Bosnian ethnic war. Our destination was Santici, Ahmici and Busovaca. Despite the fact that the best known area’s during the Bosnian war have been Sarajevo, Mostar and East Bosnia (Srebrencia, Gorazde and Zepa) and also the highest death toll can be counted in these area’s, the more unknown war between the Croats and the Muslims in Central Bosnia was intense and bitterly and lots of civilians have been massacred and withdrew from their houses. This ethnic war (most Croats against the Muslims) was fight between March 1993 to April 1994 in the more unknown places as Santici, Vitez, Ahmici, Kiseljak, Busovaca and Novi Travnik. In both Busovaca and Santici the Dutch and Belgium Transport Battallions were located to support the United Nations with food transports. Hundreds of Dutc...

Support Command in Lukavac Support Command (the supporting unit of Dutchbat) was based in Lukavac from 1994 to 1995. In 1995 Support Command was merged in 1995 with the Dutch/Belgium transport battalion (based from 1992 in Busovaca and Santici, close to Vitez) to the Log/Transport battalion located in Santici and Busovaca. When I arrived in Bosnia in late 1994, the situation in Bosnia was very critical. The ABiH (the Muslim Bosnian Army) and the HVO (The Croatian Bosnian Army) just shortened their positions and captured under Operation Cincar 430 square kilometers from the Bosnian Serbs (VRS) around Kupres and they finally captured Kupres on 3 November 1994. This battle was the first result of the Muslim-Croatian alliance since the Washington Agreement which was signed in March 1994 and which ended the Muslim-Croatian war and lead to the Federation of Bosnia and Hercegowina. The capture of Kupres didn’t optimize the relationship between the UN and the Bosnian Serbs and after ...