Open-Air Market in U.S. Sector Sees
Thriving Business in Peaceful Setting
POREBRICA, Bosnia, May 9 (Reuters) — Trade is slowly dismantling nationalist barriers and uniting old rivals, accomplishing what politicians have failed to do, traders and refugees in one small Bosnian market town said on Thursday. "The world's gone crazy. Just a few months ago the only thing these people wanted to do was to kill each other," said Kosta Dujkovic, a Serb refugee from Lukavac near Tuzla.He was in an open-air market in no-man's-land at Porebrica along the so-alled "Arizona route," which is controlled by IFOR and links Tuzla with Croatia to the north. It crosses the vital corridor joining Serb territory in eastern and western Bosnia. Under the gaze of U.S. troops from the Peace Implementation Force (IFOR) manning a checkpoint about 300 metres away, Serbs, Croats and Muslims trade in just about everything.
"We could not wait for our leaders to come to terms. We have to get on with our lives and that means we have to trade between ourselves," Esad Cenkovic from Orasje said. He deals in fertilizers produced in the Croatian town of Kutina which are highly prized by the Serbs. Elsewhere in Bosnia, nationalist politicians from all sides have blocked the freedom of movement between ethnic territories, in direct conflict with the goals of the Dayton peace accord aimed at healing the wounds of 43-months of war. And, while the killing stopped when the Dayton accord was signed last December, ethnic mistrust still runs deep.
But, at the market in Porebrica, a truck filled with squealing Serb-reared pigs headed for Muslim-controlled Tuzla. "So much for the claims that Muslims from Tuzla are devout," Dujkovic quipped. "I never thought I would survive and when the war started all I wanted was to protect my family, which thank God I did, and buy me a hat when the war is over, which I also did." "Why the hat, you ask ½ well that would mean I still have a head on my shoulders," he laughs. "Seriously now, would you have believed this sight only a few months ago?" he asked, pointing to a row of parked cars.
The vehicles bore registration plates from all over former Yugoslavia ½ Macedonia to Slovenia ½ and included some unlikely places like the Croatian port of Rijeka. Another trader, Lala Djordjevic from Banja Luka, was dealing in sugar which he buys from Tuzla Muslims for 50 German marks a sack, and sells in nearby Serb-controlled Bjeljina for 63. "We have cattle, alcohol, tobacco, fertilizer ½ you name it, we've got it. All we need now is to start selling cars," he says. "Profit is important but what is vital is that war wounds are slowly starting to heal here."
"This mosquito-infested pit is certainly not the place where you would expect the healing miracle to start, but then this is a crazy country," he laughed. Alija Zinanovic from Zenica agrees: "It will take a lot of time to heal the bitter wounds from all the killing and bestiality but someone, sometime has to make the first step."
A few kilometres up the Arizona route there is a restaurant that regulars call "Slozna Braca" (United Brothers) ½ a meeting point for friends and families from all sides. They huddle at tables like reunited lovers. Four men at one table were refugees from Miroslavci, a north Bosnian village razed by the Muslims in October, 1992. "Here we are, two Serbs a Muslim and a Croat. We were neighbors and we have not seen each other for almost four years. We used to live together and help each other and then...," one said trailing off his sentence. Looking at them it was impossible to tell the difference between Serb, Muslim or Croat.
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