And then there were 3

5/20/22- Today we were in Sarajevo, Bosnia. We woke up and walked over to a tour company where we met up with our tour guide. He took us to this spot where the Bosnian people dug a tunnel when they were attacked by the Serbians. The Bosnian war took place because after WWII and communism started to taper off in Eastern Europe, Slovenia decided they wanted their freedom back from Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia was made up of 6 countries, Slovania, Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia, and Montenegro. Slovania made it known they were not part of Yugoslavia and the UN recognized them as a separate country. Serbia, who was the strongest country of Yugoslavia, was angry that Slovenia just decided to leave so they sent their army up to prevent the Slavs from leaving. However, since Slovenia is surrounded by mountains their attack didn’t work very well and they were forced to leave and accept that Slovenia was no longer a part of Yugoslavia. Croatia saw how without much hassle Slovenia was able to leave and they did the same thing, with a little more fighting from Serbia they also successfully left Yugoslavia. Bosnia saw these two countries do this and wanted the same so they decided they would leave as well. However their country was not as fortunate as Croatia or Slovenia and the Serbs came and attacked the city of Sarajevo. This attack was detrimental to the population, 11,000 people died in the end. The attack which turned into a siege lasted for 3 1/2 years. After 1 year of being under siege Bosnia started digging a tunnel under the airport which was under UN control. This tunnel was used to transport food and other necessities that were being blocked from entering Sarajevo by the Serbs. It also was used to let people escape into the mountains that were considered free territory. The tunnel was barely 5 feet tall and you had to crouch to walk through it. After touring the tunnel we drove over to a mountain where according to our guide Serbian snipers were set up to kill the civilians of Bosnia. The snipers would frequently target children to cause immense grief and trauma to the parents. After the tour we walked through the neighborhoods and saw the bridge where the arch duke was driving over when he was assassinated. This assassination was what started WWI. After seeing Sarajevo we drove over to Mostar where we saw Stari Most, a famous bridge as well as a buidling where snipers were posted during the war.