So I have some days off. This is due primarily to the heat. No social service offices or doctors are seeing anyone. Too hot, must rest. It is July here in Herzegovina, and that means hot. Rain? Maybe…but it won’t cool things down.
Today I took a quick day trip to the small town of Po?itelj (Poe-che-tell-ya). It is about 10km from the Croatian border and about 60km from the Montenegrin frontier. It is a prime example of 15th century Turkish architecture and design, lying peacefully along the Neretva River. In 1992, when the war began, a group from the UN arrived there and declared the town safe from harm and undisturbed. No damage, nothing…
Almost a year later (July, 1993, btw), the HVO (Croatian Defense Council) entered the village. First they gathered the 3000 ethnic Muslims (men, women, and children) and shipped them off to a concentration camp. Many died…the number is unknown. After the village was clear, the HVO soldiers blew up the 500 year old mosque, toppling the minaret into the cupola, leveling the baths, and then proceeded to destroy most of the old home that had stood there for many generations. It must be noted that Christians and Muslims had lived side-by-side there for hundreds of years, even sharing a graveyard. The soldiers then stuck a large cross on top of the derelict Turkish fortress. Then they left, their defacing and despoiling finished. As the war progressed, Catholic Bosnian Croats were re-located there from around the country.
In 2000, the UN and its antiquities department, UNESCO, declared the town a World Heritage Spot. A little late, perhaps, but the HVO would never had paid any attention anyway. Since then the mosque has been completely rebuilt and most of the houses as well. The maddrasa that once schooled generations of Muslim students now teaches Catholic children. The Neretva River still flows alongside the village, the constant witness to the devastation and pain that this place has endured.
Enjoy the pictures.
Johnnyboy