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Chapter  Mostar Introduction Lejla was fourteen when the first phase of interethnic conflict began in Mostar. Her family had been in the city for generations, and her relatives in Mostar resided on both the old and new sides of the town. When Serbian extremists took control of the Yugoslav national army in 1992 and used it to punish Mostar for following the secession of Bosnia-Herzegovina from the rump of Yugoslavia, Leila and her family were forced to move. They abandoned their apartment in East Mostar when Serbian forces occupied that side of the Neretva River, which formed a natural border between those massed to defend the city and those attempting to overwhelm it. At first she lived with relatives in the newer, western part of the city. Later her family retreated to the Dalmatian coast in order to avoid the escalating violence that claimed the lives of many civilians. Lejla described a unified effort on the part of Mostar’s Bosniak and Croatian residents at that time to defend their city against the hostile Serbian forces that planned to occupy Bosnian territory as far west as Mostar to form a Greater Serbia. When this effort failed, local forces expelled the Serbian army—what she called ‘‘its extreme parts.’’ Lejla and her family returned from the coast to celebrate the liberation of Mostar and resume a normal life. What followed was the Second Battle of Mostar, and a period of violence that Lejla calls ‘‘even the worst part . . . maybe one’s worst nightmares , you know, but it really happened . . . it really happened.’’ Around 9 May 1993, a highly organized program of ethnic cleansing was undertaken by Croatian paramilitary units against the Muslim residents of Mostar. Having acquired lists of occupants of the major apartment blocks in western Mostar, paramilitary soldiers went from door to door examining the names of the residents in order to identify and confirm the Muslims who were to be removed. Along with hundreds of others, Lejla and her family were wakened late at night by Croatian soldiers. They were  Chapter  Table 6.1. Basic Facts Regarding the Physical Partition of Mostar Antagonisms Croatians v. Bosniaks, Christians v. Muslims Name The Boulevard, or Bulevar Narodne Revolucije Location The partition line ran roughly north-south and parallel to the Neretva River as it passed through the dense sections of the city. It began its course through Mostar at the base of Hum Hill in the south and ran due north, coinciding with the width and length of the Boulevard before turning eastward on a side street just north of the Gymnasium and Spanish Square, then followed Santica Street northward for 30 m before slanting in a northeast direction and cutting through a complex of ruined apartments to arrive at the river bank, and from that point forward corresponds to the winding median of the river itself beyond the north military campus. Context The front line followed clear open spaces available within the constraints of combat, never touching the eastern bank of the river or interrupting the historic fabric in the city. Its placement represented a physical compromise between the practical advantages of a wide avenue in support of a prolonged urban stalemate and the military ambitions of the Croatian forces to press as far as possible toward the river. The most active and violent section of the front line falls along the Boulevard, which was hemmed in on both sides by two roughly symmetrical street walls made up of large, abandoned concrete buildings ranging 3–5 storys in height. Size The partition line for most of its course through Mostar was the width of the Boulevard: about 30 m. On both sides, combatants were ensconced in low, protected fortifications usually set into the basement story of the abandoned buildings along its length. When the line diverged from the Boulevard north of the Spanish Square, jogging eastward to merge with Santic Street, it narrowed and became noticeably more porous due to the looser configuration of surrounding buildings. Porosity During the first days following its establishment, in the second week of May 1993, limited pedestrian and vehicular movement across the partition line was allowed. For several months following the violent expulsion or voluntary departure of all Muslim citizens residing in the western section of the city, no further crossings were permitted. The entire length of the urban boundary was militarized for the remainder of the civil war. During calm periods a limited number of women...

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