I don't know if the church was build on an uneven surface, but the towers seem to be pointed at different angles. Is it a Catholic conspiracy? No. But there sure were angels and demons during the war...
Anyway, enough with the bad jokes. Our July 4th morning started a little after 10 am with a walking tour of Sarajevo. We stopped by a Catholic Cathedral, Serbian Orthodox Church, Mosque and Jewish Synagogue (now a museum), which are all within a short walking distance of each other in Old Town. The top row of pictures show the mosque on the left, cathedral in the middle and synagogue/Jewish museum on the right. The bottom left is a picture of a bombed out, still unrestored building (located next to the cathedral) and the Serbian Orthodox church on the right.
The pictures below are from a bridge on the river. The house in the picture on the right was originally on the left side of the river. In an eminent domain-ish case, people looking to buy the land it was on. The owner of the house refused because he had lived there all of his life and so had his father, grandfather, etc. After refusing offers which were well over its market value, they struck a compromise. They buyers had an exact replica of the house rebuilt in the current location on the right side of the river. The owner even refused a slight re-orientation of the house so the balcony would overlook the river. The house is currently a restaurant for tourists who hear the story and want to see what the house is like on the inside. Genius business strategy.
After the tour, I grabbed some grub with my roommate, Dennis. I got some lamb kebobs, but he went for the steak in honor of the Fourth of July. Little did he know that our friendly waitress would come up behind him and tie on a bib. And the rest, they say, is delicious history. 
After an afternoon siesta, we had a lecture by our TA, Mladen. We went an hour over the scheduled time, but it was the first good chance for us to talk with Mladen, originally from the Vojvodina region of Croatia, about the war and Balkan politics. Besides doing an overview of the history of the war covering when who was fighting who, when and where, and which peace agreements did or didn't work, we discussed some of the international law implications. For instance, it is generally recognized as a rule that a group of people can not unilaterally secede or unilaterally change internationally recognized borders. Slovenia was the first to do this in the breakup of Yugoslavia, with Croatia and Bosnia Herzegovina following their example. However, this seems to conflict with the internationally recognized right to self-determination. The chemistry of secession and self-determination is first determined by the degree of international recognition and secondly, whether or not the people/territory trying to secede or assert self-determination is able to operate as a sovereign state. Slovenia and Croatia received recognition from some of their historical allies like Germany and Austria right away. The decision of whether or not to recognize them as independent states divided the international community and the US was initially against it. Despite the early hesitation, the US was one of the first to recognize BiH as an independent state.
As you can imagine, Serbia and Milosevic were not happy that Slovenia, Croatia and BiH were able to effectively sidestep international norms and receive recognition from the international community. To me, the story is similar to when Abraham Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteer soldiers and the Confederacy responded by seceding from the Union. In the case of Yugoslavia, Milosevic and Serbia were seen as the aggressors attempting to establish Serbian hegemony. Of course, this is a somewhat shallow comparison, but making these comparisons to parts of US history that I am familiar with helps me to gain a deeper understanding of why people acted the way they did. Obviously, the American civil war and the the fall of Yugoslavia ended very differently for the seceding parties.
So, after some good discussion, we were invited to a dinner party and continued celebrating the Fourth at a fine local Sarajevo establishment. After indulging in a few hours of rest, we awoke and visited La Benevolencia, the newer Jewish synagogue and community center in Sarajevo (by new I mean that it was constructed in 1902 rather than 1565). We met with Jacob Finci (the Jewish lawyer and community leader described in my last post) for a couple hours and learned about the phenomenal work La Benevolencia did during the siege of Sarajevo and the lawsuit that he won (while working as a Bosnian diplomat, no less) in the European Court of Human Rights. During the siege, they were able to establish and expand a pharmaceutical network that supplied about 40% of Sarajevo's needs during the siege. They had a medical team, news letter, radio (for a brief time), and post office. The people working for the center came from all religions and ethnicities.
It was fascinating to hear about the activity that happened at Benevolencia after hearing so many times about the constant destruction and demoralization of Sarajevo during the siege. I have nothing but admiration for the strength, courage and cooperative work of Finci and everyone else who made Benevolencia function during the siege. They were also able to help orchestrate a massive evacuation of women, children and elderly citizens. Unfortunately, the Jewish population has diminished (as has the Catholic population) in Sarajevo compared with pre-war numbers. After all of the work they did during the war, it came as no surprise that Finci and others would fight to change the discrimination in the BiH constitution. Hopefully BiH politicians will be able to figure out some changes that will afford every BiH citizen, not just a Croat, Serb or Bosnian, the right to run for the presidency. La Benevolencia's history makes me hopeful for what the people of Sarajevo and BiH as a whole can accomplish through cooperation.
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