Bosnia Remains Deeply Divided

In Sarajevo, nobody's shooting at anybody now. The city's water supply and electricity have been restored, people are back on the streets, and the once war-torn area has regained a semblance of normalcy.

In the market, where a mortar shell once caused carnage, the shops are full and business is booming.

But Bosnia remains a nation in name only, with two thirds of it's people unemployed, without a central government, even without it's own currency - the german mark is the money of choice.

However, Bosnia does have a U.N. ambassador, Muhamed Sacirbey. Sacirbey is a qualified optimist.

"We are actually putting Humpty Dumpty back together in some places, but it's a long task," Sacirbey said.

Bosnia remains divided into Muslim, Croat and Serb enclaves separated by fear and ill will. The boundaries are real. A person on the Serbian side, who needs to get to the Muslim side, must take a Serb taxi to one street, then cross over, and catch a Muslim taxi.

In the Nedzarici neighborhood, Muslim refugees who used to live on the Serb side are now living in what's left of houses that Serbs used to live in.

One such refugee, Rahima Mujkic, lost her husband and son in the war. She says she can't go home, because she is afraid.
People on the Croatian or Serb sides have expressed the same fears, which is why almost a million Bosnian refugees remain unsettled.

A total of 8,000 American troops, who are now stationed here indefinitely, comprise the cornerstone of the U.N. peacekeeping force. They have suffered hardly any casualties yet, and they contribute a powerful symbolism.

"We all know that when they walk by us, there's that little American flag, and that means there's an American commitment here," said Sacirbey.

The American presence has spawned a touching faith among ordinary Bosnians that somehow, someway, America will set things right.

If money and the goodwill of strangers were all it took, Bosnia would be Utopia by now. But reconciliation can't be bought.

If they choose, Bosnia's bitter enemies now have the means to get together and make a nation.