"Mladic's Legacy" will include visits to the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, which was under siege from 1992 until 1995, and to the Serbian capital Belgrade, where the general lived for years before his eventual capture.
The tour also promises a rafting trip down the Neretva River and a picnic in the mountains en route to Srebrenica, the scene of the worst incident of genocide in Europe since World War II.
Describing a "fascinating and highly rewarding" trip, the brochure says participants will "see Bosnia's stunning countryside, enjoy wonderful local cuisine, as well as visit key sites in Bosnian and Serbian history." Not everyone in the region is pleased with the idea of becoming tourist attractions.
"I see nothing wrong with tours that include visits to war-crimes sites, assuming they are educational in nature or designed to present crimes to people who want to learn about them," Husnija Kamberovic, a history professor from Sarajevo said. "However, it seems to me that this is not the purpose of this tour. It appears to be a rather hedonistic trip for adventurers."
"Modern tourism tends to exploit normal human curiosity and uses it to make a profit," Bosnian political analyst Esad Bajtal said. "However, the Mladic's Legacy tour is somehow very problematic because it mixes visits to war-crimes sites where terrible tragedies took place with fun elements like rafting and sightseeing. That makes me think the main aim of those who created the tour was to make it attractive to tourists, and to make money fast."
Radmila Karlas, a Bosnian Serb journalist from Banja Luka, said she was particularly appalled by the activities planned in and around Srebrenica.
"I've never heard of a more morbid example of the misuse of the Bosnian tragedy," she said. "It's dreadful to use Srebrenica, Sarajevo and other killing fields to earn money."
Organizers of the tour, which costs nearly $4,000 per person, defend the excursion.
"I think it's very important for people in Europe to understand what happened in Bosnia," tour organizer Nicholas Wood said. "That was a crucial moment in European history. There are people who want to understand contemporary developments in the world. They want to find out what is going on in Bosnia today."
American analyst Kurt Bassuener, a longtime Sarajevo resident who will be making a presentation during the tour, also thinks there's merit in taking tourists to the scenes of horrific war crimes.
"I think that a lot of people have already earned money from the Bosnian tragedy, even during the war," Bassuener said. "I don't think there is anything unethical in an attempt to provide information to people who are interested in the situation in this country today, and who prefer to learn about it first-hand rather than from the books. Of course, I would have been happier if that interest had emerged 20 years ago, but that's not the case, and people today still don't know, or don't understand, what happened here."
But Mirko Sagolj, a journalist with the Sarajevo-based Oslobodjenje daily, remains convinced that the tour is a bad idea.
"There are so many different ways to show people in Europe what happened in Bosnia, without earning profits for anyone," he said. "Sightseeing tours with picnics are not the appropriate way to introduce Bosnia's recent history to foreigners, and will not provide any decent answers to those who wonder what really happened here some 20 years ago."
ABOUT THE WRITER
Zana Kovacevic is a reporter in Sarajevo who writes for The Institute for War & Peace Reporting, a nonprofit organization that trains journalists in areas of conflict. Readers may write to the author at the Institute for War & Peace Reporting, 48 Grays Inn Road, London WC1X 8LT, U.K.; Web site: www.iwpr.net. For information about IWPR's funding, please go to http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?top-supporters.html.
This essay is available to McClatchy-Tribune News Service subscribers. McClatchy-Tribune did not subsidize the writing of this column; the opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of McClatchy-Tribune or its editors.
2012, The Institute for War & Peace Reporting
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