Mostar: A Picturesque Town Crippled By Political Feuding
Published 6 February 2013
For months, ethnic Croat and Bosniak -- or Bosnian Muslim -- factions in the town of Mostar have been locked in a dispute over how to reform the town’s electoral procedures. The feud is representative of the persistent ethnic divides in Bosnia-Herzegovina and has left Mostar without an approved budget for 2013. As the cash runs out, basic services are threatened, including soup kitchens, kindergartens, firefighting, and school heating. (7 PHOTOS)
1 Mostar's old stone bridge over the Neretva River was destroyed in 1993 but rebuilt after the end of Bosnia's civil war in a move toward reconciliation.
2 A man stands in front of a souvenir shop in the historic center.
3 Elsewhere in Mostar, destruction from the 1992-95 war is still visible, as are the effects of postwar neglect.
4 People walk by an abandoned building. Mostar remains divided along ethnic lines, with Croat and Bosniak schoolchildren attending separate classes and studying from separate textbooks.
5 People receive food at one of Mostar's two soup kitchens -- one of the services threatened by the city's failure to approve the 2013 budget.
6 A woman waits for food in front of a soup kitchen. Some 600 residents depend on the public kitchens for their daily meals.
7 With neighboring Croatia set to join the European Union in July, Mostar's political crisis is a symbol of how far Bosnia's development has lagged behind.