Sarajevo may rebuild wartime tunnel

By Adam Tanner

SARAJEVO (Reuters) - The narrow tunnel that ran beneath Sarajevo airport was people's only escape route during the longest siege in modern history, a symbol of a brutal war that split families and pitted neighbors against each other.

After marking the 15th anniversary of the now largely destroyed tunnel's opening, some in the capital of Bosnia hope to reconstruct the passage which meant escape or at least brief relief from desperate times. Yet the sensitive project lacks funds and they say it may be an opportunity for foreign investors.

"It should be reconstructed to remember those times and show Bosnians and the world how we lived, how we survived," said Ismet Hadzic, a general during the war who ran one half of the tunnel. "If the city rebuilds it, it would become the premier tourist destination in the city."

Like Vietnam's Cu Chi tunnels or the Anne Frank House Museum in Amsterdam, the tunnel that helped ordinary people survive in Sarajevo through more than 1,000 days under siege embodies the local spirit of resistance.

But even as Bosnia slowly recovers from the 1992-95 war, its government is still divided by ethnic and religious tensions. For some, memories of Sarajevo's bloody past are still too raw and its economy too battered to contemplate such a venture.

During the war, Bosnian Serb forces surrounded Sarajevo, a city that once boasted of tolerance between Muslims, Orthodox Serbs, Catholic Croats and Jews.

About 14,000 people were killed during the siege, according to Norwegian government-backed research by the Sarajevo-based Investigation-Documentation Centre.

Sarajevo's population of about 350,000, of which about 90 percent are now secular Muslims but still includes Serbs and Croats, has made significant progress in rebuilding since then. Yet nearly 40 percent of Bosnians are still officially unemployed.

Tourism is growing as an economic force. A 2007 report by the World Travel and Tourism Council estimated that almost 12 percent of Bosnia's economy is linked to travel and tourism, and war sites are among the attractions.

Last year, more than 119,000 international visitors came to the Sarajevo region, up from fewer than 90,000 in 2005, according to the Tourism Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina. More than 1 million visited the house in Amsterdam where Anne Frank and her Jewish family hid from Nazis in World War Two.

Bosnia's inefficient politics could complicate rebuilding the tunnel, but local officials are optimistic. "We have political agreement from all parties," said Damir Hadzic, mayor of the Novi Grad district of Sarajevo. "We are going to start rebuilding next year."

IN THE TUNNEL

The 800-metre wood and iron tunnel, which opened on July 30, 1993, was the city's only direct link with the outside world: through it passed weapons, food, the wounded and supplies.

The structure connected a residential part of Sarajevo far from the centre with a more rural area beyond the airport, whose runway was controlled by United Nations forces. Many died coming and going as Bosnian Serbs shelled from afar.

Those who made the trip recall stumbling hunched below the roof, carrying back-breaking packs in a claustrophobic space dimly lit and often partially flooded.