Bridge on the Drina


Just read about the arrest of Bosnian Serb Milan Lukic in Argentina. This is very good news. Most people have never heard of him, but he was allegedly one of the worst mass-murderers of the Bosnian war.

In 2002, when I travelled around Serbia with my photog friend Andrija Ilic, we decided to go to Visegrad, across the border in Bosnia. The town is famous for its Ottoman-era bridge, which is the central 'character' in the great Ivo Andric novel Bridge on the Drina. We arrived at night, with the bridge lit up against the dark town. I couldn't resist, I had to go up and touch it, considering the centuries of history it has witnessed (and with Andric's book fresh in my mind).

But many local residents are probably not sentimental at all about the bridge, at least not anymore. Reports say that on Lukic's orders and instigation, the bridge became a staging area for massacre, with hundreds or perhaps thousands of Bosnian Muslims executed and thrown into the river during the war. A good account of events is here, grim but vital reading.

At the time, I noticed people didn't linger and socialize much on the bridge the way they have since it was first built. Only later did I learn why.


photo © Bill Crandall

Posted: Mon - August 8, 2005 at 05:35 PM          

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