Bosnia Herzegovina Transportation

Semsa Cerovic's commute from her village home to her city office should be a breeze. It's just 12 miles each way on a modern highway through scenic mountain terrain. But the 51-year-old land surveyor, who lives in Serb-run Pale and works in Muslim-run Sarajevo, must cross a boundary of ethnic hostility and fear. A legacy of the 1992-95 Bosnian war, the line is invisible but real enough to make the trip an ordeal.

Semsa Cerovic's commute from her village home to her city office should be a breeze. It's just 12 miles each way on a modern highway through scenic mountain terrain. But the 51-year-old land surveyor, who lives in Serb-run Pale and works in Muslim-run Sarajevo, must cross a boundary of ethnic hostility and fear. A legacy of the 1992-95 Bosnian war, the line is invisible but real enough to make the trip an ordeal.

To cheers and applause, 41 civilians crossed the Brotherhood and Unity Bridge linking the Serb- and government-held parts of Sarajevo for the first time in two years of civil war Wednesday. "If this was the Sarajevo 'Wall,' then it is falling apart," said Borislav Cuh, 68, as he crossed to see his two sons on the government-held side for the first time since shooting began. Not all the journeys across the bridge spanning the Miljacka River ended pleasantly.

A passenger train sputtered out of Sarajevo on Tuesday, reopening a key north-south railway and prospects of an economic recovery in Bosnia after 3 1/2 years of war. Bosnian officials and foreign diplomats boarded the five-coach train headed for the Adriatic port of Ploce, Croatia, after a ceremony in which Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic proclaimed: "This, today, is the second opening of the city."

The Bosnian Muslim bus driver was blocking the road and nothing could persuade him to move, not a Pakistani MP, a squad of British soldiers, a U.N. convoy or two frustrated American journalists. The driver and his passengers had been trapped all night by the worst snowstorm to hit Bosnia in at least 25 years. By morning, the bus still could not make it up the slippery grade.

A passenger train sputtered out of Sarajevo on Tuesday, reopening a key north-south railway and prospects of an economic recovery in Bosnia after 3 1/2 years of war. Bosnian officials and foreign diplomats boarded the five-coach train headed for the Adriatic port of Ploce, Croatia, after a ceremony in which Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic proclaimed: "This, today, is the second opening of the city."

The driver accelerated each time Serbian snipers fired on our armored car as we careened down Mt. Igman, the only route into besieged Sarajevo, the capital of chaos and Bosnia. Bouncing past the burned-out and rusted shells of vehicles that hadn't made it, we maneuvered the curves and banks of the goat trail that passes for a road. Then, at its foot, on the southwest edge of the capital, we dashed to the relative safety of government-held territory.

The Bosnian Muslim bus driver was blocking the road and nothing could persuade him to move, not a Pakistani MP, a squad of British soldiers, a U.N. convoy or two frustrated American journalists. The driver and his passengers had been trapped all night by the worst snowstorm to hit Bosnia in at least 25 years. By morning, the bus still could not make it up the slippery grade.

The driver accelerated each time Serbian snipers fired on our armored car as we careened down Mt. Igman, the only route into besieged Sarajevo, the capital of chaos and Bosnia. Bouncing past the burned-out and rusted shells of vehicles that hadn't made it, we maneuvered the curves and banks of the goat trail that passes for a road. Then, at its foot, on the southwest edge of the capital, we dashed to the relative safety of government-held territory.

To cheers and applause, 41 civilians crossed the Brotherhood and Unity Bridge linking the Serb- and government-held parts of Sarajevo for the first time in two years of civil war Wednesday. "If this was the Sarajevo 'Wall,' then it is falling apart," said Borislav Cuh, 68, as he crossed to see his two sons on the government-held side for the first time since shooting began. Not all the journeys across the bridge spanning the Miljacka River ended pleasantly.