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LOOK AT THE SERBIAN SOLDIER lifting his boot to stomp on a bleeding old woman in the road. It catches you off guard to see the grinning Liberian boy holding an AK-47. Sunlight captures the moment when bright blue burkhas of Afghani women blow in the breeze in front of the ruins of Kabul. These and other images of brutality, poignancy and disarming beauty line the walls of the War Photo Museum in Dubrovnik, Croatia.
Outside, the streets of old Dubrovnik are thronged with ice cream–licking, pasta-slurping tourists. Shops and pubs line cobblestone alleyways; luxury yachts bob in the harbor; tunes from the Troubadour Jazz Cafe entertain. The young sunbathe on rocks surrounding the city walls, some taking daredevil jumps into the bright blue Adriatic Sea far below. Cruise ships, ferries and buses bring many of Croatia’s 10 million yearly tourists to Dubrovnik every day.
The War Photo Museum is in this popular tourist destination for a reason. Just 15 years ago, Dubrovnik suffered under daily artillery bombardment during the Yugoslavian civil war. An unfortunate geographical quirk has the city surrounded by 1,200-foot mountains only 5 miles from the Serbian border. In 1991, the advancing Serb army camped on the hilltops for two years, and rained thousands of shells on the nearly defenseless city. Most buildings were damaged; hundreds of people who didn’t flee were killed.
In these current peaceful times, you have to look carefully to see any sign of the past conflict. Walk Dubrovnik’s city walls to view mismatched roof tiles, replacements to fill the holes from explosions. Outside the restored historical district, buildings remain deeply pockmarked from shrapnel. Some windows display posters supporting Ante Gotovina, a Croatian general indicted for war crimes. In the mountains separating Croatia from Serbia, signs warn of land mines and unexploded ordnance from the conflict.
But a casual tourist can quickly become entranced by the beauty of coastal Croatia, completely forgetting the bitter battles that engulfed this region. It’s worth a diversion down an unassuming Dubrovnik alleyway to visit the War Photo Museum and gain a perspective on the fragile line that divides this, and any other civil society, from the chaos of war.
The photos in the museum also document other recent conflicts throughout the world, from Iraq and Afghanistan to Israel and Palestine to some you may never have heard of. It’s neither a grossout exhibit of burnt bleeding bodies nor the staged drama of the evening news, but rather a selection of the best efforts of photojournalists across the world to tell the story of war through unexpected glimpses of common people caught in the crossfire. You will leave the exhibit with a better understanding of the history of the region, and a much greater appreciation for the now peaceful land.
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