FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT (MOSTAR) [Main Title]

FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT. UNTV examines the procedure for residents in Mostar to cross from one side to the other and looks at the problems and tasks faced by the European administration of the divided city. Includes responses from the Mayors of each side of the city, Safet Oručević, the Mayor of East Mostar and Mijo Brajković, the Mayor of West Mostar.

Shots of two teenage girls on the river bank, teenage boys look down on them from higher up the bank. Voiceover of one of the girls who talks about how divided the town is and explains the process for crossing from one side of the town to the other. She explains that they had to register at the Ministry of Interior and then wait a further three days because only a limited number of people can cross per day. She then explains that they have to cross a first checkpoint, manned by Muslim, Croatian and EU Police and then have to go through a Croatian checkpoint on the other side. Shots show the two girls crossing the river and negotiating the Croatian checkpoint. The officer at the checkpoint says that the maximum number of people allowed across per day is 200. The failure to form a joint police force has prevented people from crossing freely. Safet Oručević, the Mayor of East Mostar says that the obstructions to such a merger have come from politicians on the Croatian side. Mijo Brajković, the Mayor of West Mostar, says that this kind of problem should be solved on a federation level first to make it easier to solve on a local level. Both men face the camera, arms tightly folded. The first stage of a joint police force was recently agreed on and currently the EU police patrol with both sides to act as a common link. Footage on patrol with the police from the West side of the city. They say that they would like to lead normal lives again. Oručević says that the people are not to blame for this division, it is, in his mind, the fault of the political leadership of West Mostar. Brajković counters that in these cases, blame never lies solely with one side. There is a high level of crime on the West side and EU Administrator for Mostar, Hans Koschnick, is worried about the level of organised crime in that part of the city. Brajković says that the problem has been exaggerated and that crime levels are far lower than they have been. Policemen are interviewed commenting on the problem on armed robberies on the streets of West Mostar. On the Eastern side, the police argue that there are fewer problems because people are having to pull together in difficult circumstances. For now, men aged between 16 and 60 are not allowed to cross but even for these girls, their lives are highly affected by the restriction on their movement and the different urban characters developing on the different sides. One girl says at the end of the programme "we often blame the EU, UNPROFOR, and other people but they are not guilty, they cannot reconcile us."

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