Bosnia And Herzegovina Women Fashion Jewellery 8

Bosnia And Herzegovina Women Fashion Jewelry.

By Aamir Manan

Twenty years ago next month, the disbelieving glare of the outside world was cast toward battle-torn Bosnia.

In one of the most shocking and needless acts of the Balkan conflict, the iconic Stari Most (Old Bridge) in the city of Mostar was destroyed – blown up and sent crashing into the Neretva river - by Bosnian-Croat forces.

Less than two years previous a united Yugoslavia had boasted one of Europe’s finest football teams, including both Bosnians and Croats, as well as Serbs, Slovenians and Montenegrins.

Red Star Belgrade had won the 1991 European Cup while the national side, with stars such as Dragan Stojkovic (Serbian), Robert Prosinecki (Croatian) and Dejan Savicevic (Montenegrin), had made it to the quarter-finals of Italia 90, subsequently qualifying for Euro 92 only for the outbreak of war to force their withdrawal.

War-torn: The Old Bridge in the Bosnian city of Mostar was destroyed in 1993 in one of the most shocking images of the Balkan conflict +6

War-torn: The Old Bridge in the Bosnian city of Mostar was destroyed in 1993 in one of the most shocking images of the Balkan conflict

By November, 1993, however, all talk of football had been relegated, survival a far more pressing subject amid the blood and brutality of a war which had turned family, friends and even team-mates into enemies.

Two decades on and Bosnia is readying itself once more for a gaze from far beyond their own borders, football, thankfully, the source of such attention this time.

For on Tuesday night Bosnia & Herzegovina, who played their first FIFA-recognised match in 1995, made history by booking their place at a major tournament for the first time with a 1-0 victory in Lithuania, courtesy of a goal from Veded Ibisevic.