Five times a day, the sound of the muezzins calling Muslims to prayer drifts from the minarets of East Mostar over both sides of this divided city. For many people in Croat-majority West Mostar, it is one of the few reminders left that there is still a Muslim half of the city. West Mostar's cars bear license plates identical to those in neighboring Croatia. Its currency is the Croatian Kuna.
Croatian flags hang from the telephone wires across intersections.
And Croatian President Franjo Tudjman, arms raised in victory, beams from roadside billboards labeling him the voice of Croatia's, and Croatian Bosnia's, ruling HDZ party. In the face of this de-facto secession, the EU has labored for almost two years to reunite Mostar under the Bosnian Federation. The Bosnian Croats' and Muslims' alliance, conceived by the US to end their fighting and counterbalance the Bosnian Serbs, is a cornerstone for Bosnia's future survival as a multi-ethnic state. But a visit to the office of Mile Puljic, the deputy mayor of West Mostar, suggests how difficult the EU's task of reuniting this city remains. Puljic is a Croat nationalist who doesn't mince words.