The open-air market, scene of a terrible massacre a few years ago, is full of shoppers choosing fresh fruit and vegetables. The embassy's more than 100 direct-hire personnel now live in apartments instead of in their offices, and tours of duty have been extended from one to two years. The decision to permit adult family members to accompany their spouses to Sarajevo brought six spouses to post in the last transfer cycle and a welcome new dimension to community life. The Marine security guard detachment, installed in December 1997, held its first Marine Ball in November 1998. Even as life returns to normal in Sarajevo, reminders of the recent, tragic past are everywhere.
Entire neighborhoods are in ruins.
Clusters of grave markers dot public parks. Most of the embassy's Foreign Service Nationals survived terrifying experiences, and mourn friends and relatives lost in the war. Some have not seen their pre-war hometowns for six years and do not know if they will ever be able to return. The Dayton Peace Accords negotiated in November 1995 stopped the slaughter and established a framework for Bosnia's future. The Dayton Accords provided for the return of refugees to their pre-war homes, a multinational peacekeeping force, international police monitors and several international civilian bodies assigned to various aspects of Bosnia's reconstruction.