Over in the Serbian zone, called Republika Srpska, aid has been slower to come, so war destruction remains more evident. Johnson observed two elections in this zone of Bosnia, including one near Pale, a stronghold of war criminals. Johnson never felt she was in personal danger but one of her fellow U.S. election observers was thrown out of her lodgings at dawn after a night of harassment. The U.S. State Department decided to pull its observers out of that area sooner than planned. In her opinion, the war was not religious but rather based on extreme nationalism.
Some residents think separation is now necessary for survival.
Yet Johnson saw signs of hope for reconciliation. She heard of a Serbian couple who wouldn't both come to vote at the same time because they had to watch over a Muslim neighbor's property. An interpreter's mother, a Muslim, voted for a Croat who was a local coalition leader. And the experience changed her daily life in a major way. As she spoke in her small home, one of the originals built for the planned community of Greendale, a new addition to the family competed for her attention.