Transcript of "Guarding Bosnia: Keeping Peace" [Mike Tobias/Reporting] This used to be a shoe factory. A thriving industry in the northern Bosnian city of Brcko. That changed when war broke out in 1992 between ethnic Serbs, Muslims and Croats. [Lt. Kyle Hildebrand/Gretna, NE] The Bosnian Serbs executed a large number of Bosnian Muslims from this area, actually in this factory. [Tobias] The factory was later shelled. It's bullet and graffiti-scarred skeleton remains. Bosnia is full of places like this. Reminders of the bloodiest European war since World War II. The war claimed the lives of more than 250,000 Bosnians, many victims of massacres and other acts of ethnic cleansing. Towns like Scebenica, right on the front line of the war, were left in shambles. Over half of the country's population became refugees. Today Bosnia is mostly peaceful. By the most basic definition, peacekeepers have accomplished their mission - silencing the guns and ending the war. Henry Clarke is Brcko District supervisor for the non-military part of the peacekeeping mission. [Henry Clarke/Office of the High Representative, Bosnia] The forces are contributing a great deal, not by actively putting down some sort of resistance, but by being a deterrent to those who might want to start again the tensions and the conflicts that led to the last war. [Sen. Chuck Hagel/(R) Nebraska] We have stopped the genocide. There is now an opportunity for those people to have a future, develop a country where democratic institutions will rule, market economies will finance their future. [Tobias] Now the NATO Stabilization Force is dwindling – 60,000 soldiers in 1995, 12,000 today. Soldiers, Bosnians and others have many questions and perspectives on the future of Bosnia. [Tobias] Welcome to the Arizona Market. This plywood catacomb near Brcko used to be an ungoverned, lawless flea market. Peacekeepers and international organizations helped clean it up. Now it's a thriving shopping area, modernizing and working to put tax dollars back into local government. UNL professor Patrice McMahon visited the market in June. She says it’s a positive sign of progress for Bosnia. [Patrice McMahon/UNL Political Science Professor] That's the way capitalism does take off. I would argue that's the way, in a sense, democracy does take off. It's a ground roots initiative of people getting together spontaneously, doing what they want to do, doing what they need to do, making money, learning about ownership. Then eventually capitalism starts developing taxes and rules of the game and governance. [Tobias] McMahon's made several research trips to Bosnia. She's fascinated with underdogs - and there's little doubt Bosnia falls into that category. Half of all Bosnians are unemployed. Economic development has been slow. Farms are small; farming practices outdated. [McMahon] We ignored that economic development needed to come with and even before political development and forcing reconciliation and all these institutions. So I mean there's not really a lot of good news in terms of economic development. The country is worse off now than it was prior to the war. And what they have gotten instead of investment is international assistance, so you've created this very dependent mentality among a lot of the Bosnians. [Tobias] McMahon says another problem is a flawed governing structure that separates Bosnia into two regions - one controlled by Serbs, one controlled by Muslims and Croats, each with its own government and army. [McMahon] Anywhere where you have a place where the institutions don't work, people don't have jobs, anyplace could be ripe for conflict. And certainly with the multi-ethnic dimensions, or the multi-ethnic history of Bosnia you could see how you couldn't eliminate, or it would be hard to eliminate that distinct possibility in the future. [Tobias] McMahon is optimistic, though, that fighting won't resume in Bosnia. And that her favorite underdog will rebuild to the point of earning membership in the European Union. [Tobias] Cznejna Vukovic sees a half-empty glass. [Cznejna Vukovic/through interpreter] What does she think will happen once the soldiers, once SFOR leaves Bosnia? War start again. She thinks the war will start again. Yeh. [Tobias] Vukovic - a 30-year-old Serb - has a job. She sells CDs and perfume from a stand in downtown Brcko. [Vukovic] She's not happy with the job. She used to work with SFOR, and this is not good after SFOR because it's not really good money. But this is just something to do in the transition. It doesn't look like Bosnia is going to have a bright future, because everybody is trying to leave. There is not really a good perspective for young people and everybody's trying to get out of here pretty much. [Tobias] Vukovic says many of her friends are leaving. She'll stay, for now. [Tobias] Sanja Knezevic can thank MTV for her job. She learned English by watching American TV and movies. Now the 28-year-old Serb is a translator for the peacekeepers. Working for SFOR is one of the better jobs in Bosnia. [Sanja Knezevic/Bosnian SFOR Interpreter] The future? Well, it's going to be really hard because most of the infrastructure, most of the industry, everything was really heavily damaged, destroyed. There is no industry right now, no jobs. Our young people see no perspective. Everybody is trying to get out of the country. [Tobias] Knezevic longs for the good times of pre-war, communist Yugoslavia - and says some post-war tension still exists between ethnic groups. [Knezevic] Places that are isolated and places that don't hear and see about everything that's happening, about the peace process and about all the developments that are taking place, still feel hostile and uncomfortable with their neighbors. I mean of course if somebody was kicked out of their house by their neighbors, they won't feel comfortable coming back and living with those same people. [Tobias] Knezevic was going to leave Bosnia a couple years ago. Now she's more optimistic, staying and going to college. [Tobias] Muslim Dzevad Mujik fought against the Serbs as a major in the Bosnian army. After the war he was a United Nations peacekeeper. Now he works in a restaurant and lives in a house scarred by bullets and shell fragments. [Dzevad Mujik/through interpreter] We do have the peace now, but there still are some problems. It's mostly the organized crime, corruption. So it would be good if the international community, including SFOR, could do something about that now. [Tobias] Mujik would like to see SFOR soldiers stay in Bosnia a while longer. [Mujik] Because there is still some things that should take place in this community that would need the international presence. First of all the creation of the joint army, that might not go as smooth as planned. And then like another thing, as long as most of the war criminals are still not indicted and as long as that is still in process, SFOR should still be around for that. [Tobias] Task Force Huskers soldiers walk softly but carry big sticks - 6-ton hum-vees armed with 7.62 mm machine guns. They carry M-16's and Baretta pistols. This presence quells the fighting. But they're more involved in areas like economic development, mediation and public relations. It's peacekeeping work these soldiers weren't originally trained to do. Some question whether it should even be the role of the military. Lt. Kyle Hildebrand says the Army - especially National Guard troops - are especially suited for this mission. [Hildebrand] We bring so much to the table. Everyone here has a civilian career, they're a mechanic you know, they work in a restaurant, they're a businessman, they're a salesman, they do something else. [Tobias] 25-year-old Hildebrand doesn't have another job - he's a full-time guard soldier whose current office is the Bosnian countryside. He believes Bosnia has a future. [Hildebrand] It's a beautiful country, but it does suffer from the repercussions of the ending of communism, the fall of Tito and, I guess the economic and political and social development is coming, but it's a little bit behind. I think the more that there's some involvement here, it will start the process and get things rolling, and this country has a promising future. [Tobias] It's the last day of school in the small town of Gornji Zovic. Task Force Huskers soldiers are visiting the school's year-end festival. Sgt. Zachary Owens has joined the kids in a volleyball game. The soft-spoken Owens has faced his own challenges during deployment to Bosnia - his father died in April. It's been hard to be away from home. It's also been hard to see these kids and think about their future. [Sgt. Zachary Owens/Omaha, NE] I remember what an adult said is that, once we leave here, they're just going to go back to war. And when I look at a little kid, you know I don't know if he's going to be able to live long enough to enjoy his life. [Tobias] Does that trouble in the sense of knowing the amount of work you're putting into this? [Owens] Yes and no to that. The reason I say that is yes, cause right now they're having a happy life. There's no worries for them, anything happening to them right now, so it does make me feel like I'm doing something for the townspeople. While we're here. But when I leave I'm kinda gonna feel sorry for them in a way, because I'm gonna remember what they said to me, that once we leave here that they're just gonna go back to war. [Tobias] The soldiers of Task Force Huskers leave Bosnia this month hoping that won't be the case. There's no timetable for the end of this mission, but sometime in the not-so-distant future peacekeepers will be gone altogether. Then it's up to Bosnia to decide it's own fate...make sure its tragic history doesn't repeat...and create a land where these are the only shots being fired. Reporting for Statewide from Bosnia, I'm Mike Tobias.