How the economy reconciled people on both sides of the Kostajnica bridge

Hundreds of people cross the Kostajnica bridge on foot every day in both directions. From Hrvatska Kostajnica they go to the Bosnian side, because everything is cheaper there. From Bosanska Kostajnica they go to Zagreb, because it is closer than going to Banja Luka. At least 30 kilometres closer, NAP writes.

Things have changed a bit compared to the 1990s. Before the war, Hrvatska Kostajnica was much more developed, while Bosanska Kostajnica looked more like a village. Today, it is quite different. Since things in Bosnia and Herzegovina are cheaper than in Croatia, especially after Croatia joined the European Union, almost all shops have moved from the Croatian bank of the Una River to the Bosnian one.

- We buy everything we need for the house in Bosnia and Herzegovina. We just cross the bridge. It is much cheaper - says one housewife, who lives on the Croatian side.

What is most important is that there are no quarrelsome tones between the residents of both Kostajnicas, as there used to be about fifteen years ago. Especially when the Kostajnica bridge was rebuilt in 2001 after the war damage. The border agreement existed, as it was signed two years earlier, in 1999, by Franjo Tuđman and Alija Izetbegović.

But, as Croatian publicist, journalist and columnist Boris Pavelić reminded four years ago, “agreements are one thing, life is another.”

Nevertheless, the economy has done its part. Frictions are not profitable for either side; the Croatian side cannot afford quarrels with neighbours across the Una because they would lose cheaper goods, and the Bosnian side does not want to lose customers. Ties have been further strengthened in recent years by increasingly frequent marriages between brides and grooms from Bosanska and Hrvatska Kostajnica, NAP writes.