After the long journey through Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia and finally, Bosnia-Herzegovina, we reached Sarajevo. On Saturday, we had one visit to the old Orthodox Church in Sarajevo. The church holds extremely old relics of the Orthodox Church and paintings dating back hundreds of years.
However, the main reason for our visit to the church was to speak to Dragan, a Bosnian-Serb who took part in the Bosnian conflict in the 1990’s. He told us an incredibly powerful story of him and his friend. Dragan grew up in an apartment building in Sarajevo with his Bosnian Muslim (Bosniak) friend. They did everything together – hang out, chase girls, play sports, etc. They never cared that they were different religions and they respected each other’s traditions, as they would invite each other to their respective religious holidays. Nobody cared about other people’s ethnic backgrounds.
However, everything changed once Yugoslavia edged further and further into complete collapse. In 1990, the first multi-party elections took place in Bosnia. This sparked ethnic divides that would permeate society. The two friends became victims of the political rhetoric of the time, as they began to separate. Dragan’s friend became ingrained in his father’s extremist thoughts, and thus began to see Dragan as an enemy just because of his ethnic background. When the war began, the Serbs took control of the part of Sarajevo that both friends lived in. Dragan took it upon himself to save his friend and his family; by making it possible to transport them into Bosniak controlled territory. In April 1992, he gave his friend all his money and put him in a car towards Bosniak territory. He would continue to send his friend aid throughout the war. Dragan helped 5 Bosniak families in this manner.
The two friends fought for different sides during the war, as Dragan fought for the Bosnian Serb army and his friend with the Bosniak side. Dragan lost 14 members of his family during the war. Meanwhile, his friend became more radicalized during the war.
When the war ended, the municipality in which Dragan and his friend lived before the war, was assigned to be under Bosniak rule (previously Serb). Dragan was moving to Banja Luka in Republika Srpska, so he came to his apartment in Sarajevo to collect his things. There he saw his friend, who told him that he was an aggressor and couldn’t sit in his territory. A while later, Dragan went back to Sarajevo to finish packing his possessions. On this occasion he was severely beaten by Bosniaks during 40 minutes. His friend was among the group that beat him.
After a few years, Dragan came back to Sarajevo. He saw his friends mother, who deeply regretted the deep divide that had taken place between the two friends. Dragan found out that his friend and his father had joined the Muhabbi movement and subsequently went to Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, he died. The friend’s father called Dragan at this point, because his friend had wanted Dragan to be informed first. Dragan then attended the funeral. A month following the funeral, Dragan’s friend’s father committed suicide. After this, Dragan began to see his friend’s mother regularly. He still meets with her every week.
After telling this incredibly powerful and touching story, Dragan told us that the political situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina is unsustainable. He claims that parties are divided by ethnic groups and only act on behalf of their respective groups. Thus he believes that there is “no end in sight” to the countries current problems.
No comments:
Post a Comment