NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #18/NN_1992_18.iso/spool/bit/listserv/mideurl/459

Text File | 1992-08-13 | 5.4 KB | 101 lines

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Date:         Thu, 13 Aug 1992 19:23:45 -0500
Sender:       Discussion of Middle Europe topics <[e-mail]>
From:         "Velibor M. Marenovic" <[e-mail]>
Subject:      Friendships live...
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>
> From: [e-mail] (NATELA SJEKLOCHA)
> Subject: Despite savagery of Bosnia conflict, exceptional friendships endure
> Date: 13 Aug 92 02:08:07 GMT
>
>     SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (UPI) -- An armed Serbian guerrilla in
> army green uniform knocked on the door of a Croatian home in the Serb-
> held Grbavica neighborhood of Sarajevo. The door was opened by a pale,
> bearded man. The two embraced and kissed each other three times on the
> cheek.
>     ``How are the children? Do you have enough food?'' asked Stojan
> Sljuka, as two little blond girls rushed out to greet him.
>     He and Blagoje Rosso were next-door neighbors and they have remained
> best of friends since a bomb shattered Sljuka's home three months ago,
> prompting him to move his family away to safety. He then joined the
> Yugoslav army-armed Serbian forces fighting to partition Sarajevo into
> ethnic districts.
>     ``In this war, one man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter,''
> said Sljuka, whose wife is a Muslim Slav.
>     Despite the savagery of the conflict that has shattered Bosnia-
> Hercegovina's delicate ethnic comity, exceptional friendships still
> endure, remnants of Sarajevo's success in embodying the deceased
> Yugoslav ideal of ethnic ``brotherhood and unity.''
>     Sljuka now exchanges gunfire daily with Muslim Slavs, crouching in
> one of the earthen bunkers dug into the steep slopes of Grbavica.
>     He believes he is defending the homes of friends and neighbors,
> including the Rosso family and several Muslim Slavs who remain trapped
> just behind the Serbian frontlines around Sarajevo.
>     Non-Serbs cannot leave Serb-held territory without special passes
> from Serbian commanders, whose offices are located deep in Serbian
> territory and can only be reached by running gauntlets of sniper fire
> and militia checkpoints.
>     ``We are relatively safe here,'' said Rosso, sitting in his bullet-
> riddled living room with a view of Sarajevo's Holiday Inn. ``But we
> would like to leave this place as soon as possible because of the
> children.''
>     Those caught on the frontlines frequently lose all sense of danger.
>     Rosso's children, Ines, 10, and Ivana, 8, did not even flinch at
> nearby blasts of machine gun fire and mortar explosions. They continued
> thumbing through books as they sat on the floor amid large trash bags
> full of clothing, prepared for possible flight at a moment's notice.
>     Local Serb, Croat and Muslim Slav families provide one another with
> elementary foodstuffs as they share the same hardships of no electricity
> or working telephones.
>     ``We are not hungry,'' said Rosso's wife, Vlatka. ``After having
> lived here for six years, we have good Serb and Muslim friends with whom
> we share whatever food we have.''
>     But she turned visibly distressed and tears began streaming down her
> cheeks as she recounted pre-war Sarajevo, saying: ``We all used to live
> together so nicely.''
>     She seemed mostly upset about the uncertain fate of her children.
>     ``They used to be the best students and best athletes of their class,
> '' said Vlatka. ``Since the war, they have not been able to leave the
> house in three months.''
>     Confinement has left parents and children with the pallors of siege
> victims.
>     ``I will not allow politics to dictate who my friends will be,'' said
> Sljuka, while stroking the hair of one of the girls. ``For years we
> lived together in peace. I have friends and relatives who are Muslim
> Slav and Croatian, and I alone will decide if they will remain my
> friends after the war.''
>     Sljukic, a well-known designer of high fashion clothing before the
> conflict, said he had never dreamed of taking up a weapon for any
> reason.
>     ``But things are different now,'' he explained. ``When someone shoots
> at your children, bombs your house, and destroys your car, you start
> thinking differently.''
>     Sljukic said that he bears no hard feelings toward Muslim Slavs who,
> he believes, have been misled by the Muslim Slav-led government.
>     But, he continued: ``In reality, we have all been taken advantage of.
> All three sides told us that there would be no war and look what has
> become of us.''
>     ``I think the best solution would be if we parted ways for a while,''
> said Rosso, refering to proposals for the partition of Bosnia-
> Hercegovina into separate ethnic regions.
>     ``We just don't get along,'' said Rosso. ``Serbs and Croats have more
> in common than Serbs and Muslims or Croats and Muslims.''
>     Rosso said that he always had difficulties climbing the social ladder
> in Muslim Slav-dominated Sarajevo.
>     ``In the end I decided to open up my own business so that I wouldn't
> have to deal with it,'' said Rosso.
>     He said his family wants to escape to Croat-dominated western
> Hercegovina. But, he added: ``We haven't had a chance to go out of house
> to make contact with people and find a way out of here.
>