(39) Bosnia twenty years later a story from Zenica

(Zenica)

1) Do you remember where were you when you realized the war was imminent? I was at home in Zenica.
2) Do you remember where you were when the war broke out? In Zenica.
3) Where were you when the war came to your town? In my house. My parents were watching the news and they said one man was killed in Sarajevo and I just couldn’t understand why and what was going on. The other day all Yugoslavian military left Zenica. I was only nine years old.
4) The most memorable event of the war for you was? Grenades falling all over the city, and I was trying to take cover with my older brother.
5) What made you hopeless during the war? Empty plates, worrying looks of my parents, fear for my family, the feeling that it will never end...
6) What gave you hope during the war? My family
7) Did you lose anyone close to you during the war? Thank God, no.
8) Were you wounded during the war? Where were you wounded? No I wasn't
9) Your biggest loss during the war was? The loss of my childhood, innocence, playfulness, family (My brother and sister left home in 1994 and went abroad as refugees)
10) What was the hardest part about the war? For me it was 1993. We had no food for 7 days. Absolutely nothing! I still don’t know how 5 of us (my family) managed to survive. On the eighth day one of our neighbors brought us the first kilo of flour. Mom made bread and we were so happy.
11) Did you leave the country during the war? No
12) 20 years later, what do you think of what happened? I hate it. Hate the war and what it had done to people here, and, now 20 years later, we still reflect on war and we just can’t move on and make things better, make better future for all of us.
13) Are things better or worse than what you expected 20 years later? I am very disappointed. My biggest wish was for war to stop. I thought everything would just get better after that. But, apparently, the end of war wasn’t enough.
14) Do you think war will return to BiH? I don’t know. But I hope it won’t. I would rather kill myself than to live through another war.
15) What do you think the future of BiH will be? I hope it will be better for all of us.