16/05/1992 | Voices from the Drina

Featured Authors

Featured Authors

Can’t believe Dad is actually about to drive to our home in Serb-controlled Vlasenica to get food. I’m terrified he’s not going to make it back alive.

My friend told me not to go back home from work today, because apparently Serb forces would stop me. I had to come home to get my wife. But I don’t think I’ll go to work tomorrow.

🧵 Dad’s back from Vlasenica. Here’s what happened when he was there. 👇

He obtained a kind of permit from the Vlasenica police which allowed him to get home. Police said to him “this is a one-time only pass”.

On his way back he stopped at the post office. In front of the PO a woman opened her car door and screamed “He’s here! Serb killer!” He’s never killed anyone, let alone a Serb, in his life. I told him he’s lucky to be alive.

He managed to make a phone call to his firm, from the PO in Han Pijesak. He called a colleagued who’d always been on good terms with him. Dad says it was a strange call. She whispered to him over the phone, “Ibro, don’t come back here”, then hung up.

🧵 We went to Aunty Mila’s house today. Our food supplies are basically gone and she has several cows and chickens. Something happened while we were there which broke my heart.

I went there with my cousins. My parents stayed in Stoborani, they didn’t want to burden Aunty Mila with their hunger too. Aunty Mila cooked us burek. Honestly we could have jumped for joy. I was salivating the whole time she was cooking.

Then, the transistor radio on her windowsill began to report from Sarajevo. “The aggressor’s shells rained down on every neighbourhood in Sarajevo … the number of victims has not been confirmed … shortages of basic foods …”

Aunty Mila’s grandson, Jasmin, is stuck in besieged Sarajevo. When the radio named his neighbourhood she stopped in her tracks. “My child is starving! What am I to do? What is my Jasmin going to eat?” She was crying.