July 1993 | Voices from the Drina

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We’re starting a football tournament! Anyone in Srebrenica who’s interested, DM me. I’ll be supporting the team of Poljak, as there are guys from my village playing in that team.

Today I started the English language classes being run by Meho at the fire station. I’m paying for the course with sugar. “My tailor is rich” was our first lesson. We all pronounced words incorrectly. Meho is kind and patient!

My desire to master English is so strong that I sometimes even hallucinate: I have the impression that everybody in the street is speaking English. I sometimes dream in English.

I’ve signed up to join the Bosnian Army.

I’m learning English on the fly and my vocabulary is growing by the day. And it’s not the vocabulary you’d find in an ordinary dictionary. I’m learning things like “recoilless cannon” haha.

Today, 10 of us were ordered out of Rasadnik camp by the camp chief, Bojić. We were driven to the village of Starčići, where we were ordered to find 17 dead bodies which lay in mined territory. (1/3)

The chief of military police hit a land mine, which blew his leg off. Bojić took it out on a prisoner named Mirsad. He stabbed him in the side, then took a rifle and threatened to kill us all, cursing our “Balija” mothers. (2/3)

The next time I looked up, I saw Mirsad lying on the ground, covered in blood. His throat had been slit. Say his name. Mirsad Omanović. He was killed by Serb forces today. (3/3)

The English classes I was attending have stopped. I’ll have to continue improving my English alone.

🧵 The UN has declared Žepa and Srebrenica safe areas and have prescribed some way to protect these zones. This resolution was not in line with the Geneva Convention which says that only demilitarised areas can be protected.