Voices from the Drina | Bosnian Genocide Education

Featured Authors

Featured Authors

My high school teacher, Ljubisav, is among the Serb forces attacking the town. I saw my fellow Bosniaks being driven out of the town to Zalazje. Reports are that they have been tortured and some of them killed.

I was among those captured. My high school teacher, Ljubisav, captured me. He asked me if I wanted a cigarette. I said yes. He gave me one and said: “See, we Chetniks are humane.” Then he punched me across the face.

He told me he was going to shoot me, that he had already killed in Zvornik. At this point I resigned myself to the fact that I was about to die. My friend, Suad, was also captured with me.

Somehow we managed to escape. I don’t know how. It all happened so fast. But Bratunac as we know it is gone.

🧵 We should never have returned to Bratunac. I’m shaking. Today Serb policemen arrived at our house. They were pointing their guns at our door. I was terrified. I saw two police cars. They dragged my father to the car. I thought we were all going to be killed.

Then they started banging on our door. They said they’d received information that we were hosting armed men. We’re not. We opened the door and they searched the house (and found nothing). They’ve told us if they hear any shots in the area they’ll know it’s us.

We’re leaving Bratunac for good.

We’ve returned to Srebrenica, which is in ruins. I think we’ve made a mistake. But we have nowhere else to go. Arkan’s men are still here. They shoot from their cars and honk their horns in celebration of what they’ve done. We don’t leave the apartment. We sometimes peek behind the curtains to see what’s going on.

Bye, Bratunac. I’ll miss you. We’ve grabbed our essentials and are heading to my aunty’s place. Me, Mum, Dad, my twin brother, Husein, and our younger brother, Omer. The people that matter.

I’m hanging out with the only Serb I know who’s stayed behind. He’s nice. We still have electricity so we can listen to the radio reports together, to figure out what’s happening. I feel like I’m living in the apocalypse.