Story time! On Friday we met with a member of the Serbian Orthodox
Chruch, Dragan. Dragan lived in
Peabody, MA for a few years and happened to meet Mladen (our TA) who lives in
Boston. Dragon told us a little
about the Orthodox Church then he told us a little bit about his history…
Dragan grew up in Sarajevo and his best
friend, Samir, was Muslim. At the
time this was not a problem, they were like brothers. They went to each other’s religious and academic
celebrations, everything was civil until a few months prior to the war. The Christmas before the war in 1991
Dragan asked his Muslim friend to come over for Christmas. Samir told him he could not because his
father would not allow it. His
father said that, “Serbs were the ancient enemy of Islam.” These types of incidents continued to
occur until the war started in 1992.
Then soon after Dragon joined the Serb army and Samir joined that
Bosniak army. Dragan and Samir
were around 21 years old at the start of the war. They were essentially fighting each other. However, they had made an agreement to
not shoot at each other if the situation ever came about but they were still on
opposing sides. During the war
Dragan would send Samir’s family food during the war because he knew they had
less access to goods than the Serb side. They both survived the war but Dragan had to move out of
Sarajevo because Serbs were exiled from Sarajevo. However, Dragan was still looked at as a trader in the
Republic of Srpska because he did not have extreme hatred towards the Muslims
and would even help Muslims. In
1998, Dragan returned to Sarajevo with his father for the first time since the
war. They had just allowed the
Serbs to reclaim their property rights in Sarajevo and Dragon and his family wished
to move back home. Upon arrival in
Sarajevo Dragan was walking down the street and ran into Samir who was with 3
of his Muslim friends. Dragan
greeted them with a friendly hello, however, he shortly after found himself on
the ground in severe pain after his ‘friend’ and 3 others beat him. Dragan was so injured that his father
had to drive him to a hospital in the Republic of Srpska to treat his injuries. Dragan then waited a few years to
return to Sarajevo again because he was afraid of what could happen. When he returned to Sarajevo he crossed
paths with Samir’s father and he told him that Samir went to Afghanistan as
part of a radical Islamic movement.
The next time Dragan heard from Samir’s family was to invite him to
Samir’s funeral for he had been killed in Afghanistan. Dragan attended his friend’s funeral
and still receives visits from Samir’s mother.
After hearing this extremely emotional and
disheartening story I was amazed at how nonchalant Dragan was about the entire
thing. I admired his determination
to never give up on his childhood best friend after Samir treated him cruelly
and without gratitude after all that Dragan had done for Samir and his family. After he finished speaking he asked if
we had any questions and everyone was silent, we were in awh. When no one spoke for a minute he said,
really you can ask whatever you want I will not be offended. A few questions were asked but we were still
all in shock after such an incredible story.
Mladen (Black Shirt) introducing Dragan (white/blue shirt).
On to Mostar! This weekend we took a trip to Mostar, Southwestern Bosnia
and Herzegovina. On the way we
stopped at Tito’s Bunker. The 4.6
million dollar secret bunker that was built to withstand nuclear war in order to protect
Tito, Yugoslavia’s communist leader, and his inside circle. At the lowest point the bunker is 300
meters underground and is equipped with bedrooms, offices, bathrooms, etc. The bunker was large enough to hold
around 350 people. It was started
in 1953 but was not finished until 1979, only a year before Tito’s death. Currently, it is being transformed into
an art museum/cultural center for the public.
I thought the bunker was really cool and
could not believe that such efforts were made for 350 people! It was crazy to see the well preserved “state
of the art” technology during the 1970’s completely untouched and still in its
original place.
The hallway connecting the different sections.
Mladen showing us one of the art exhibit. One artist used his helmet from the war, put it on and did this... (see next picture)
He smashed his head into the enlarged photo of him and his family... symbolic of the war? Interpret it as you will.
This room was initially just a room for gas tanks then an artist turned it into, rain drops falling on to the shoulders (the two gas tanks) of a man in neon light....
TITO! There was a framed picture of Tito in at least every room, in some rooms there were multiple!... There was even one in Tito's office and bedroom, awkward.
Telephones from the 1970's!
They even had a lecture room!
Tito's office that he never even set a foot in.
Tito's bed... and an artist's statement.
Where Tito would have pooped.
The view from out side of the bunker! Why would you ever want to hid from this?
About an hour or so away from the bunker... A strategic bridge from world war I... it was rebuilt and destroyed, twice for a movie.
