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Travesties in the Balkans:
A Serb's Tale

By Aleksandra Prodanovic

Imprint (University of Waterloo), October 1, 1999

In 1991, my family and I fled our hometown of Split , Croatia for good. We escaped all those sleepless nights, threatening phone calls and verbal abuses from our neighbours. We left behind all our belongings, and most of all, fear.

In another city, in a new school, we students had to write about our homeland. My essay made my teacher cry. I wished I could cry too.

In 1993, my friend from Split was killed under mysterious circumstances. No investigation was conducted. She was 20 and she was Serbian. Her cousin from another city, Rijeka , was killed by her Croatian friends. She was thrown off a balcony. Again, there was no investigation. She was 17 and Serbian.

In 1994, my aunt was killed. Kosovo Albanians slaughtered most of the elderly Serbian men and women from her village in Slavonija ( Croatia ). My grandmother survived to tell about it. I saw the horror in her face and her eyes as I listened to her story. But seeing her blame herself for living when her daughter died totally broke my heart.

In 1995, the Croatian offensive with air support from NATO, left 200,000 to 250,000 Serbs homeless in a just couple of days. It also left 15,000 of them dead, mostly children, women and the elderly. My relatives, too old to flee, were killed in their houses.

My best friend here in Canada has stories of her own: the stories of near death experiences on several occasions. As Serbs in Croatia , unable to flee, she and her family were exposed to indescribable terror. When they finally escaped to Canada , her little sister slept with her shoes on in fear of having to flee during the night. Both of them still shiver when they hear thunder.

My neighbour from Mississauga also has a story of his own. He is Slovenian and married to a Serbian woman. When the war broke out in Sarajevo , he was taken prisoner by Bosnian Muslims. For a period of time, he was brutally beaten and forced to dig trenches. Then he and other Serbian prisoners were used as human shields in front of the Bosnian Muslim soldiers who tried to advance to the Serbian held positions around the city. In the crossfire, he finally lost consciousness after every part of his body except his left arm was shot. When Serbian soldiers realized what was happening, they dragged him to safety. It was a miracle that he survived despite all his wounds.

For the past seven years, my family in Serbia has not been able to make a decent living, due in part by UN imposed sanctions. From March through June of this year, my little cousins spent their days and nights in shelters. They are unaware that they will have to live through winter with the country's power plants destroyed. They do not know that our grandpa could not buy his heart medicine anywhere. They are not aware of the long line-ups for bread, milk and sugar. Or are they? Maybe they grew up too fast, too soon loosing their childhood innocence. Maybe, now, they are able to understand how NATO can say that "humanitarian bombing" makes sense.

My Internet pal from Kosovo recently fled his home, just like 180,000 other Serbs. During the NATO bombing campaign, Kosovo Liberation Army fighters killed his uncle. After the bombing, many of his relatives were also killed or forced to leave Kosovo even though they were under NATO protection. His grandmother was beaten and left lying on the street for dead, just because she spoke Serbian. He told me about a boy helping his father in the fields when they were attacked. The father was killed and the boy was badly wounded. He was rushed to a hospital where he was late found strangled in his bed. No investigation was conducted. He was a 14-year-old boy who happened to be Serbian.

My friend also told me about a six-month-old baby from Prizren. On September 21, she was kidnapped and burned alive. The baby's only crime was that her mother did not want to leave Kosovo.

"Serbs are getting what they deserve," I overheard a man say to someone while reading news about Albanians taking revenge on Serbian women and children.

I still wonder if I can blame him for his ignorance and prejudice. On one hand, his opinion is based on rather one-sided media reports. On the other hand, even if everything said about Serbs is true, how is he any better than those he judges?

However, there are some open-minded people who are interested in the different aspects of politics and war in the Balkans. If it weren't for them, our North American media would most likely convince me that with my Serbian background, I represent people who want to ethnically cleanse the world.

Truth and civilians are the first casualties of war on all sides. Truth, like history, is determined by the winners. Civilians in most cases do not receive their justice. They live in the memories of those who loved them and maybe, on the consciences of those who killed them.

So much has been lost. Some have lost their childhood. Some have lost their loved ones and all their belongings. Some live with people who judge them without knowing anything about them. They, like me, have learned the value of life through all they have endured and survived. They also cover their scars and bury the pain somewhere deep inside.

The opinions expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Imprint Publications.