The militia sang as the marched through the tunnel
Carlos and I visited with a woman who told about her experience as a young woman in the Kosovo War of 1998-1999. She and her family lived in a neighborhood with both Serbian and Albanian residents. For years they lived as friends but when the war came Serbians joined the Serb militia and turned against their Albanian neighbors. Militia were feared more than the Serbian army. Their acts were more heinous, perhaps because the atrocities were committed against neighbors and former friends.
She remembers the singing as the Serb militia marched through the nearby tunnel. They sang about Srebrenica and how this would be much worse. One early morning as their family were eating breakfast, a warning came that they were in danger. They left their meal unfinished and walked into the nearby countryside where they hid for the next months. They found refuge in a small village, fearing everyday that they might be discovered.
When they returned to their home, they found that it had been used as a prison and place of torture. The walls were splattered with blood and other evidence was left of the crimes that occurred there. To this day, no one has lived in the house.
Read more about Srebrenica at https://www.theguardian.com/law/2010/jun/10/hague-bosnian-serb-srebrenica-genocide1
Leta was 10 years old during the war.
No comments:
Post a Comment