(Personal Note) The last two days in Sarajevo have reminded me of our first trip to Cambodia for service dentistry. We arrived a day before our team and took the time to go the the Killing Fields outside of Phnom Penh. (If you are unfamiliar with this topic, go to Wikipedia). Curation of the sight was minimal. The rice paddies had been drained but what was littered throughout the area, only partially submerged in the mud, were pieces of clothing and innumerable teeth from many of the one million people killed from 1970-1975.
My point? The impact of the countless teeth in the mud indelibly impacted our next week of doing volunteer dentistry in six orphanages in Cambodia. And, indeed, I've not allowed that feeling to fade ever since. Now, Sarajevo, and another memory which will not/should not dim.
First, a story, than a monument. Admira Ismic and Bosko Brkic were lovers. They had met at the Sarajevo Olympics in 1984 when they were teenagers. Now, they were 25 year-old college students when the siege began. They wanted to escape Sarajevo to continue their life together, but in addition to the war there was another problem; Admira was a Bosniac Muslim and Bosko was a Serbian Orthodox Christian. However, to leave, one needed to go through "Snipers Alley". Serbs had been killing Bosnians there since the beginning of the siege. A no-man's-land.
Bosko had a contact in the Serbian Army and had been promised safe passage. But, on May 19,1993, as soon they stepped on the Vrganja Bridge, Bosko was instantly killed by a snipers bullet. Within seconds, Admira too was mortally wounded. As people on both sides watched, she crawled over to Bosko, put her arm around him and died in a lover's embrace. The two lay there for four days. Finally, Serbs forced Muslim POW's to recover the bodies.
Embedded corespondent Kurt Schork filed a story with Reuters telling the world about the tragedy and senselessness of the destruction of Sarajevo. The world renamed Vrgania Bridge the 'Romeo and Juliet Bridge' due to their love destroyed by the violence surrounding it. Some believe that the senselessness of their deaths and the world's reaction to it, forced, in part, the opposing sides to the negotiating table to help bring the war to a close.
A sad postscript to this story. Kurt Schork was killed on assignment in Sierra Leone in 2000. Half of his ashes were buried next to the grave of Admira and Bosko.
Now a monument. Officially named 'The Memorial to the Children of Sarajevo'. It has three parts. In the middle of the monument are glass pillars representing sandcastles that will never be built. To the left of the sandcastles, on silver pillars, are the names of the 1,600 children who died during the Sarajevo Siege. But, most heartrending, surrounding the glass sand castles are the footprints of the brothers and sisters of the children killed in the war. Difficult to ponder.
In conclusion, I share Admira Ismic's father's comments: "Love took them to their deaths. That's proof this is not a war between Serbs and Muslims. It's a war between crazy people, between monsters..............
My point? The impact of the countless teeth in the mud indelibly impacted our next week of doing volunteer dentistry in six orphanages in Cambodia. And, indeed, I've not allowed that feeling to fade ever since. Now, Sarajevo, and another memory which will not/should not dim.
First, a story, than a monument. Admira Ismic and Bosko Brkic were lovers. They had met at the Sarajevo Olympics in 1984 when they were teenagers. Now, they were 25 year-old college students when the siege began. They wanted to escape Sarajevo to continue their life together, but in addition to the war there was another problem; Admira was a Bosniac Muslim and Bosko was a Serbian Orthodox Christian. However, to leave, one needed to go through "Snipers Alley". Serbs had been killing Bosnians there since the beginning of the siege. A no-man's-land.
Bosko had a contact in the Serbian Army and had been promised safe passage. But, on May 19,1993, as soon they stepped on the Vrganja Bridge, Bosko was instantly killed by a snipers bullet. Within seconds, Admira too was mortally wounded. As people on both sides watched, she crawled over to Bosko, put her arm around him and died in a lover's embrace. The two lay there for four days. Finally, Serbs forced Muslim POW's to recover the bodies.
Embedded corespondent Kurt Schork filed a story with Reuters telling the world about the tragedy and senselessness of the destruction of Sarajevo. The world renamed Vrgania Bridge the 'Romeo and Juliet Bridge' due to their love destroyed by the violence surrounding it. Some believe that the senselessness of their deaths and the world's reaction to it, forced, in part, the opposing sides to the negotiating table to help bring the war to a close.
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| File Photo |
Now a monument. Officially named 'The Memorial to the Children of Sarajevo'. It has three parts. In the middle of the monument are glass pillars representing sandcastles that will never be built. To the left of the sandcastles, on silver pillars, are the names of the 1,600 children who died during the Sarajevo Siege. But, most heartrending, surrounding the glass sand castles are the footprints of the brothers and sisters of the children killed in the war. Difficult to ponder.
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