FBU-2015-02-13

Date of Interview

2-13-2015

Interview Location

St. Louis, MO

Length of Interview

142:16

Date of Birth

1970

Gender

Male

Religion and/or Ethnicity

None Given

Description

Grew up in Zvornik and was the youngest of three boys and had a younger sister. He went to school with both Bosniaks and Serbs, and had many Serbian friends. After completing high school in Zvornik, he entered the University of Tuzla to study chemistry after completing one year of compulsory military service in 1989. He remembers a good Serb friend calling him a Turk, and noticing signs that war was going to happen. In 1992, He went home to get his parents because he know that the war would start soon. The Serbs overtook Zvornik in one day on April 6th, 1992. His family house was two iles from the city center, and they quickly moved to the village of Kula Grad. They then travelled to Tuzla and stayed in his dorm room. One of his brothers was separated and was murdered. He, along with his father and brother’s, joined the Bosnian Army. He had some education so he was involved in logistics, and spent most of the war in an outpost on Majevica. His other family members stayed in Zivinice. By 1993, all of Bosnia was surrounded so everyone came to Tuzla. The winter of 93-94 was the worst because of famine and food shortages. Black market flour was being cut with gypsym and people would get very ill. No one had any food and there was none to share. He remembers the first groups of Srebrenica survivors coming out of the woods and this occurred regularly for months. The Serbs bombed a refugee camps with improvised explosives using airplanes. He remarks that humor is a way to escape horrible reality. He stayed in Zagreb from June- September 1996, but refugees were taken advantage of and the Croatian police were especially cruel. He then got a visa and came to St. Louis. It was very hard to find work at first, and the first two months felt like a century. He found work at a printing company, but after the company closed he went back to school and got a Bachelors and Masters in Computer Science. He is a software engineer at Mercy Hospital. He had learned some English in Bosnia during the war, and picked up the language because he served as an unofficial translator for his community. He wishes the UN and International community could’ve had toold to stop nationalist leaders earlier.

Keywords

Kula Grad, Srebrenica, Bosnian army, JNA, Seige, Shelling, Bombing, Famine, Ethnic cleansing, Student, University

Pre-War Residence

Zvornik, Tuzla

Wartime Residence

Tuzla, Živinice, Majevica

First Country of Residence

Croatia

First US Residence

St. Louis, MO

Document Type

Oral History

Collection

Fontbonne University

Digital Format

MP3, MP4

Digital Publisher

Center for Bosnian Studies

City

St. Louis, MO

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