Children of Atlantis

Contents Preface by Celia Hawkesworth Introduction by Zdenko Lešic Part I Stories of War and Exile Chapter l: Recollections All Our Stories Will Be Alike Should I Stay or Should I Go? Maybe Because I Am the Child of a Mixed Marriage I Lived Happily I thought it was a Bad Joke. I Was Wrong I Shall Do Anything to Be With Ljiljana I Was in Love and Happy There Was Total Confusion Chapter 2: Out of Sarajevo How it Was in the Beginning Why? All My Future Plans Were There My Body, Ice-Cold With Terror Fresh Water and Food Were Luxuries There Was No End to the War I Had Had Enough The Most Wonderful Thing Happened to Me The Decision to Leave Sarajevo Was One of the Hardest Of My Life We Do Not Share the Same Destiny Any More Chapter 3: Experiences And Then the War Happened Hiding and Living in Fear My Parents Begged Me Not to Return The Elderly and Children Could Not Run Fast Enough Our House Was Repeatedly Raided You Could See Hungry People in the Streets We Drove Through a Hail of Bullets Escape From Mostar I Was Badly Wounded I Had Problems Because of My Serbian Father and Muslim Mother They Became Refugees in Their Own Country My Father Was a Political Prisoner Chapter 4: Refugee Blues They Are All My Friends I Was Not Willing to Take Part in This War Fear of the Draft We All Thought It Wouldn't Be for Long I Was Afraid I Would Never See My Parents Again I Spent the Best Years of My Life There The Day My Childhood Stopped This Bloody War Has Stolen Twenty Years of My Life I Am Still in London From Bosnia to America Who Knows When We'll See Sarajevo Again? We Left All Our Loved Ones Behind My Heart is Elsewhere I Wanted More Than That It Is Very Difficult to Find a Place for Us I Still Have Many Years Ahead I Am Twenty-One France is Great, But France Isn't Home My Aim Is to Follow My Path Part II Stories of Disillusionment, Despair and Hope Chapter 5: Reflections War in Yugoslavia-War within Myself We Refused to Take Sides Only Because I Was Not One of Them If We Cannot Be in the Same Country, the Least We Can Do Is Create a Peaceful Neighbourhood We Have to Communicate What Comes After This Bad Dream? It Was Not Easy to Decide They Were Bitterly Disappointed The United States and Me Chapter 6: Feelings Of Deprivation A War Can't Be Just If So Many Young People Die in It Few Expectations of the First Days of Independence Have Been Fulfilled In the Winds of Corruption and Poverty Feelings of Deprivation and Helplessness The Opposition Was Weak, Almost Invisible I Started to Lose All Hope of a Better Life There Was Nothing I Could Meaningfully Do in My Country Human Life Deserves Much More than to Be Erased by the Whistle of a Bullet How the Media Can Be Misused Now I Have Friends Fighting in Four Different Armies I Couldn't Take It Any More That's Why I Left Everything Why Is the World So Unfair to Us? The Chances I Was Looking for Were Not There Either Chapter 7: In Search of Identity The Thread That Binds Me A Story of Lost Identity What Is 'Home'? I Have Always Felt Yugoslav Yugoslavia Is Always on My Mind We Shall Have to Build a Whole New National Identity What Do I Mean By 'My Country'? I Was a Yugoslav, but Now I Am a Bosnian I Am a Citizen of a State That Does Not Exist One Day We Shall All Live in Harmony Pictures in My Mind Chapter 8: Hopes and Wishes I Feel I Have Started All Over Again I Hope. .. I Have Only My Knowledge to Offer I Have Often Wondered What My Friends Feel and Think I Want to Talk About My Studies, Not About Whether My Father Is a Croat or Not 'Sarajevo Will Remain, the Rest Will Pass' I Pray to God for an Opportunity to Continue My Music Education I Can Only Hope That Peace Will Prevail I Find It Difficult to Answer Your Questions Post Scriptum: Letter to a Sarajevo Generation