We meet again…
I was young and impressionable and her horror and sadness became etched into my memory.
I had just started working for Refugees International when I was sent out on mission to Bosnia. The war was raging and I was new to humanitarian work and stunned when I arrived by NATO helicopter into Sarajevo. A day later, the first reports were coming out of Srebrenica. I left for Tuzla and by the time I reached the airstrip that became the temporary camp for Srebrenica refugees, the first women and children were arriving. I sat and took testimonies of the survivors. There was a constant sound of crying as the wails of women who had stripped of their husbands, fathers, brothers and sons permeated the plastic sheeting walls of the tents.
One family I met was three generations of women. The grandmother sat quiet throughout the interview, her look distant and tormented. Her daughter, the mother of three young children, told their story which echoed those of thousands of other women around them. I was young and impressionable and her horror and sadness became etched into my memory. I returned to Bosnia five years later, during one of my breaks from working in Rwanda. People thought it was strange that I would choose to go to Bosnia for my “holiday,” but I badly needed to see some glimmer of hope as I felt quite desperate and hopeless working in Rwanda after the genocide. While there I met up with the young man who had been my translator and he told me of a neighborhood where many families had resettled from Srebrenica. The first house we walked into, I said hello and the woman just stared and stared at me, not saying anything. Then she and her mother both started to cry. My friend translated for me, “They remember you from Tuzla. You said you would never forget them and promised to think of them and work on their behalf even if you never met again.” I had come to Bosnia planning to return and hand in my resignation in Rwanda. Twenty years later, I am still working for UNHCR.
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by Joung-ah, Switzerland
posted: Thursday, 19th June, 2014
