Word: serb
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...small apartment off Branka Surbata Street, however, they have never been divided. The story of Rabija Oprhal, her husband Kruno, 53, son Alen, 26, daughter Irma, 19, and their Serb friends provides heartbreaking evidence that a fraternal feeling between Muslims and Serbs survives. The family's experiences during the war and now in the midst of this vengeful peace prove that members of the two groups can live together and care for one another, even under the most dangerous circumstances. For the Oprhals were saved, they say, by their Serb neighbors and by sympathetic Serb soldiers. "They were nice. They...
...didn't know where he was." To her relief, he made his way back home through sporadic gunfire, and the Oprhals spent the next few days indoors, making and receiving telephone calls filled with worry and rumor. "Nobody knew what was going on," says Kruno. In fact, Bosnian Serb nationalists, backed by the Yugoslav army, were firing the first shots in their campaign to divide the newly independent Bosnia along ethnic lines. By April 6, Kruno continues, word went out that people should report to work, though friends called to warn of roadblocks manned by ominous-looking civilians with stockings...
From those earliest days the Oprhals found Serb friends willing to take risks to help them. When Kruno and Rabija finally ventured out to buy food, they chose a time when a Serb acquaintance was doing duty as a guard at the Bridge of Brotherhood and Unity, leading into Sarajevo's center. He passed them through, no questions asked. "We spent our last money on cevapcici," says Kruno, referring to the spicy sausage that is a Bosnian specialty. "That," he says sadly, "was the last time I was in town...
...peace of the past three months, says Kruno, has been in many ways worse than the war. As the March 19 turnover date approached, thousands of Serbs--either fearful of Muslim reprisals or threatened by Serb hard-liners--began to flee with their belongings and anything else they could take with them. At night, firebugs and looters took over the streets, stripping apartments of everything from TV sets to parquet floors and setting fire to what remained. As in the first year of war, the Oprhal family huddled in their apartment, fearful of going out. Trucks loaded with loot prowled...
...afternoon of the 18th, two Serb friends from the neighborhood dropped by the Oprhals' to say goodbye. All the Serbs in their building except Mira had fled. That evening, she joined Kruno and Rabija in what, over the months, had become a nightly ritual of conversation and coffee around a small dining table. The Oprhals did not take part in the celebrations next day by returning Muslims outside. There was no joy in their diminished circle. Mira is now the one who faces an uncertain future, the one who needs protection. "Tomorrow is freedom for us, but Mira has nowhere...