Posted on 07/06/2003 2:11:33 PM PDT by joan
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - (KRT) - Mehmed Kreso starting plotting his family's escape from Bosnia after he was abducted by Croatian soldiers and hauled to a concentration camp.
"It's either get out or you're going to die," he said. "You cannot help your family if you're dead."
Mehmed, a Bosnian Muslim, wanted a better life for his family, which at the time was struggling to survive an ethnic war in Mostar in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
He often thinks about his abduction, which occurred nine years ago today, and the opportunities his children, Ermin and Elma, have after fleeing their war-torn homeland.
Ermin, 27, graduated in May from medical school at the University of Colorado. He began his residency program in internal medicine at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver.
Elma, 22, graduated a semester early from Colorado College in December with a degree in biology. She recently received her emergency medical technician certification and has applied to attend a medical school in the fall.
"Growing up in the war and seeing how people were losing their lives because they couldn't get proper medical attention influenced my decision," she said.
Elma credits her family's success to the frightening experiences they faced in Bosnia. "If we could live through the war," she said, "we can make it through anything."
In the spring of 1992, Serbs began bombing Bosnian cities. Croatians and Muslims banded together in defense.
Mehmed joined the Croatian army.
About a year later, the Croats turned against their Muslim allies to join the Serbs in a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing. The war divided people along lines of nationality and religion.
The Kresos thought they had borne their share of hardships until Mehmed was snatched by Croatian soldiers.
Mehmed was approached by a soldier who demanded his name and identification card. He knew what the soldier wanted - to know whether he was Muslim.
Mehmed was taken to a concentration camp, where the prisoners were beaten, starved and forced to dig trenches and bunkers on the front lines so Muslim forces would not open fire. He watched many close friends die in camp.
"When I was in the concentration camp, my family was the most important thing to me," he said.
In October 1993, Mehmed was released from the camp. With help from Croatian friends, the family escaped.
Four months later, the Kresos resettled in Colorado Springs with the help of the Lutheran Family Services refugee program.
Mehmed and his wife, Mirsada, struggled to learn English while earning associate's degrees in mechanical technology. He wanted to get his degree in the United States to show people that, even as a refugee, he is still capable of succeeding.
"We as a family had to support each other and believe in our abilities to become more successful," Mirsada said.
For the past nine years, Mehmed has worked with Goodrich International, formerly known as AMI Industries, inspecting airline pilot seats.
Mirsada has been with the Colorado Springs Utilities electric department for more than seven years.
Even though the Kresos are American citizens, they never will forget their Bosnian heritage.
"We've lived here for nine years. This is our home," Mirsada said.
"But we will forever be Bosnians."
If he was released in October 1993, he couldn't have been abducted nine years ago today, as that would have been July 1994. Therefore, it must have been July 1993 when he was abducted, and released 3 months later in October 1993. So, today would make it ten years since the abduction, not nine.
AN OPEN LETTER TO MY JEWISH FRIENDSSix years ago [from 1999], at the height of the conflict in Bosnia, Ms. Decter asked me to translate testimonies given by a group of Bosnian Muslim prisoners that were brought to Boston (Allston) the previous day. They gave a harrowing account about being kept for months in a dark underground military tunnel in Hercegovina. The detainees described the torture and killings they witnessed, and talked about their transfer to the island of Badia and their consequent release to the USA. When they asked me to translate, the American Jewish Congress was not aware that the prisoners were not held in Serbian but in a Croatian detention camp. When did the Serbs put them in prison? the AJC representative repeatedly asked me. They were in a Croatian camp, I kept repeating. They were tortured by the Croats not Serbs. This came to them as a complete surprise.
To make the situation more ironic, the former Muslim prisoners described in detail how at the beginning of the conflict, they, together with the Croatians from the area, ethnically cleansed and killed all the Serbs from the town of Chaplina and the surrounding villages. They showed no remorse for their actions, but told me the story embittered by the betrayal of their former Croatian allies. The American Jewish Congress office in Boston never released the tapes, that are probably still in their possession. Since the tapes did not show the Serbs as being solely responsible for the civil war in Bosnia, Sheila Decter must have decided that it is better not to ruin her imaginary account of the conflict in Bosnia.
He didn't escape, he was released. And he was helped by Croatians.
I don't know what all the rights and wrongs of this particular story are, but the Bosnians Muslims were not merely innocent victims. This article seems to be a rather feeble attempt to demonize one party at the expense of the other.
AND, they blame the Jews for 9/11. DISGUSTING!!
My experiences with them... lead to my almost stopping working with ANY refugees ever again.
It was not until a friend mentioned that we had Christian Serbs arriving was I willing to take a chance with refugees.
It is not a pretty story what the bosnians and their muslims allies from the Middle East did to captured Serb soldiers or civilians.
Right now, I would cross the street to avoid some of the bosnians I met after they first arrived in the USA. I am NOT the only volunteer worker who feels this way.... believe it!!
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