Page 77 of Tom Clancy Line of Sight
“The place where the massacre happened?”
“Eight thousand Muslim men and boys slaughtered by the Serbs.”
“Are we going there now?”
“No, too depressing. If you want, I can make other arrangements with one of my guides for you. There is also a museum in town dedicated to it, and you can see many documentary videos on YouTube as well.”
Jack wanted to get to know her better. He knew that the war was important to her understanding of the world and herself. He just wasn’t sure how far he could probe. Since his mother was also a part of her story, he hoped she might let him in, at least a little.
“Was your family connected to Srebrenica?”
“Every Muslim is connected to it.”
“I’m sure. But I mean, did you lose family members there?”
Aida shot Jack a sideways glance, keeping one eye on the traffic. “What the war did to my family is hard for me to talk about.”
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to—”
“No, it’s good to talk about it. Maybe later, okay?”
“Sure.”
“But today I want you to understand how the war affected the whole country. If you understand what happened to all ofus, then in a way you understand what happened to my family. Does that make sense?”
“Yeah, it does.”
“What the Serbs did at Srebrenica is unforgivable. They still won’t even admit it happened, which makes it even worse.”
“In your mind, is it safe to say that the war and all the things Bosniaks suffered were caused by Serb nationalism?”
“No, not at all. During the war, we were also attacked by the Croats. They’re no better than the Serbs.”
Aida made a turn off the main road. “The Ustaše were Croatian fascists who cooperated with the Nazis during World War Two. Croatia engaged in ethnic cleansing during the Yugoslavian wars, and Bosnian Croats fought us just like the Serbs for a while.”
“And now the three of you—Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs—are trying to live together as a democracy.”
“Yes, with Croatia and Serbia as neighboring countries. We’ve been doing it for over twenty years. I’m just not sure how much longer it can last. There are nationalist forces on all sides agitating for a breakup.”
She made another turn onto a small country road.
“I read about a Unity Referendum coming up soon?”
Aida smiled. “Yes, because there is always hope. Sure, there are many bad Croats and Serbs, but there are also bad Bosniaks, yes? But there are many, many more good people on all sides than bad. We’re hoping the referendum will be a big victory over the bad guys who want to start another civil war.”
Jack watched a Lufthansa regional jet arc low across the windshield on approach to the airport.
“Will the referendum be enough to prevent it?”
Aida turned onto an even smaller street crowded withparked cars. “What did Burke say? All it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing? But we have to do something, or at least try, don’t we?”
“Of course.” Jack noticed the Sarajevo airport several hundred yards away.
“And yet, NATO and the EU did nothing to stop the war once it began.” Aida found a spot to park and killed the engine. “And that’s why we’re here.”
39
Aida led Jack past the knots of tour groups inside the Sarajevo Tunnel of Hope Museum, pointing out the exhibit of IEDs and land mines planted in the grass, and the display of mortar and artillery shells that hung like wind chimes at the entrance to the tunnel itself.
