“They searched us, we had to get off, and they were interested in our passports. Fortunately, in my passport there was no mention that I was married to a Bosnian man who was a Muslim. I was not a citizen of Bosnian Republic, and my Czech citizenship thus saved me. What was interesting was that my passport was actually not even valid, it was past the validity date, and I did not know what would happen. They searched us and they checked everything, then they got off the bus so that we could go on… I thought, it’s all right, perhaps that was all, and nothing more will happen... But we rode for about ten kilometres and we had to stop again and all this was repeated. There was another guard, about five soldiers, and they too had that strange look on their faces as if they were searching for someone…”
“My sister-in-law was helping me a lot there… Life went on, even with the bad things. Then in 1992 the situation escalated with the incident in Mostar, and it grew worse. They shut down our television broadcast and the worst thing was when they told me: ‘Well, I think you will never see the Czech Republic again…’ If you are young, you don’t really realize that something might happen… I even learnt how to milk a cow there, because my mother-in-law told me: ‘Do you want milk? If you want milk, you got a cow there.’”
“We had the money, German Marks and foreign currency, and they took us to the back where they had their stuff; it almost looked as if they went shopping before going on a holiday. They did not understand what I wanted… My sister-in-law and I thus went to the UNPROFOR base and there was some bearded captain who was very kind and we discussed with him how to get me to the Czech Republic. He was even trying to arrange a helicopter for me, because the road to Zagreb was closed and the only open road led to Belgrade, but Serbia was actually an enemy state for my husband…”
Full recordings
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Škola: ZŠ J. A. Komenského Karlovy Vary, 23.03.2015
Jindřiška Burzičová was born June 17, 1969 in Karlovy Vary. She learnt the seamstress’ trade and in 1987 she began working in the company Triumf. After the Velvet Revolution she met her husband-to-be, who was originally from Bosnia. She married him in 1991 and she moved with him to his native town of Kulen Vakuf in Bosnia. Her husband had a three-year-old daughter from his previous marriage. On July 10, 1991, Jindřiška’s daughter was born in Bihać. The situation in the area grew worse after the incident in Mostar. Jindřiška attempted to leave Bosnia twice, but she never succeeded. Eventually she managed to obtain tickets with the help of the Red Cross. When they arrived to Belgrade, they had to get off, put their hands up and undergo a body search. Jindřiška then found another centre of the Red Cross in Belgrade where they helped her get tickets for travel to the Czech Republic. She lives with her daughter in Karlovy Vary.
