Ing. Mirko Jelčić

“There was this elementary humanitarian aid. But all the time I was hungry. All the time. Never could I eat as much as I wanted. I was starving 24 hours a day. And the shelling was bad but you would get used to it somehow.” – “How could one get used to it?” – “It will just happen. I remember, my mother, they have been living on a fourth floor and above the fifth floor there was this this roof terrace. And she would go there to gather rainwater. And a shell came hitting the house between the third and the fourth floor. And I would hear it from bellow. I didn´t know where it landed so I went to check. And she was just gathering the water, she didn´t go.” – “She was so used to it that she didn´t react.” – “I asked her:' What are you doing?' And she told me: 'If they would hit me, so be it. I need water.'”

“When war begins the bad people are the first to be given weapons. In Sarajevo there was no regular army, there wasn´t such a thing. And the first to get the guns were the bandits. And for some time they could do what they wanted to. After that they managed to supress them but I don´t know whether you knew that they were so strong... that bandits would murder policemen. That they could do what they wanted to. They would come and tell you: 'Somebody has been given signals from your house. Whe have to investigate.' And they would search the house and take gold and such. And people were being killed, so they could take their flats, Serbians in particular were being killed.”