by Ivana JANKOVIC
On arrival Jovan Basara was hailed a child hero. Journalists interviewed and photographed him, some even paid for the privilege. In the meantime, he, his mother and sister traveled the road from Sremska Mitrovica, over Kraljevo to Raska, and then back, over Belgrade to Apatin. His brother, a war invalid, joined them later.
Today he lives in Apatin, all alone. He emerged last year from an institution for young delinquents. He is unemployed. He dislikes journalists, does not like to be photographed, and refuses calls. When we called him he thought it was someone making fun of him and in any case he had no time for journalists. He does not like the idea that journalists make money by writing about him. He has sent some journalist back. They come and then demand stuff... But, given that we are already here, it's not that he does not keep his word; he's just joking, to see what we want to say; but he won't talk... Otherwise, he is polite with everyone, except with journalists.
Actually, he does not know what to talk about. And why him? True, he was only a boy, but he had driven before and that morning everything was compressed within a few minutes. They had to run for their lives.
"I was awoken by the noise. I came out of the house and saw the main road blocked with traffic, with people from Korenica and nearby villages. The women and children were crying, some older people appeared to be dying, their hearts had given in. They told us we would be shelled and that we should flee. But where were we to go, what was happening? The army came and told us to move. They told us the order was to retreat and move away. Everyone willing and capable was expected to go." They packed a bag and their school certificates. They took the neighbor's tractor, into which fifteen women and the two of them climbed. Their aunt wished to take everything, including the fridge, but he told her it was more important to save people.
"Less than a mile away a shell fell and killed a neighbor. I could not think of anything but saving ourselves. I had no idea where we were going, nor where we were, neither the road nor the place. We had joined the column and moved with it. It rained every day during the thirteen days. I was wet, tired and sleepy. I had nothing to eat. I remember a place where they gave us beans, and that along the way we were given yoghurt and bread. But imagine dividing two loaves between seventeen people!"
The police in Brcko would not let them proceed. Shells were falling, fire everywhere; they slept in the tractor because they had no relatives in Brcko. All kinds of things happened on the way - he wanted to forget it all. But he remembers when a shell hit a truck that was behind him in the refugee column. He also remembers [border crossing] Raca. "The police insisted on disarming us: everyone had to leave their weapons. A man arrived with his wife and two children. He had a permit for his handgun and refused to part with it. He was told he had to give it up, but he refused. After arguing with the police for a while, he took his gun and killed his wife, his children and himself. The police hurried us on, fearing the spread of panic."
He had his father's handgun. His father had died two years earlier. He liked his father. He still remembers his shirt... He was a good husband and a father. When the war started, he brought him an artillery shell fragment to play with. The children always played war games. Jovan thought that war was a kind of game. Jovan did not want to give up his father's handgun. When it was their turn to be searched, he got off the tractor, went for a walk and came back a bit later. No one asked him anything.
When they arrived at Sremska Mitrovica, they were placed in a kindergarten. It was overrun by people. On the following morning they continued to Idrig. A sister who was already there pulled them from the convoy.(...)
Then they left for Apatin, where they were once again placed in a kindergarten school. They were then told they would be sent to Kraljevo, but in Kraljevo the police and the army blocked the train, preventing them from getting off. "We were told that they had found us a place to stay, but we quickly learned that this was not the case. They were sending us to Kosovo. The train stopped in Raska. A man with a child got out and stood in front of the train: ‘You cannot send us to an even worse place.' He refused to budge, the train stopped and we jumped off."
They had no money, no documents and knew no one. An Albanian told them they could get refugee documents, which gave them the right to free transportation. Having obtained the documents they went to Belgrade and from there back to Apatin.
Jovan did not go to school. He had to work. They could not afford to send him to school. He did all kinds of jobs. Their landlady was an alcoholic. Jovan's earnings would disappear. She used Jovan's money to feed herself and her children. They moved to another house, where they got accommodation in return for keeping the house. But then Jovan's sister had a baby and the landlord complained so they had to leave.
They lived off the brother's pension and Jovan's earnings. He sold cigarettes like so many others. But it proved difficult, since everyone else was doing that in order to survive. "People are like that - they don't want to pay for work. If the going rate for a job is 100 dinars, they pay 30. Then later, they won't even give you those 30 dinars. I had many jobs like that, did a lot of unpaid work... And I even had to bring my own food... The difficult situation forces you to accept such treatment..."
He ended up in an institution for young delinquents in Krusevac, where he spent three years. He finally left the institution on March 9, 2004. "I got caught up in bad company." During his stay in the institution he completed his primary education and learnt new skills: to be a hairdresser and an ironworker. He was a good student, yet remains unemployed.
He remembers his childhood before Operation Storm, when his family had a farm with horses, cattle and sheep. They had land, a house and a large family. He can see all of that even now. Above all his father. And sister Dusa, who died in the meantime. "She took care of me. She started working in a textile factory when she was 17 and kept bringing me new shirts. You know how some kids wear hand-me-downs from their older brothers and sisters. I always had new stuff. They invested in me more than they did in themselves. Dusa always made sure I did not go wanting. I loved her so much. If she weren't there when it all happened I might have killed myself..."
He was in the institution when she died. He called by chance and the neighbor told him that his mother was at the funeral. He got sick and tried to run through some glass. The teacher wanted to consult other members of staff before letting him go, but the principal said that he could go right away, that he would take responsibility. "When I got back he asked me to come to the staff meeting so that everyone could see that I got back. After that they let me go out more often".
On leaving the institution he had nowhere to go. His mother wished him to return to the family, but he had quarreled with his brother. The other brother and sister do not live in Apatin and have their own problems. He found a protector in cafe owner Slavica who has become a second mother to him. Slavica is also a refugee and was already in Apatin when Jovan arrived. She remembers him when he was a boy. "People do not understand what that is like. He came as a child, without father, without anything, and he had to find his way and survive somehow. He came to me last year, in the middle of the winter. He had nowhere to go. I let him stay, to get warm and have something to eat. He spent ten days here. This is a small town and now everyone knows that he has spent time in an institution for young delinquents. So what? As if he would not work if someone gave him a job? He is not bad, but life hit him hard. And he did not steal cars and motorcycles, but bicycles, which he resold for 200 dinars..."
Slavica gave him to eat and let him take a shower. She sends him to her house from time to time to bring her something. And he does it and nothing is missing at the house. He has no other friends. He does odd jobs. Last month he earned 3000 dinars and spent 2500 on rent. He rented a room recently. Before? Well, before...
He would like to return to Lika, to his family farm, but does not have the necessary papers. He needs a birth certificate from Croatia, but does not have enough money to travel. If he were to return he could work the land or sell it.
"Everything costs money. Documents, travel, this and that... They say that even if I were to submit a request for documents, it could take years to be resolved. And my plan is, once I get documents, to build a small house on our land. I don't need much, just enough space to open a hairdressing shop. There is money to be made in hair-cutting."
Original headline: "13 dana i 10 godina golgote"