Sugar Coated War

Page 57

My first impression of Sarajevo was of drab, communist-style concrete, burnt out buildings, bereft of life and colour. Bullet ridden walls, broken glass, tattered and torn curtains blew gently in the breeze: a far cry from 1984, when the city buzzed with life; hosting the Winter Olympics at the Zetra Stadium in the city centre where English ice skaters Torville and Dean won their gold medal. The collapsed Olympic Stadium now housed Swedish UN troops. The nearby grounds that once hosted field events were already overflowing with freshly dug graves, bearing plain wooden markers; inscribed with only a name and date of death…

Page 111

With nothing more than a knife and bare hands, which he used to gesticulate his actions, he described how the baby was removed. The woman’s screams and resistance subsiding as she died: the dead baby held high - like a trophy from a sporting event. He laughed as he drew his hands down the front of his uniform indicating how he was covered in the dead baby’s blood, proud of his sadistic achievement…

Page 120

Whilst at one of the city orphanages, I clearly remember a little girl staring at me. She looked around four years old and carried a black adult’s handbag. Her dark shoulder length hair fell scruffily onto her red coat, hiding her pale complexion. She had red lipstick smudged around her mouth as she stood at the gated entrance to the orphanage, staring up towards this strange man wearing a white helmet and a green flak-jacket…