Former Bosnian refugee shares story

Author: Addason McCaslin

"Sometimes I cannot imagine how much we can take as human beings," said Aftaba Mezetovic, former Bosnian refugee, current representative for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and author of "Refugee: The Ugliest World," describing the horrors inflicted upon her nearly 12 years ago. On the night of June 28, 1993, Mezetovic's life changed forever. She was rushed from her home and brought by truck to a long automobile tunnel a few miles away where she was left with other members of her town. The men who had taken her mused over the ways in which she and her townsfolk might be exterminated. "We may put gas in. We may burn you. We may send 18-wheelers to go over you alive. We don't know what we're going to do, but we'll let you know in a couple of days," they said. For the next two days, Mezetovic and her townsfolk never saw light. They sat alone, underground on cold asphalt, awaiting their fate - frightened and hungry,.

Mezetovic's speech "The Many Faces of Poverty: Local, National, and Global Perspectives" given on Sunday, March 6, was a part of Middlebury College's week-long poverty symposium and focused on one important type of poverty - the destitution of refugees. Others who, like Mezetovic, sought refuge from Bosnia were forced to live their lives in incomprehensible poverty. This was complete poverty - a lack of everything, not only of monetary means, but also of rights, dignity, relationships and the will to live. For many people, life became nothing more than the evil before blissful release. "If I could die suddenly, it would be a blessing," Mezetovic had thought to herself. Their homes were demolished, their families were stripped from them and their freedoms were eradicated, but she and many of her townsfolk weathered their fears and hardships with prodigious tenacity.

Fortunately, the eyes of the world were open to the suffering of the Bosnian people. Mezetovic was one of many refugees rescued by the United Nations from the turmoil in Bosnia. She went on to manage refugee camps for the United Nations and later sought and received United States citizenship.

Now, more than 10 years after that fateful night in June, Mezetovic is still haunted by her memories. Time, which washes away many evils, has been unable to quench the remorse and anger burning within her, but she continues to strive for peace in her mind and on earth. She wishes to see a world devoid of the terror that she was forced to endure. "The value for me is life and family and peace. War is not the solution," she explained.

Mezetovic's speech carried many powerful messages for the students in attendance. The story of her life forced students not only to realize the harshness that some people are forced to endure in their lives, but to also to consider the bounty of freedoms and privileges afforded to every citizen in a country as free as the United States. Speaking sincerely to the surrounding students, Mezetovic said, "I wanted to make sure that you feel lucky that you have a family, a town and a country".

To help her cope with her trauma, Mezetovic published a series of poetic reflections on her experiences in Bosnia. Claire Groby '08 read several of the emotional verses aloud for Mezetovic. Groby reflected afterwards, "It was so hard to make it through the poems. I thought I was going to break down on every single one. If I had gone through something like that, I wouldn't have been able to talk about it at all."