EMIR MATEO: A true story about a lost youth in the whirlpool of war in the Balkan

By Esad Jaganjac

The novel "Emir Mateo" was inspired by actual events describing the suffering and senselessness of the war in the Balkans in 1992 - 1995, in which the author and his family found themselves. It is a true event with real main characters, while the other characters are described acc

• Language: English
• Publisher: Esad Jaganjac
• Release date: May 24, 2023
• ISBN: 9781399954976

Book preview

One

PICCADILLY CIRCUS

Mind the gap, mind the gap, echoed in the lobby of the Piccadilly Circus subway station in London. As usual, Piccadilly Circus station was full of passengers on weekdays that morning. People waited patiently for their train. No one knew anyone and, it seemed, did not want to know; there was time for any chat except a couple of them. A middle-aged person was playing the saxophone, casually leaning against the wall. He had a half-grey beard, long hair, and a thin, sunken face. In front of him is a hat with a few coins in the middle. Everyone has their own destiny, Esad thought as he passed him. He must have been part of a band that broke up, leaving him alone to live like this.

A few meters from him, another unusual scene was different from the otherwise busy environment. A young man in his twenties with slightly long black hair was sitting on a piece of cardboard, his gaze lost in the distance. Nothing around him seemed to interest him. Next to him, his dog sat casually leaning against his master. The young man gently stroked his head, and the dog would gratefully turn to him and the others. Around him crouched two middle-aged people, one man and one woman, holding a cloth bag in their hands. They called him by name and offered him some food, but he didn't seem to care. He was in another world, barely noticing the two of them. They must be his parents, thought Esad, and he must be under the influence of some drug. While the woman was gently caressing him with her gaze, the man knelt beside him and, with trembling hands, put a jacket over his back to warm him. All the pain in the world seemed to be in their eyes, and he didn't seem to see them at all.

Soon, the famous London tube emerged from the tunnel's darkness with the clatter of wheels. The Bakerloo line was very busy in those days.

It connected the west of London with the south, where many universities, colleges, and companies are located. Although there were a lot of passengers, everything went quite quickly; people stood patiently in line waiting for the entrance. There are only a few accessible seats left. Fortunately, a gentleman had just stood beside Esad, leaving him an empty seat. Esad didn't hesitate because travelling comfortably in the seat was much more comfortable than pushing oneself while standing. He sat down with a sigh of relief. He put the briefcase on his lap and looked around. Everyone was so close, yet so far. Few knew each other. His eyes turned to the wall of the carriage. Numerous advertisements were hung, done stylishly and professionally: Hugo Boss, Yves Saint Laurent, and countless other companies. On one was a picture of a herd of cows pushed into a train wagon. On it was written:

Imagine you are trapped in a train wagon with no way to get out. Imagine you are locked in that hell without water and food. Imagine you are screaming, but no one hears you, and there is no help from anyone; they are taking you to the slaughterhouse. If you want to help them, call this number…

Esad thought to himself. He recently came out of a similar hell. His hand went to his pocket. He looked for a pen. Soon, using the briefcase as a prop, he began to write on a piece of paper:

Imagine you are trapped in a city with no way out. Imagine that you are locked in that hell without water and food. Imagine that you are screaming, but no one hears you, and there is no help from anyone, but you are killed every day by snipers and shells. If you want to help the citizens of Sarajevo, call... - he imagined.

There is no such number. Who would one contact? It seemed to him illusory to write any phone number; simply, there was no help. He finished the thought. He wrote: If you want to help the citizens of Sarajevo, call... your conscience.

He found some paper clips and hung his own advertisement right next to the original one, which warned of crime against cows. The passengers around him looked at him strangely. Ads were here, and illegal advertising was prohibited. God will forgive me and, besides, this is not an advertisement; this is an appeal, he thought and sat back in his seat, feeling the stares from all sides.

Almost no one saw what he wrote except those standing next to him. And they, too, informed by the majority of the world's media completely differently, saw something else, foreign, dangerous, unacceptable in him. They reserved a place for him in some reservation, and he, free like this, seemed like a tiger that had just escaped from the zoo.

The Balkan butcher, the captain of the Serbian JNA (Yugoslavian People's Army), Ratko Mladić, was not a favourite of those same media for the simple reason that he stepped out of the permissible framework. One could tolerate gentle killing, a little bit, every day, but to decapitate eight thousand people in one day was too much, even by European standards. That's why they called him the Balkan butcher because he dared to disturb their peaceful sleep. Esad and the others were guilty because they had different names. Everyone understood that without further ado. However, some people did not accept it. Something told them this was wrong, though they could do nothing. The world elite was building a new world order in which wolf laws took over the priority. We're going back two thousand years when the pagans ruled the world, he thought. British Prime Minister John Major made it clear that Europe would not allow the existence of another Islamic state in Europe, even if it was secular and democratic. The exploitation of numerous world resources was under the direct control of a few multinational corporations, and the appearance of any state, which could indicate to the world the neo-colonial relationship of the leading corporations, was unacceptable. They had a painful experience with Josip Broz Tito, who created the Non-Aligned Movement and messed up many colonial powers. In addition, the majority of the Muslim population lived in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and islamophobia was not unknown even then in Christian Europe. Therefore, an arms embargo was introduced in Bosnia and Sarajevo, a cooperative government was brought in, and Milošević's fascists, armed to the teeth, were released. The circle was closing, and the genocide was being carried out under direct supervision from the world's power centres, in the heart of old lady Europe, in front of TV cameras.

Only after four years of terror, killing, mass executions, genocide, concentration camps, Omarska, Kareterm, etc., like those from Auschwitz, did the world public no longer have the stomach to watch a horror equal to that which Hitler carried out. After the hunger strike of several French intellectuals, French President Jacques Chirac urged Bill Clinton to stop Milošević and Karadžić's terror in the heart of Europe.

The train swayed gently on the gentle bends of the rails while the wheels rattled in a monotonous rhythm. Everything looked like it was raining on the roof. An ideal scenario for falling into sleep. Esad momentarily lost contact with time and space. His thoughts went somewhere far away, back several years.

Two

GREATER SERBIA

It was June 1989 when the then president of the CKSK (Central Committee of the Union of Communists of Serbia), Slobodan Milošević, said: Nobody is allowed to beat you in the valley called Gazimestan in Kosovo. He addressed the thousands of Serbs gathered in the valley, who cheered for him fanatically. The 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo was celebrated, in which the Ottoman Empire fought against the combined Bosnian, Serbian, and Albanian armies. Then he continued in rapture:

            Six centuries later, today, we are again in battles and facing battles. They are not armed, although such has not yet been ruled out. But, regardless of what they are, battles cannot be won without determination and courage, without those good qualities that were present in Kosovo long ago. Our main battle today is about achieving economic, political, and cultural prosperity.

The entire story about the cause of the aggression against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina is described on a napkin drawn by Croatian President Franjo Tuđman, which shows how he envisions the future of Bosnia and Herzegovina, divided between Serbia and Croatia, which was published in the Sunday Times on August 7, 1995.

With this speech, Milošević became the undisputed Serbian national leader, which marked the end of the Yugoslavia idea. After the meeting at Gazimestan, the crisis in Yugoslavia accelerated, which was destroyed in the bloody war that was fought from 1991 to 1995.

 After all those events where the regime in Serbia accused and still accuses other republics of the disintegration of the SFRY (Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia), in reality, Serbia was the first republic of the SFRY that seceded with the intention of re-composing the SFRY with the help of the JNA, creating a new, shortened Yugoslavia, by which Milošević's Serbia will dominate and which that new state would be recognized as a greater Serbia. A year before the declaration of independence of Slovenia and Croatia, Serbia declared itself an independent and sovereign state that no longer had an obligation to respect the Constitution of the SFRY and legislation. It took over all the key competencies of the former federal state: Defence (the JNA - Yugoslav People's Army), International relations, and National Bank. The following spring, still before the declaration of independence of Croatia and Slovenia, Milošević passed several laws from the jurisdiction of the former federation.

The entire story about the cause of the aggression against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina is described on a napkin drawn by Croatian President Franjo Tuđman, which shows how he envisions the future of Bosnia and Herzegovina, divided between Serbia and Croatia, which was published in the Sunday Times on August 7, 1995.

According to the relevant written history, the battle in Kosovo took place in 1389, in which the Turkish Sultan Murat and his army participated on one side, and on the other, the combined army of the Bosnian King Tvrtko, led by Vlatko Vuković and the Serbian army of Prince Lazar Hrebljanović and one unit of the Albanian military. According to historians, the outcome of the battle was a draw, with the Turkish Sultan Murat, the Serbian Prince Lazar, and most of the army on both sides killed in it. The remnants of the Bosnian, Turkish, and Albanian armies retreated, while most of the Serbian soldiers perished. Although medieval Serbia lost the war against the Ottoman Empire even earlier, in the battle of Marica, they saw the battle in Kosovo as a national tragedy, sang it in epic songs, and mentioned it every year on the anniversary of the battle.

A myth was created from that battle, which would largely determine all historical events in the Balkans from the Middle Ages to the present day. Lie myth had the role of exaggerating the part of the mythomaniac and minimizing and denigrating the role of others. This is how Serbian history is written, with mythomania, according to which the Turks are to blame for everything that happens to them even today. According to them, all those who follow Islam are also Turks. All their neighbours are enemies, except for the Russians and Greeks, at least for now. Aside from the historical facts that say that the Serbs, having recovered, became the greatest Turkish allies, they would soon show by fighting with the Turkish Sultan Bayazit against the Hungarian King Sigismund, inflicting a heavy defeat on him at Nikopol. That's how Serbia defended Europe from the Turkish invasion.

Milošević was a banker by profession, then currently serving as president of the Central Committee of the Union of Communists of Serbia. As a person whose parents both committed suicide, he was an excellent opportunity for manipulation and a real target for Western intelligence services, which were working at that time to overthrow communism. As such, he could be manipulated. All that needed to be done was to fuel latent Greater Serbian nationalism and thus open Pandora's box in the Balkans.

The West did not miss any opportunity in this business. Milošević visited Western countries several times, where the details were agreed upon. Soon, the plan with the code name RAM began to be realized. According to the plan, the SFRY was supposed to disintegrate, and Serbia, which was in charge of bringing that process to an end, was promised territorial concessions. The message to Milošević was: Do it, but without much blood.

The aggression against the Republic of BiH began in Bijeljina on April 1, 1992, after Karadžić's rebels started throwing grenades at shops and cafes owned by local Bosniaks.

A well-known criminal from Serbia, Željko Ražnatović Arkan, founded his paramilitary unit Tigers and headed for the Bosnian town of Bijeljina. Together with other Karadžić rebels, he took power in a city where they did not encounter any significant resistance. The newly formed government of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, led by President Alija Izetbegović, did everything it shouldn't, including irresponsible preparation for defence against aggression. The defence was born on its own initiative in local towns and villages by people who understood that it was an act of aggression to overthrow the RBiH government and exterminate it to overthrow the RBiH government and exterminate the majority Bosniak population.

There was an absolute massacre in the city. The majority of those killed were Bosniaks, but also other members of the non-Serb ethnic community, as well as some Serbs who were considered disloyal by Karadžić's Chetniks. The crimes were committed by a local paramilitary Chetnik group known as Mirko Blagojević's Chetniks and Arkan's Tigers. The Tigers were under the command of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), now controlled by the President of Serbia, Slobodan Milošević.

During the massacre, around 50 Bosniak civilians were killed. The terror continued during the following months, including the looting, killing, rape, and expulsion of Bosniaks and Croats. In early 1992, the so-called Yugoslav People's Army, now under the control of Serbian President Milošević, deployed artillery with about 100 tanks and over 1,600 mortars on the hills around Sarajevo.

In March 1992, a conflict broke out in Sarajevo between members of Karadžić's rebels and police officers under the control of the government of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The clash broke out when Karadžić's forces set up barricades in Grbavica and Vraca.

In the same month, on April 5, 1992, demonstrations for peace were held in Sarajevo in front of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Republic of BiH in Marindvor. Karadžić's snipers fired from the roof of the Holiday Inn hotel at the demonstrators.

 Esad joined the demonstration. From the windows of the Assembly building, speakers took turns asking for peace. The protest lasted for a while until the snipers from the Holiday Inn hotel started shooting over the heads of the demonstrators. Because of this, the gathered protesters headed towards the then Vrbanja bridge and the barricades placed at the entrance to the Vraca settlement. However, snipers who were positioned on the other side opened fire and there, on the bridge, killed Suada Dilberović and Olga Sučić. Regular units of the special police under the command of Dragan Vikić managed to enter the Holiday Inn and arrest Karadžić's special forces; however, due to the threat of retaliation by shelling the entire city, the RBiH Government agreed to release the snipers and return them to the territory controlled by Karadžić's Chetniks.

A few days before the demonstration, on Eid, Esad's wife Jasminka and Esad visited Jasminka's parents in Grbavica with their children Edvin and Ernest. The children wanted to stay with their grandfather and grandmother for a few more days, so they left them in Grbavica. However, news began to arrive from Bijeljina about the beginning of