The Icelandic Canadian - 01.12.2001, Qupperneq 15

Vol. 56 #3
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
141
going to be so very good. Having selected a
few likely options we strode into the deal-
ership and caught the eye of a young sales-
man. To make a long story short, once
again, we could not register a car in Austria
unless we were residents. We could howev-
er buy a car there and register it in the
country in which we were residents. As we
were not registered in Bosnia at that time,
because we didn’t have a “work permit,”
we were just right out of luck.
Since then Alma, our translator has
purchased a new Skoda (VW engine) and
she more or less drives us wherever we
need to go. Alma went to the municipal
hall and filled in a form for Len to keep in
his passport giving him permission to use
her car. So things are looking up.
Dr. Benjamin, and his wife have, as I
mentioned, been very supportive of CUI
and have on occasion invited us to travel
with them. Just over a month ago, on our
first trip with them, they took us to Bihac,
which is in northwest Bosnia, and is an 8-
hour drive from here. They speak very lit-
tle English and at first we were just a bit
uneasy as we drove from Tuzla, thinking
that an entire weekend of charades was
ahead of us. After an hour driving they
turned on the radio and an old familiar
song came on. “Q’est Sera Sera , what ever
will be will be ...” Len and I started to sing
along, and the next thing we new we were
all singing. The radio was turned off and
we were amazed at the number of songs we
had in common. We sang for over 2 hours,
sometimes they sang the Bosnian lyrics
while we sang in English. Everything was
going to be just fine.
As we drove, we began to notice coun-
try homes that were damaged during the
1991 - 1995 war. More and more; shells of
houses, rubble and burned out cars
appeared, until, for miles there was nothing
but ruins of deserted houses. We asked our
hosts who had caused this damage. They
told us that it depended on where exactly
we were. During the war, the Serbs blew up
the Muslims and Croats homes in certain
areas and the Croats blew up the Serbs and
Muslims homes in others. It seems that the
Muslims just got the worst of it all around.
Some survivors of this area have been relo-
cated to other countries in Europe, Canada,
the US and Australia, while the less fortu-
nate are homeless refugees. The first ones
relocated to new countries were in mixed
marriages.
We went into Banja Luka, which was
designated in the Dayton Accord to be a
Serb area and is in RS, Republica Srpska.
Dr. Benjamin and his wife had not been
there for over 10 years; before the war. We
could tell that they didn’t feel all that com-
fortable as we walked around the down-
town. It is an old town with a picturesque
old fort in the centre and a wide river runs
through it. Although there must have been
damage, there was very little if any that we
could see. At one point, as they walked
along in front of us, arm in arm, we could-
n’t help but ask ourselves how this war
among people who are virtually the same
blood and who speak the same language
could ever have happened. The city luckily
in which they live is a safe place for many
because Tuzla is considered to be an open
city, which means intermarriage between
Serbs, Muslims and Croats is tolerated. He
is a Serb and his wife is Muslim.
We finally arrived at Bihac, almost at
the Croatian border and found a hotel right
on the Uno River. It was named “Uno” by
the Romans, because of it’s clear emerald
green colour, it was “number one.” The
next day we drove to the headwaters of the
river, which just seemed to spring from the
earth. Streams of water swirled around tiny
homes, which were over one hundred years
old. We met an old man, who was Serbian,
and through a rough interpretation learned
that his parents had lived beside the river
where it cascaded down into an incredible
series of falls. He pointed out a little white-
washed, red tile- roofed house and said that
he was born there. For over one hundred
years the water flowed almost up to the
doorstep of the house but never flooded it.
He was very friendly and spoke to our
Bosnian friends about how much he loved
people from Canada and pointed to a
Canadian flag pin that I had on my jacket.
As we left him standing by the river, an
army vehicle pulled up in front of us. I saw
SFOR on the hood of the jeep and a
Canadian flag on the side. I think I that I