ZENICA ASSOCIATION OF MIXED MARRIAGES

NOBODY'S PEOPLE

AIM, ZENICA, November 26, 1994 "It's better to have your child born without an arm than from a mixed marriage. Maybe I'm exaggerating, but imagine what it means for a child, for its physical and psychic development, to be exposed to everyday pressure in the street, its neighbourhood, in school, only because it does not belong to one nation, which means that it does not belong to this crazy present either." That is what Ivana, mother of two children, born a Croat, married to a Serb, tells us with a lot of bitterness in Zenica. She adds jokingly how her little son came back from school the other day and asked in a flutter: "Mommy, am I a Serb, a Croat of a Lily?"

According to incomplete data, until the beginning of the war, in Zenica, there were about six thousand family in the so-called mixed marriages, most of them from the ranks of the intellectuals, renowned experts of the steel works and other enterprises, and in a smaller number, from other social structures as well. The idyll of their peaceful, family life turned into a drama when the war began, when, for them and about 10 thousand of their children, the institutions of humanitarian organizations shut their doors, political roll call began and anathemization of these people. In the "Caritas", "Merhamet", and the "Dobrotvor", they simply do not wish to know that children and members of families from mixed marriages even exist. This was the main reason why here in Zenica, at the time of the severest hunger, when a kilogram of flour reached the price of 30 German marks, the first and so far the only in Bosnia&Herzegovina, Association of Mixed Marriages was founded. It is organized as a humantitarian organization, registered in court as a citizens' assocoiation which means that it has no right to act politically. In the beginning, about four and a half thousand families joined it, but since 800 families moved away in the meantime, now there are about three thousand and seven hundred of them. Probably out of respect for the voice of the international public, foundation of this association got neither the blessing, nor the opposition of the domestic political structures, they were allowed to live and act, worrying solely about the survival of their members. None of the domestic institutions offer them assistance, and out of the foreign ones, German humanitarian organization "Hulfe fur kinder" helps them most regularly and most abundantly, then comes French "Ekvilibry" and a Muslim organization which wishes to remain anonymous for well known reasons. "All our activities - lady President and lady Vice-President, Sonja Kesko and Antonija Himbic tell us - are founded on collecting and distributing humanitarian aid. We did all we could to save our members from starvation, in the worst conditions".

They do not wish to speak about the pressures they are exposed to, and they do not even try to inform the domestic and the international public about them. They feel bad about the condemnation of mixed marriages coming from the Reis, the Imam of Zenica, some of passionate nationalistic journals, and harassment they feel at work or everyday life. "We are simply nobody's people, we belong neither here nor in exile, we feel as if with no roots and ground under our feet". - Sonja and Antonija add.

But, even such as they are, they are obviously in the way of some people in Zenica. Who knows at whose hint, certain Sejto Sehovic and yet another certain Fatima Damjanovic initiated an action of collecting signatures on a petition against the Association. Some 470 signatures were collected, and then the action was interrupted, but probably it was just the first signal of warning that they are undesirable. That fear prevails in the association is verified by the very fact that there are almost no men in the leadership of the Association, especially no respectable men whose voice in this environment could be better heard and respected. The time of silent or loud pressure exerted on mixed marriages is obviously still present, and the current Zenica Association, as its only success, can register that it exists, and occasionally distributes some flour, powdered milk, and stale biscuits to its members.

But, even in such severe conditions, life goes on. It is comforting to hear that, despite all media, political and religious pressures - mixed marriages continue to be contracted. True enough and contrary to Tuzla, where the percentage of mixed marriages was 25 per cent before the war, and has even increased since, the percentage in Zenica, just like in Sarajevo, has significantly reduced, but they are still neither completely repressed nor negligible.

Unfortunately, politics has thus reached even the bridal bed, the most intimate human right and freedom to choose one's life companion. Those who enter mixed marriages despite everythng, are well aware of their long lasting risk, and an association such as the one in Zenica, is powerless to change anything for the better.

MLADEN PAUNOVIC