BOSNIA OUTSIDE PLANS

AHMED IS CELEBRATING CHRISTMAS

AIM SARAJEVO, December 23, 94

There is one Ahmed who knows everything. When the shooting started, when the Yugoslav People's Army started killing the Yugoslav people, Ahmed told me: I knew it! How could you have known, for God's sake, when no one believed that those with guns and tanks would turn against those with knives, kitchen knives, made of stainless steel? Easy, he replies. The one with the kitchen knife will say that he is killing a chicken, while the one with a tank will probably not fire at a hen-house.

I don't like to listen to such explanations from Ahmed. It is enough that Ejup Ganic explains his military doctrine every other day, while the military doctor treats my shrapnel wounds every day. But, Ahmed is not only a man of stories, he would otherwise be a politician, but a very practical man. When we were all starving, he was dieting, eating veal chops without bread, citrus fruit and vegetables from all four sides of the world. He got himself a place in the military police, so that he could barge into people's flats looking for spies and the fifth column, peeping inot refrigerators and bags, and leaving in a column with his comrades loaded with evidence, which they would later on eat for days.

Afterwards when I met him he was wearing military fatigues with stripes. "Where did you get that rank?" I asked. "We, the patriots got together and concluded that this struggle of ours cannot go on without command, so we distributed ranks. I am not satisfied, but I got this one, and with it you cannot get even your own driver", complained Ahmed. After that I saw him in different parts of the city, so that I thought he had become an inspector and was controlling garbage disposal, and whether cartons and plastic bottles for heating were being evenly distributed. But, no! Ahmed was living at Marindvor, Bistrik, Dolac Malta, Breka and Alipasa's all at the same time. I didn't ask him if he had a flat on Grbavica too.

How can you live at several place at the same time, does his soul sleep at one, brain at another, and his body yet at a third place? Then I thought: what is dead cannot sleep, and his body does not need a flat since it lives wherever he stops. He explained to me in a subdued voice, so as not to be overheard: he was only touring flats, guarding them, that was his capital given to him for nothing by his brother-in-law from the municipal housing company, and he was only waiting for a chance to sell them to a foreigner or someone from these parts, but for foreign currency.

Ahmed is always in the trend. For a time he went into politics. Every day at noon he would go to the mosque where high officials pray, and that was how Alija Izetbegovic spotted him and entrusted him, as a reliable person, with the organization of supply of Sarajevans through the tunnel under the airport runway. Then the trade started, the citizens were able to buy what they wanted, both drinks and food, until Ahmed threw away the liquor and pork from the counters and broke the bottles, under the Rais's orders. Trade continued to flourish and millions of German marks still went through the tunnel and Ahmed's hands. "It is true that some of that sticks to my fingers, but I am not used to working for others, while those in power only sit and negotiate, and won't find me a replacement in the tunnel even during the night", complained Ahmed.

That was what Ahmed was like during the entire war, so that I was not surprised to meet him the other day: he was making preparations to celebrate Christmas. "What kind of a Moslem are you, when you celebrate Christmas?", I asked. "What does it matter, the God is one, I once even celebrated the Jewish Passover when parcels were coming in through the Jewish commune. I found out that my aunt's sister-in-law was married to a Catholic, so that I approached our new eminent cardinal with that certificate and was put on the list. Today, it is most important to be on a religious list of some kind. Those who are not, are really at a loss. They will soon have to gather what little they have and get going. Good bye Bosnia! Don't you see that every side will cleanse its ranks, pure Serbs on one side, pure Croats on the other, pure Moslems on the third, who are already pure since they wash themselves five times a day. Our ingenious Alija knows that and therefore did not want to sign the declaration on a united Sarajevo, which 179,000 naive Sarajevans have signed, and I hear that there are many foolish people around the world who are signing it".

• Does it mean, I asked Ahmed, that you have betrayed your faith, your fathers and forefathers, who were always true Moslems? - "No way, I will go again to the Reis, as soon as he replenishes his plundered strong-box, as soon as the Arabs send him some money. It is only with Orthodoxy that my ties are sort of broken, but it seems that I will make it up by their Christmas. Bayram is far away, these Moslems of mine can look after themselves for a while, until they establish religious schools, sheriat law and Moslem electricity, water supply and sewerage".

-Well, says Ahmed to me in the end, take care. Always be among those who pray to Allah, then I will be able to pinch something for you too. Such are the times. If you don't want to, you can always go to the Red Cross or Red Crescent kitchens. But, that is up to you to choose. Well, I'll be going now, Allah be with you, Hail Jesus!

SEAD FETAHAGIC