A cura di @Apollyon.

Un articolo pubblicato su The Balkanist racconta l’esperienza in prima persona del bombardamento NATO sulla Jugoslavia, avvenuto vent’anni fa.

It’s hard to believe that 20 years have passed since the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. From today’s vantage point, those 78 days seem like a foreign world, and one that I sometimes wish to forget, but my memories, dreams and spontaneous associations bring me back to the spring of 1999, whether I want to remember or not. What follows, then, is not necessarily a historical analysis or an overall depiction of what occurred; rather, it is a glimpse into my memories, my dreams and my spontaneous associations of life in Belgrade during the bombings.

It is important to remember that most people did not really believe that it could happen. Even with the conflict in Kosovo raging (which, mind you, we were constantly misinformed about from official media), it was hard to imagine that “the West” would intervene militarily against us. But my mom, who worked with the Americans, knew that it was coming. The day before the bombing started, she stayed at work the whole night, saying farewell to her American colleagues who left early in the morning for the airport. Just after daybreak, she left work and went straight to our local monastery, which (fittingly) was dedicated to the archangels Michael and Gabriel. She lit a candle and asked the priest, “What do you think, Father – will it happen?” The priest gave an unexpected, and darkly humorous, response: “If God wants to scorch us, he will scorch us.” Unassured, she came back home.

Immagine da Wikimedia.