From: malenovi@plains.NoDak.edu (Malenovic Nikola V.)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.yugoslavia
Subject: Farewell Letter ( VREME NDA 5 Sep 1992 )
Date: 5 Sep 92 18:12:37 GMT
Article-I.D.: plains.20176
Organization: North Dakota Higher Education Computing Network


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     "Vreme" News Digest No. 49                             August 31, 1992
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    Farewell Letter
    ---------------


                            MY WORLD HAS COLLAPSED


    I hope that many  of my colleagues and friends  in Belgrade will rejoice
    at the news  that I am alive and  well after 105 days of  hell caused by
    the merciless destruction of Sarajevo.  Thanks to semi-legal channels, I
    left  the  blocked  city  a  broken  man,  and  am now recuperating as a
    temporary refugee  in Switzerland. As  soon as I  recover physically and
    mentally, I am  resolute in my intention to go  back to Sarajevo through
    that  same channel,  despite the   day and  night Russian  roulette with
    shells of all calibers which leave little hope of surviving the chaos. I
    believe that my place  is in the city whose fate I  want to share, today
    when it  is being destroyed  and tomorrow when  it is rebuilt  after the
    inevitable victory.

    All the houses that I elatedly designed and built over the years, houses
    that found  their place in  architectural journals, a  masonic opus that
    has   given   me   such   happiness   in   life,   official  awards  and
    acknowledgements  from my  fellow colleagues  - even  membership in  the
    Academy  of Sciences  and Arts  of Bosnia-Herzegovina  - are  destroyed,
    burnt or greatly damaged. My houses,  too, had to share the hapless fate
    of Sarajevo's execution.  Today, they are ruins and  burnt out skeletons
    "thanks" to the inconsiderate highlanders, the mercenaries who were once
    loafers and the  miserable army that is left and  that is giving vent to
    its anger, after experiencing defeat and professional shame, on Sarajevo
    and its stubborn inhabitants.

    Reading  the latest  issues of  the weekly  "Vreme" here  in Switzerland
    (this  weekly has  not been  arriving in  surrounded Sarajevo  for three
    months  now, and  it was  the only  weekly I  read), I  realized that  a
    certain  class  of  intellectuals  in  Belgrade  do  not approve, abhor,
    protest the brutal and senseless  destruction of Sarajevo and the savage
    massacre of its  innocent population. I believe that a  good part of you
    also belong to this class, which  is powerless to do anything useful for
    Sarajevo. But, even so, I am aware  of the fact that it is inevitable to
    terminate - unfortunately - our friendship in the professional capacity.
    We have been  led to this, against our will,  by the political and state
    ambitions (that I find incomprehensible) of the former fierce communists
    who changed into national leaders with dizzying and amazing speed. It is
    true that our relationship could be terminated easily by my death in the
    insane bombing of  the city or by my wounding,  which can often be worse
    than immediate death.

    Should I  be lucky enough to  remain among the living  and sound in mind
    despite  the  highlanders  and  "Tito's"  soldiers,  an  obstacle to our
    further professional association would ensue  from the - quite certain -
    and understandable hatred of the  Bosnians for the immoral order-issuing
    authorities, their many sycophants and  even more merciless executors of
    the  destruction, killing  and savagery,  and the  inevitable, long  and
    bloody  revenge as  the only   certain result  of this  senselessness in
    Bosnia. The  revenge will be decided  by the thousands and  thousands of
    Bosnians who have  been left without their nearest  and dearest, without
    their property  which they toiled hard  for, and without any  purpose in
    their wrecked lives. Revenge will be their only purpose in life on ruins
    and fire sites. Nobody alive will be able to stop them, just as you were
    not able to prevent the idiotic plan to demolish cities, kill people and
    destroy everything  that cannot be plundered,  the goal being to  form a
    "greater" state.

    A friendly greeting  to all in  Belgrade with whom  I had worked  for so
    many  years,   and  spent  unforgettable   moments,  professionally  and
    privately. I would  also like you to take care  of my only building that
    has  not  been  the  victim  of  senselessness  and  savagery  in former
    Yugoslavia - the Museum of Aviation in Surcin.

                           Ivan Straus, world known architect from Sarajevo,
                           temporary refugee from his city


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     "Vreme" News Digest No. 49                             August 31, 1992
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