Gorazde: Why, Why Why?

Joe Sacco’s Safe Area Gorazde illustrates how the characters questioned why these awful atrocities happened and Sacco’s explicit narration forces his readers to do the same. The characters interviewed in the book demonstrate the victim’s need for closure on the horrific events and an unyielding yearning for an explanation. Edin’s mother recollects the hardships of having her husband and two sons wounded but acknowledges their luck because despite the injuries nobody in their family is dead. I found her account regarding their Serb neighbors especially saddening. She said, “before the war [she]d done everything with their neighbors: had coffee, celebrated Christmas, and [attended] weddings” ( Sacco 77). The good relationships that the Serbs and Muslims had prior to the war suddenly ceased, and transformed into to hateful ones. Izet, a neighbor of Edin’s, even recognized some of the Serbian shooters as his old neighbors and friends who had spent time in his house and had done homework with his son. It was hatred out of nowhere and the fact that the victims and perpetrators knew who was shooting at them and who they were shooting at is astonishing. It’s one thing for the shooters to hurt people they don’t know, but to readily kill and inflict violence on people they have established relations with is truly vicious and inhumane.

The war not only had physical effects on the Yugoslavs, but it also had mental ones. During the multiple Serb offenses, “all schools [were] shut down and male teachers [were] sent to the trenches” (94). Edin relays that “the kids’ studies had been interrupted for months at a time and their brains were going soft” (94). One student admits to having “forgot[ten] everything” she’d learned (95). Many kids were relocated to different towns and if and when they returned to school, they came back to the “empty tables of their friends who were killed or wounded” (95). Having a generation of kids whose studies have been inconsistent sets the world up for a generation of uneducated people unable to hold skilled jobs. The injuries incurred during the conflict also make for a large handicapped generation whose physically disabilities prevent them from acquiring work to support their families. The setbacks for the victims go on and on.

Although I can’t answer the burning question of why this ethnic conflict occurred or the many other why’s that I asked myself while reading this book, through the stories of the Gorazde inhabitants and Sacco’s graphic account I’ve gained a better awareness of ethnic conflict and of the many ways it can harm society.