Jovana Survives War
06/21/1999
Serb Girl Slept; War Raged On
By Judy Kuhlman
Staff WriterShe slept some nights on her mother's lap in a dark, damp place underground where people lashed out at each other in anger. Then she slept in the hallway of her apartment cuddled next to her parents.
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When daylight came, she and her parents, Dragica and Zoran, watched cartoons, went to the park and shopped.
For 3-year-old Jovana, there was no war and no bombings in her hometown of Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
Editor's Note: Since March, staff writer Judy Kuhlman has been in e-mail contact with Serb Zoran Mijalkovic. Oklahoma City resident Jim Cooprider arranged for Kuhlman's first contact with Mijalkovic.
But for her parents, the NATO bombing campaign was a time of fear and hardship.
Keeping Jovana isolated from the atrocities was Zoran and Dragica Mijalkovics' greatest victory.
"We kept all her daily activities unchanged, to watch TV cartoons in the morning, to go to the park to play with other children, to go to places in town she likes. On that way, we succeed. She doesn't know that we have been in war. And it is our great success," Zoran Mijalkovic said.
When the bombs started to fall on Belgrade, Zoran and Dragica swept Jovana into their arms and ran to the bomb shelter in their suburban neighborhood.
"It is good shelter underground with special entries and exits, separate power and some kind of metal beds," Mijalkovac said.
But the tension in the shelter was too much for some, who lashed out in anger at each other, Mijalkovac said.
When Mijalkovac and his wife returned to their apartment, they decided not to go to the shelter but to go to the cellar under their building when the sirens sounded.
By the third day, Mijalkovac and his wife decided not to go to the cellar.
"The third day, we understood that this bombing will take long, and that they are bombing military targets. As our suburb has not anything even like military target, and as our daughter is not the mushroom to be raised in cellar but human being, we decided not to go to the shelter and the cellar any more but to stay in our home where Jovana can sleep in normal atmosphere," Mijalkovac said.
But the atmosphere was anything but normal no matter how hard Zoran and Dragica tried. They slept together in a small room of their apartment and later in the hallway to escape the flying glass from breaking windows.
"The sound of the air raid sirens was scary. Fortunately, in our suburb it was not so loud. And I explain to her (Jovana) when we heard it that it was a big dog crying," Mijalkovac said.
Jovana was asleep when the bombing started each night. So she often didn't hear the explosions.
Sometimes, however, she woke up in fright. So the Mijalkovacs turned the TV up loud in an attempt to drown out the noise of destruction.
The bombs mostly hit four to nine miles away from the Mijalkovacs' home.
"But sometimes they hit so big bombs that every window in our home opened, all furniture tremble, the glass objects ring like bells, something like an earthquake," Mijalkovac said.
He said he and his wife stayed up late worrying. Dragica started taking sleeping pills.
"We slept completely dressed to be ready to leave the house immediately. By the entry door we had small bag with basic food and water for Jovana and our documents to pick it up if we must leave," Mijalkovac said.
Air raids were stepped up in the last 10 days of the 79-day war when bombs were dropped night and day on Belgrade, destroying the power plants, Mijalkovac said.
Belgrade is built on nine small hills, so electricity is needed to pump water into the homes. Without electricity, there was no water, Mijalkovac said.
For his wife, having no electricity and water was particularly stressful, Mijalkovac said.
"She only cried whole day. The situation in which she cannot feed her child was no match for her," he said.
Jovana also could not watch her favorite video.
"It was not possible but very hard to explain to her why not possible (to watch "Aladdin") and why there is not electricity. We told her stories. And she has been sad and went to bed earlier than usual," Mijalkovac said.
When the bombing ended, the Mijalkovacs celebrated like many other Serbs.
"For us the suspension of the bombing has been big relief. Dragica cried, and we celebrated the end of fear and nightmares," Mijalkovac said.
But now the celebration has ended and the Mijalkovacs must plan for the future, one that looks dim to them.
Before the war, the Mijalkovacs had their own consulting business, which they operated out of their home. Mijalkovac, 59, has an engineering degree. Dragica, 44, has a degree in economics. But their business ended with the beginning of the war.
"It was a very strange feeling after all the years I worked suddenly nothing to do. Dragica has her usual activities around Jovana and our home, but nothing for me," Zoran Mijalkovac said.
He is very worried about what the future holds for Jovana.
"For us, we can say that we had nice childhood. We had good schools. We study on good university. We had opportunity to work for the good companies, to travel and see the whole world. But what for her?" Mijalkovac asked.
He said most local power plants, bridges, highways, railways and factories are destroyed. He predicts it will take 20 years to rebuild them.
"And it will be no money soon. Because of that we must to think how to organize ourselves to make some future for Jovana. Probably we must leave country. And it is not easy," Mijalkovac said.
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