Horrors of War
Students share their stories
courtesy of TV News Services
of the University community listened intently to the painful,
first-hand accounts of war, shared by five U.Va. students.
The emotionally charged event, held March 27, was the third
annual Children of War program.
By Matt Kelly
University students bore witness to the impact of armed conflict
on civilian populations, especially the young, before a packed
Wilson Hall Auditorium.
Kurds, a Colombian, a Bosnian and an American student who lived
through a terrorist campaign in Spain told their stories March
27 in the third annual Children of War program.
of us get anxious whenever we hear a helicopter, said Rebeen
Pasha, one of the events organizers. We know how a
building trembles and shakes after a bomb blast, and some of us
saw family members shot before our eyes.
said it is difficult to describe the personal impact of war on
children and families, especially to students with no personal
frame of reference. The Children of War panelists pour human emotions
over the cold facts of war, he said.
now a Virginia resident but originally from Kurdistan in Northern
Iraq, lived through the Iran-Iraq war, the invasion of Kuwait
and the Gulf War that followed, the Kurdish revolution and then
the Kurdish civil wars. His father was gunned down in front of
his family after answering a knock on the door during dinner,
leaving Pasha the man of the house at age 10.
Alan, also from Kurdistan, was 8 at the end of the Gulf War, when
Saddam Hussein turned his forces on the Kurds. He saw Iraqi helicopter
gunships massacre thousands of civilians at the Iraq-Iran border;
Alans family survived because they hid behind a small hill.
they walked back to their home, a five-day journey, he saw what
became his most vivid childhood memory: a blood-covered child
of about 5 years old, clutching a doll, pleading to the corpses
of her parents to wake up because she wanted to go home.
Usanovic lived in the suburbs of Sarajevo, Bosnia, and watched
bombs fall on the city. When the bombing neared them, her family
huddled in the cellar, venturing outside only for brief periods.
She was 12 at the time, confused, not understanding what was happening
family eventually fled to Croatia. We changed our name with
each area we went through, because if we werent from that
area, they wouldnt have let us in and they probably would
have shot us, she said. Eventually, they made their way
to Germany, then to the U.S.
terrorism is also a form of war. Adriana Navarro, born in Pereria,
Colombia, to an American mother and Colombian father, and Dustin
Batson, whose family lived in Madrid, recounted how terrorism
affects the lives of the innocent.
said Colombias 50-year-old, Cuban-inspired revolutionary
movement aligned itself with the countrys illegal narcotics
industry to terrorize the Colombian people. Once, the Palace of
Justice was attacked and all the judges were killed; later, a
presidential candidate was assassinated.
family moved to Bogata when she was 12, but the city was soon
besieged with a bombing campaign. Once, a bomb detonated near
Navarros school, shaking the glass dome of the library as
family moved to the U.S. after there were threats against Americans.
I cant go back for a visit, because my parents are
afraid that something will happen to me, Navarro said. Its
my country, war or no war, and I love it. Seventy percent of me
is in Colombia. My heart is still in Colombia.
Spain, Batson witnessed armed conflict between the government
and Basque separatists in a major western city, where armed police
patrolled every street.
My high school infirmary had 10 beds, he said. It
was a mini-hospital attached to a school for 300 students.
one warm Saturday in April, he and his mother boarded a bus to
go shopping, only to disembark at the wrong stop near the crowded
market. Moments later, the ground shook from an explosion. A bus
had blown up at the stop they had intended to use.
went about their shopping. In our numbness, we couldnt
comprehend what we had seen, he said.
panelists also talked about how their ordeals affected them in
the long term.
It made me stronger, Unsanovic said. I focus
on school and I want to prove to myself and my country that we
can become smarter. I put 100 percent into everything I do.
and Pasha both aspire to attend medical school. Alan says he wants
to help poor people, and Pasha wants to help a free Kurdistan.
Navarro, an architecture student, also wants to return to Colombia,
and Batson wants to work internationally for human rights.
accounts clearly had a message for students absorbed in daily
concerns about classes and money.
price people pay for freedom is very high, Pasha said. When
you talk about your rights, think about your privileges.
were fighting to be free, Alan said. Things are so
incredible here. You ought to be breaking a law if you take it