Surving On Small Miracles Sarajevo Finds Hope Amid Horrors, Says Relief Worker From Spokane

Spokane native Tom Perko was on his way to a coffee shop one night last month in Sarajevo when he witnessed a small miracle.

The street lights came on - lighting up the dark night for the first time in years.

“It was amazing to see people kind of just stop for a moment and look up,” he said. “I have no idea when the last time was that they had worked.”

For the first time since the splintering of Yugoslavia, Sarajevo residents have a chance for normalcy, Perko said. Their hope lies with the NATO peacekeeping effort spearheaded by the United States.

As part of the peace plan, President Clinton wants to spend $2 billion to send 32,000 American troops to the Balkans.

“I don’t agree with Clinton on many things, but I wholly support his sending troops to Bosnia,” Perko said. “Yes, the people of Sarajevo want this and many comment that if the United States or Europe had stepped forward forcefully in the beginning of this conflict, a lot of pain and suffering would have been avoided.”

For three years the rebel Serbs, who are Orthodox Christians, have battled the Muslim Bosnian government. The Serb-dominated Republic of Yugoslavia has provided the rebels with weapons. On the other side, Croatia has attacked the Bosnian Serbs.

The ensuing war has turned the city of Sarajevo, the cosmopolitan site of the 1984 Winter Olympics, into a land of destitution. When the heat and the electricity went off, commerce and industry shut down.

Those who could, fled. Many of those left behind have lived on government handouts and international relief, Perko said.

“Sarajevo will never return to the way it was,” Perko said. “What it will become, I don’t know.”

A Gonzaga Prep graduate, Perko, 36, is in Sarajevo for a year managing several programs for Catholic Relief Services.

The son of a Spokane banker, he went to college to learn construction management. Perko began his international relief work by building schools in Africa.

Now he’s someone caught in the middle of an ethnic war that has the world’s attention.

A few days after the street lights came on, the traffic lights began working, he said. Both had been shut off to make it harder for snipers to hit their targets.

Perko likened the main street through Sarajevo to Spokane Falls Boulevard, with snipers firing at cars and pedestrians from the Flour Mill.

To make themselves difficult targets, Perko and others would race down the street in armored vehicles at 70 mph.

A medic told Perko a story about a mother and child who were hit by the same bullet, which passed through the mother’s abdomen and into her child’s head.

“The mother was so upset over her child that she didn’t know she had been shot until the child was taken away,” Perko said. The child died.

Perko has been communicating with The Spokesman-Review through the fax machine. The following are some of his observations:

United States’ involvement

“Living overseas, I’ve heard a lot of people criticize the United States, but in the next sentence they will ask me if can help them get a visa. America isn’t perfect but it still stands for hope and freedom. I would rather the United States make an honest mistake in standing up for the rights of some suffering people, than debate the merits of becoming involved while people die.

“America plays a role in the world that either it doesn’t realize or doesn’t want to play. Other nations really do look to America for leadership. America’s democratic system, for all its faults, is also unique in the world and really does allow people to succeed through hard work.”

People’s needs in Sarajevo

“Almost everyone has suffered except maybe some of the political leaders. As I look around Sarajevo I see buildings with holes in them and windows lacking glass to keep out the cold.

“Life is especially difficult for the elderly, as many of them live in high-rise apartment buildings with no utilities. Someone who is 70 years old may have to carry water up 12 flights of stairs. If the building doesn’t have heat, someone must carry firewood up those 12 flights or they go cold.

“Hospitals have been damaged and most of the professional people who could leave are long gone. I am in the process of submitting a proposal to reroof a health clinic, which was hit by shelling. But that is only the beginning because the clinic also needs windows and heat. It serves about 1,000 people a day.

“You name it and it is needed. Children don’t have school supplies. Schools don’t have windows and some don’t have heat.

“People need normalcy; jobs to earn an income and build self-esteem. One of the biggest thrills for people is being able to go out to the cafes for a cup of coffee and visit friends. That is tough to do without any income. But I am still amazed at how well some people cope and the resiliency that people have to survive.”

Daily living

“First thing in the morning I had a meeting in the Serbian controlled town of Rajlovac. I traveled there with our armored Toyota Land Cruiser. I had to pass through Bosnian, then UN and then a Serbian checkpoint. Some kid threw a rock at the car and hit us, which is why we are using the armored vehicle.

“The purpose of the meeting is to discuss warehousing 1,300 metric tons of flour for a bread baking project.

“I arrived back in Sarajevo for lunch and went to the UN restaurant basically a subsidized restaurant for people who work for the UN and other humanitarian agencies. It is basically a meal hall like you would find at a university. …

“Catholic Relief Services has just received funding to hire a factory to produce children’s coats. It provides a needed item and actually puts about 200 people back to work for two months.

“Thursday I had a meeting with the manager of a pasta factory where we will be producing about 250 metric tons of pasta per month.

“I don’t have much of a social life, but that works for now. I play basketball when I get a chance. I’ve been busy with work lately, but I will probably go out to a cafe tomorrow.

“I’m busy. I’m bored. Sometimes I feel like I’m making a difference and sometimes I’m just treading water. But I’m glad I’m here - for the moment.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo