Perica Bukic

Water Polo

Some of war’s scars are more visible than others. Some are more than just skin deep.

Croatia’s Olympic water polo captain Perica Bukic stands alone in the warm Georgia night in nothing but his swim trunks. At first glance his 6-foot-5 frame appears unmarked. Bukic’s eyes betray him. In his eyes the scars of war run as deep as any wound.

“I have seen so much war,” Bukic said. “I can never forget.”

The Olympics are a celebration of man at his best, of his defiance of gravity and weight and time and human frailty. Bukic and his teammates also bring reminders of man’s dark side.

“I am lucky,” said Bukic, one of the world’s premier players. “Many of my teammates have relatives who have been killed in the war. None of my family has been killed. But I am still touched by war. War has touched everything in my country.”

For the past five years, dreams of the Olympics have provided a diversion from the war between Croatia and ethnic Serbs armed by Yugoslavia. Tonight, the Olympic flame burns against the winds of war. Croatia and Yugoslavia meet in the quarters, a match both teams hoped to avoid.

Bukic mainly hopes to avoid a repeat of the 1956 water polo competition. In Melbourne, Hungary and the Soviet Union met a month after 200,000 Soviet troops invaded Hungary to restore order after political unrest threatened to topple Hungary’s Communist regime. The match turned into a brawl and was abandoned with Hungary, leading 4-0, declared the winner. The water had turned red with blood.

“We would like to win a medal for our country,” Bukic said. “But most importantly, we want to do our best. I do not want to hate my opponents from Yugoslavia. I do not want the Yugoslavia match to be more than competition. I do not want to fight. I have seen too much fighting already.”