Free Rose of Sarajevo by Ayse Kulin Page B

She wondered if her mother envied her the luxury of a world in which she was completely independent and didn’t need to rely on Raziyanım for help.
    There are three different takes on career women in this house , she thought to herself: that of my husband, who respects working women but wishes I wasn’t one of them; that of my mother, who hates the very idea; and then there’s me, a working woman who has no idea what she really wants!
    There were also three different takes on Yugoslavia in those days: that of the army, which insisted on remaining a single nation; that of Milošević, who was determined that the Serbs living in other republics have their territories annexed to Serbia; and that of Slovenia and Croatia, who would settle for nothing less than full independence. And then there was Bosnia, which didn’t know what it wanted but was prepared to do whatever it took to prevent a civil war. Milošević, who very much knew his own mind, had just given Croatia a ten-day deadline to surrender all its weapons to the YNA.
    On January 25, Nimeta called Burhan at his office. She was extremely worried.
    “Burhan, have you heard? Milošević has ordered the army to go into Knin to protect the Serbs there. Kadijević then announced that the army wouldn’t be mobilized without the necessary authorization from the federal republics. Milošević has summoned all the delegates to Belgrade. They’re meeting at two o’clock to vote on whether or not to approve an army operation to disarm the Croatian police.”
    “I’ll be home by three, Nimeta,” Burhan said. “If anything important happens, let me know.”
    Meanwhile, the entire country—especially the Croatians—held its collective breath and waited.
    The delegates from Slovenia, Bosnia, Serbia, Kosovo, Vojvodina, and Montenegro all arrived at the hastily called meeting. The Serbs knew they could count on Kosovo, Vojvodina, and Montenegro—they would vote for the army to sweep into Croatia and Slovenia and disarm the local forces. The Slovenian delegate had had his hands tied by his own president’s secret agreement with Milošević. In order to save his skin, he instigated a quarrel and stormed off without voting. But then the Bosnian delegate voted no. Milošević was stunned. His cunning plan had come to naught. The failure to gain five votes allowed Kadijević to reject the mobilization. The Serbs were not happy with the outcome of the meeting.

MARCH TO JUNE 1991
    Fax in hand, Nimeta raced down the hallway and burst into Ivan’s office without knocking.
    “Anything wrong?” Ivan asked.
    Nimeta handed him the fax without a word.
    “It’s from Mirsada,” she said after a moment.
    The fax contained certain encrypted codes that they’d agreed on previously.
    “Get the team together in the conference room and give me a few minutes,” Ivan said.
    Belgrade was up in arms. Students were protesting the government clampdown on the press and television, as well as its racist and fascist stances. Bulevar Revolucije had filled with mounted police, police dogs, and tanks. The cries of students being clubbed by the police mingled with the sounds of gunshots. Tear gas had penetrated every corner. A seventeen-year-old student lay in a pool of blood. Four years earlier, Milošević had bellowed to the Serbs of Kosovo that nobody would ever dare to beat them. Now, unable to bear criticism, he had unleashed tanks, batons, and bullets on his own people.
    When his staff had gathered around the conference table, Ivan said, “This was inevitable. Milošević has taken over Belgrade Television for his own purposes. Serbs were being continuously incited to hate first the Albanians of Kosovo, then the Slovenians, and finally the Croatians. Within the borders of his own republic, it appears that Milošević will not tolerate dissent or opposition of any kind.”
    “When he tried to use the television station against the opposition, it backfired,” Mate said. “He’s only just