The Bus - Glogova

My Faithful Reader and others in the Canadian contingent were asked if they wanted to witness an exhumation site. 'Exhumation site' is polite war-speak for mass grave. This particular site was located near the village of Glogova and contained the remains of 140 individuals, mostly males between the ages of 14 and 24.

In attempts to hide the bodies, the Serbs had buried and reburied those they murdered in multiple sites. The site we viewed was where 140 bodies had been dumped down a hillside. All that remained were bones and remnants of clothing. I noticed a skull that had rolled down the hill and wedged itself at the base of a tree.  Other bodies remained exposed and tumbled as they had been left. People were huddled about the bodies meticulously going about the work of identifying remains.
A young guy working away recognized my uniform and introduced himself. He said he was from Burnaby and was a grad student studying Forensic Anthropology at the U of S in Saskatoon. Small world. I asked about some long threads I noticed along the leg bones. He explained that despite it being a hot day, the executed had been wearing multiple layers of clothing. They had no other way to carry their belongings. Five years later, nylon threads were all that remained. It felt awkward and uncomfortable to learn that.  I asked if he was a Canucks fan. He said he was.  Had he heard we got Marc Messier?  Yes, he said a bit excitedly.  It was like we both wanted to escape for a moment. Talk about anything else to get through this.

As we drove back to Sarajevo, we were silent. Then we agreed it was to bear witness. To say that it happened and couldn’t be denied because we had seen it.  

As I look back on things now, I think the exhumation was the point where things were starting to get heavy.  The novelty of the adventure was wearing off.  The hardest thing about being there, was being there.  If you had a bad day, you couldn't go home.  You were still there.  All day every day surrounded by the weight of it. Watching others getting on the bus to end their deployment slowly began to get harder.  When was it going to be my turn?