By Jill Goetz
The following text resulted from conversations spoken in Bosnian (Serbo-Croatian) and translated by E. Wayles Browne, Cornell associate professor of linguistics and a specialist in Slavic languages.
Education officials don't usually have to make life-or-death decisions on the job. But for Enver Halilovic, who was responsible for education in Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina during the war there, moral questions loomed over his every mandate.
"This was a real human problem as well as a moral problem, deciding whether or not children should go to school," says Halilovic, minister of education, culture and sport of the canton of Tuzla and dean of the philosophy faculty at the University of Tuzla. He is at Cornell this month to share his experiences with students and faculty and to forge relationships that may lead to future exchanges between the universities. His stay is being sponsored by Cornell's Institute for European Studies.
Though the United Nations had identified Tuzla as one of six "safe areas" in Bosnia, Halilovic said, the city was shelled regularly by Serbian forces -- who often targeted schools.
"I insisted that schools remain open throughout the war. Of course, I was constantly worried about what would happen. I set it up so that children wouldn't go to school every day. They spent much of their time learning in 'basement schools,' gathering in the basements of their apartment buildings, where they were generally safer and would not have to leave every day."
What studying did occur was conducted in terrible conditions: "One book served a number of children, and one notebook had to be enough for an entire family." Sometimes, "books were used for fuel, to provide heat."
Things were no better at the University of Tuzla. But despite the shelling of one of its libraries, the razing of laboratories and the filling of student dormitories with refugees, Halilovic said, the university remained open, and students remained determined to continue their studies.
"The students felt a stronger readiness to work and study hard. They felt this was the way they could contribute to the liberation of the country, as well as their own liberation," he said.
Halilovic, who is a Bosnian Muslim, said his wife and two children were spared in the war, but he doesn't know whether his father is still alive, and he just spoke to his mother, in his native Sjenica, Serbia, for the first time in five years (from Ithaca).
A specialist in Jean-Paul Sartre, Halilovic wrote 1991's Sartre's Criticism of Stalinism (which was banned by the then-socialist government). "The war gave me a new way of looking at things," Halilovic said. "I wondered, what in peoples' psyche is it that makes them irrational and destructive? What can one think about a person who would aim shells at a kindergarten? I was constantly thinking about these issues. The war gave me a better understanding of existentialism and a better way to address questions about the role of the individual and his place in the community.
"Sartre had a commitment to the struggle for humanism and human rights," Halilovic added. "He said committed intellectuals react to current political events from the viewpoints of humanism and of their own specialties.
"My studies of Sartre left deep traces on my own personality and my world view, and this prepared me to take a committed role in public events during the Bosnian war," he said.
Looking ahead, Halilovic is cautiously optimistic about his country's future. But, he said, peace can last only if the United States extends its military presence in Bosnia beyond its scheduled withdrawal this December, and only if Bosnian citizens can safely return to their homes.
He also expressed optimism about efforts to rebuild Bosnia's schools. The University of Tuzla is creating a department of English and courses in American history, he said, and would welcome books on these subjects from the Cornell and Ithaca communities. Books can be donated to the Institute for European Studies in 120 Uris Hall.