yugo_teens (original) (raw)

I have permission from Amacom Books to distribute an excerpt from the new book, "NOT MY TURN TO DIE: Memoirs of a Broken Childhood in Bosnia," by Savo Heleta. The author was 13 years old when the siege of his home town of Gorazde, Bosnia, began in 1992.

Ethnically Serbs, the Heleta family was in the difficult position of living in a Muslim city under constant attack by Serbian forces. The book is a nonstop chronicle of terror as the family is locked in a detention center, starved out, burned out, and facing the risk of death on an almost daily basis.

The excerpt I am distributing is called, "Muslims or Serbs: Who Is To Blame?" The excerpt shows how difficult it is to attach blame, as Muslim families come to the aid of the Heleta family and Serb forces threaten their lives. Savo Heleta pins the blame for atrocities in Gorazde, not on the Muslim army, but on the local police chief and mayor who make no attempt to hide their desire to murder every Serb in Gorazde.

The excerpt from NOT MY TURN TO DIE is available at the following URL:
http://www.authorviews.com/authors/heleta.php

If you prefer, I can send it to you as a text file or PDF -- send mailto:stevokeefe@bellsouth.net with the subject line, "Send Heleta" and I'll reply with the attachment.

Thanks for considering this difficult material.

STEVE O'KEEFE
For Amacom Books