Bosnian Athlete's Life Almost Ended In Sudden Death

Emir Grcic was a dead man. He knew it. In a strange way, he even accepted it.

"I said, `OK, no problem. I've lived long enough," the 33-year-old Grcic said this weekend. " `My children and wife are safe. It's OK. "'

Serbian soldiers had interrogated Grcic. Where were the guns? What were the Muslim's plans? Where were other Muslims?

Grcic had no answers. He was a soccer player, a midfielder for Brcko. He had plans to study to become a coach. He ached for the old days when Muslims, Serbs and Croats lived together.

After the futile interrogation, a despicable Serb solder named Goran, who called himself, "Hitler," sentenced Grcic, Muslim, to death.

"Big eyes. Blood in his eyes. He acted like he was on drugs," Grcic said of the soldier.

Grcic, wearing a red, button-down sweater, was marched to a "shooting place."

"There were 17 people in my group. They killed 12. They killed two people in front of me. I am not really a religious man, but I beg God for help," he said.

Soccer saved his life.

Another Serbian soldier, driving slowly in a luxury car, spotted Grcic, the Brcko midfielder, being led at gunpoint, toward his death. The driver called his name.

"Why are you here?" the man asked Grcic, then told Goran, "Release the man."

"No," Goran said. "The man is suspicious."

"Release him," the Serb soldier said. "He is a soccer player."

"He spotted me, I think, because of my bright sweater. And because I played football, the man had good thoughts about me," Grcic said. "He saved my life. Even if he is a Serb. I don't hate them all."

Emir Grcic sits in the dining room of his Kirkland apartment and talks passionately about the whimsical brutality that has taken as many as 200,000 lives and branded the awful phrase "ethnic cleansing" into our vocabulary.

His warm blue eyes have seen unspeakable horrors. As he tells his story, his fingers fidget, burning the nervous energy of a professional athlete.

After the Serbian soldier saved his life, the Serbs returned to his house, arrested him and took him to a concentration camp.

His family was safe, across the Sava River in Croatian-held Gunja. The comfort of that knowledge kept him sane inside the concentration camp's insanity.

"I didn't expect these horrible things," said Grcic, a refugee sponsored by Washington Refugee Resettlement who arrived in the Northwest with his family Tuesday night. "We all lived together in Brcko. We are very mixed. Mixed marriages. Bosnia was very nice. We had a good life.

"But some of my (Serbian) neighbors wanted to kill me and others. A lot of neighbors were spies. I was surprised how many were involved. For them, they think it is the only way to survive."

Grcic is an athlete. He grew up in sports' melting pot. He played throughout Europe. He played for every division of Yugoslavian soccer. He was cheered by Serbs, Croats and Muslims.

And now this.

"They came into the town on May 5, 1992," said Grcic, who speaks excellent English. "Crazy, lunatic men. Their only task is to kill so many people. Croats and Muslims. Women and children. I can't explain all things that I have seen.

"In the concentration camp, I hear terrible stories. I see horrible wounds. I call the soldiers animals. They are not humans. Humans don't do those things to other humans.

"Grcic spent eight months in the camp. While he was there, his two flats were occupied. His car was stolen. His tangible life was taken from him.

"Every day in the camp was a great risk for my life," he said. "Three or four times I am afraid for my life. I say to myself that I am finished. I saw people beat to death. They beat me sometimes.

"After three or four months in the camp, you lose everything. Lose hope. Lose confidence. You must have luck if you want to survive.

"We worked very hard in those camps. We would dig ditches, wearing Serbian uniforms and our own people would shoot at us from across the river. Very dangerous. Those snipers are afraid because we are near them."

Grcic wonders now if he was too passive in the beginning, maybe too naive.

"My wife (Enisa) is more clever than I am. Before the Serbs came she said, `Come to Gunja before all this starts,' " he said. "But I didn't want to. I played in Brcko. I had some plans for my career. We had a lot of material things. And I did not want to run away.

"I don't like weapons. I don't like war. I felt I was innocent. I didn't think the Serbs wanted to interrupt me. I didn't know what was being prepared by them.

"I don't want to live there any more. I don't want revenge. I want to live with good people. That's my vision of life. That's normal. I want to live in peace. I want to work."

The United Nations negotiated his release from prison camp. He was reunited with his family, after being away from them for a year. They lived in a refugee camp before coming to Kirkland.

Grcic wants to restart his life in the United States. He still believes he can play professional soccer. There are several minor leagues in this country. He also wants to coach or referee.

"I was an honest player," he said. "I worked hard. The people liked me. I haven't played in one and a half years, but I know I can help some team, if they help me to start. I want to know if I can still play.

"I am an optimist. I believe everything is possible."

Emir Grcic remains an optimist, even after all he has seen and experienced; even after all the hate that has polluted his homeland.