Mariupol has fallen, the Russians claim. Ukraine denies. The Russians have not yet conquered Mariupol, but they have destroyed it. Bahrudin Delic testified about the hell in this city. A welder by profession, life in industrial cities, and trauma between the two wars. From his hometown Zenica to Ukraine, and the Azovstal steel plant. He spent his last days in Ukraine in besieged Mariupol with his family. After 38 days of war hell, he managed to get out of the destroyed Mariupol and return to his native Koprivna, but alone. This is his testimony and important messages.
”There is no city, the city is completely destroyed, no buildings, no streets, nothing is whole, everything is burned or demolished.”
This is how the story about Mariupol begins with Bahrudin Delic, man from Zenica who spent 38 days in the war hell. With his daughter, wife, and her parents with disabilities, they survived in the basement of the building of the local Archives, he says, with rice. They went out in rare interruptions of shelling, in search of food.
”We find tea, some rice, we find some coffee in the trash, in the beans, everything is found and that helped us. We had tea for a year, but had no water, which is the worst.”
All this had serious consequences for Bahrudin’s health.
”I weighed 86-87 kilograms, I don’t think I’m over 62-63 now. I am weak, the day before yesterday I had a temperature of 40.8.”
Bahrudin tells the story of his last day in Mariupol, from where he went to Russia with his family through one of the few humanitarian corridors.
”It was chaos, shelling that day on one side, and on the other, you couldn’t open your eyes. And all this over our heads.”
The difficult war experience from his country, in relation to theone survived in Mariupol, is incomparable for Bahrudin. He says, as, in every war, the big ones compete over the backs of the small ones.
”What I saw in 38 days, I have not seen anywhere else, there is nothing, wherever you go… I leave the apartment – a dead man is lying, I come to another entrance – another dead man. Everywhere you look, dead people. I would not interfere in politics, who is to blame, I was a living shield for both of them, and there were thousands of them like me.”
Bahrudin’s journey to his native Koprivna is a special story. He is now there, thanks to the help of relatives from Germany, they bought plane tickets to Sarajevo for him and his daughter. Prior to that, he contacted the Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) Embassy, where they only advised him to ask his family outside Ukraine for help. Bahrudin’s daughter, a doctor, meanwhile went to Germany, while his wife stayed in Russia with her parents. Now his goal is to reunite the family, but not in Ukraine, and also not in his own country.
”I will see my family in Germany in a month or two because my daughter will provide the documents by then.”
After all, Bahrudin is even more certain that health and peace are above all, and he tells domestic politicians:
”Let them keep this peace, that is the most important thing, and everything else will align, and whoever promotes war, they should all be put in prison. They pushed us into the war once, I see how they want it again, they should all be closed!”
E.Dz.
