Violeta Jelić – who is a program coordinator for the Civil Rights Project in Sisak, in addition to her
work with Rotary – told a story to which most American Rotarians won't
relate.
Violeta was one of four people on a car trip to price and survey a proposed
home construction site in April 2004.
In
a rural area between two villages on the way home,
the car she was in got stuck in heavy snow
on the main road somewhere in the town of Kuprs, Bosnia.
Violeta
stepped out and off the road to find a moment's privacy, while a colleague searched for something to
give them traction under the tires to get the car unstuck.
The colleague found a metal plate in heavy snow, and when he pulled it out saw it
to be a minefield warning sign. They immediately assumed they were standing in a landmine field.
"We knew where
we were going
– that there
was danger," Violeta said. "Somehow I lost that idea in my head. I
expected the sign to be more visible."
Violeta had
a contact who works in landmine clearance, whom she called and found out for certain that she was in the midst of one of the most mine-suspected fields in the
country.
After
nearly half-an-hour standing terrified in one spot, Violeta decided she
had to leave.
Stepping
back into the same footprints she made getting there, Violeta returned to
the car, and her party got back on the road.
A landmine
disaster can face even an educated mine clearance fundraiser around any
corner here
– Kevin C. O'Brien.
