After our visit to the Srebrenica Memorial Hall, we turned around and headed back towards Sarajevo.

The journey from Srebrenica to Sarajevo takes about three hours each way.

I had many conversations with Mirza during that time.

We talked about Bosnian culture, Mirza's time in Italy, coffee, soccer, and so much more than I can talk about here.

And after my shocking experience in Srebrenica, a question arose in me that I really wanted to ask Mirza.

On my way home, I decided to boldly confide this to Mirza.

After visiting Srebrenica's grave, we headed to the Srebrenica Memorial Hall.

Although it is called a memorial hall, the exterior has the feel of an old factory.

However, it is not a mistake to call it an old factory. In fact, this building was once used as a factory, and during the conflict, the factory was placed under the control of UN forces and used as a camp for Muslims who had evacuated from the suburbs.

However, although they were supposed to be secured under the supervision of the UN, many ended up being massacred.

The bodies of the victims of that time are buried in the graves you were visiting just a few moments ago.

On April 29, 2019, I and my local guide, Mirza, headed to a town called Srebrenica.

It is known as the site of the worst postwar genocide in Europe.

Today, a vast cemetery has been created there and a Memorial Center stands.

Yes. That is where those who lost their lives in sudden violence are buried.

I can only think of it as a strange coincidence that I ended up going to this place the day after I suffered the unforeseen violence of a robbery.

With a heavy heart I continued on my way to Srebrenica.

When I think back to those days, I must admit that there was a tiny bit of slackness in my heart, much to my shame.

My confidence that I had made it this far without incident had, unbeknownst to me, turned into overconfidence that I would be all right.

Perhaps it was inevitable that I would suffer such a disaster.

Fortunately, I was able to escape safely, but it was a very frightening experience for me.

I had the opportunity to speak with Mirza a lot during the five days he was in Sarajevo.

What I could tell you here is only a small part of it.

However, I still tried to write as much as I could to convey the atmosphere of that time.

We could not be happier if Mirza's experience could be conveyed to you in any way.

It really made me think about conflict and war myself. No, I continue to think about it even now that I am back in Japan.

It was during my days in Sarajevo that I felt from the bottom of my heart how valuable an experience it is to hear directly from someone else's experience.

A huge event of conflict, told in an easy-to-understand composition.

But the facts are not merely that. Ethnicity and religion are not the only triggers for conflict. There are too many complexities involved in this conflict.

If we try to understand everything in a large, easy-to-understand framework, we may be missing something important there. Why did the conflict happen and what was going on there? In order to understand this, I think it is important to listen to the voices of each and every person who actually experienced it.

We hope that through the stories of individuals whose faces we can see, we have been able to convey a little bit of what conflict is all about.

Sarajevo was besieged and attacked by Serb forces for almost three and a half years, from April 1992 to October 1995. Approximately 12,000 people were killed during that time.

I was born in 1990 and was 2 years old at the time. Naturally, I have no memories of those days. However, during my childhood, when I was living peacefully, there was a tragic conflict going on in Bosnia, a country far away from my home. It was a country where diverse ethnic groups and religions coexisted.

Cultural diversity was supposed to be the good thing that the country had, but it quickly disintegrated.

What in the world has happened here?

The 1984 Winter Olympics were held right here in Sarajevo.

Less than a decade after the Olympic Games, a festival of peace, the region was plunged into conflict.

During the conflict, the city of Sarajevo suffered many casualties. As a result, it became impossible to bury the bodies in the cemetery plots that were originally available.

So it was suddenly decided to use the sub-grounds of the Olympic Stadium as a cemetery.

The venue of the peace festival has become the graves of the victims of the conflict. Is such irony acceptable?

I kept staring at the grave in front of me with a sense of helplessness.

I will begin this article by discussing the Bosnian conflict, particularly the siege of Sarajevo.

My first stop was the Tunnel Museum. It was literally a lifeline for the citizens of Sarajevo, who had the only access to the rest of the country after the city was besieged.

And on the way there, we also passed Sniper Street. This was one of the most dangerous streets during the siege of Sarajevo.

I walked around the site, listening to the stories of the time told by my guide, who had experienced the conflict.