Meager aid: The boy who had to wash bloody knives for Chetniks is neglected by authorities

If it weren't for my neighbors and friends, whom I have all over Bosnia and Herzegovina, I would probably be hungry. But they really don't allow that. They help me. I thank them for that – often says Adel Šabanović, a 32-year-old young man, who lives alone in Miševići near Hadžići, writes the BH News Agency Patria (NAP).

Šabanović is a civilian victim of war, with severe health consequences, and recently felt the cruelty of bureaucracy and Bosnian authorities on his own skin while trying to get one-time aid.

We remind you that Šabanović spent the Serbian aggression against BiH, which lasted from 1992 to 1995, in besieged Srebrenica, where he witnessed the murder and rape of thousands of Bosniaks, including his father and grandfather. When Šabanović, who was 11 years old at the time, reached the free territory, the town of Kladanj, which was the first town near Srebrenica controlled by the Army of RBiH forces, his testimonies shocked the whole world.

During the genocide in Srebrenica, Chetniks captured Šabanović's family, whom they took to camps along with dozens of other Srebrenica residents, and singled him out as a minor boy, ordering him to wash bloody knives after enraged Serbian soldiers had been slaughtering Bosniaks for hours.

However, no one wants to take care of him, even though he is in poor health, and he received the latest "slap in the face" after a decision that he is entitled to 60 KM in one-time aid.

- When I received the decision from the Social Services for one-time aid of 60 KM, I couldn't believe it. I spent that much just to collect twenty papers, I even had to go to Istočno Sarajevo for a certificate of citizenship, not to mention going to Vlasenica, and I only got 60 KM – says Šabanović.

Šabanović has difficulty staying in one place, and his gaze constantly wanders. He says he is most saddened by the attitude of the local authorities towards him.

He would like to receive higher income from the state as a civilian victim of war, so he wouldn't have to wait for help from friends. In BiH, he says, the situation is difficult for everyone, so he is afraid of burdening them, writes Patria.

He receives only 103 KM in aid from the local community, which he spends on utilities.