Before the war, the building on the right was a hotel owned by the Famos Company, a factory producing parts for Mercedes-Benz. Now it is a collective center for refugees, mostly from eastern Bosnia. From three to seven people live in each small hotel room, doing all of their cooking, eating, and sleeping together there.

Hrasnica, at the base of Mt. Igman and close to Serb-held areas, was never safe from shelling, yet it was a sanctuary for people fleeing the worst zones of the war. While much of the international press corps has focused on the plight of Sarajevo, the worst atrocities have occurred in the areas of eastern Bosnia along the Serbian border and in northern Bosnia around Banja Luka. Some day the truth of what has happened in Bijeljina, Visegrad, Rogatica, Foca, and other small Muslim communities in eastern Bosnia will be told to the world. Now, they are horrific memories for the residents of this center.

Nermina and her three-and-a-half-year- old daughter, Melissa (pictured above), are from Rogatica. After the first wave of ethnic cleansing, they were driven into Gorazde where Nermina's parents were living -- the only town in eastern Bosnia never to have fallen to the Serbs. Nermina's father, Hasan, told us about eight relatives who were killed in Gorazde, including his sister, whose throat was slit, a common method of execution used by the Chetniks.

Gorazde was completely sealed off and people were starving. Nermina's husband left in search of food and found that aid was available in Hrasnica. He went back to get his family and they hiked for three days over snow-covered mountains before reaching Hrasnica. Melissa, who was only six months old at the time, didn't eat for the entire trip and her parents weren't sure that she would live. Many others died of exhaustion, cold, or gunfire while attempting the same route. Nermina and her family were lucky.

Perhaps the numb expressions on these children's faces can explain what they experienced better than words can. All we know is that they watched as their parents were killed.