When we met Mirsad he was counting the days until he would leave Sarajevo and move to New York City to live with his wife, Nada. His youngest daughter, now living in Vienna, would join them. His older daughter, in Munich, would stay in Germany. It was a painful decision to leave the only home that he knew, his elderly parents, and his job in Parliament, but he had to do it. As he said, he has no future in Bosnia. "Oh my God, the situation of this country is so tragic. We are surrounded by enemies."

Mirsad is a Muslim -- born in Sarajevo. Nada is a Serb -- born in Prijedor. She has received asylum in the United States. Nada is considered a traitor by Serbs extremists because she is married to Mirsad, yet she also is not acknowledged by many Muslims. Some of Mirsad's Muslim colleagues call him a Serb and do not greet him. Mirsad, Nada, and their family shared a modern apartment in a high-rise building in New Sarajevo -- near the Unis buildings -- that was particularly vulnerable to shelling. He lost 30 pounds during the war, his eyesight worsened, and shrapnel injured his foot at the beginning of the war. He continues to suffer from undiagnosed chest pains.

Mirsad, a political scientist, never finished the Ph.D. that he started before the war. A few days before we met him for dinner at his home, he had visited his other home in Hadici and found it completely destroyed. He said that when he visited the United States a few years ago, it was the first time that he truly felt free. He cherished that feeling and that is why he is counting the days: "I dream that my family will be reunited someday."