Spahich Critical Of Troops To Bosnia

The Canyon News (Texas), March 10, 1996:

Written by Earl Moseley

A Borger man who grew up in Bosnia was applauded by the Randall County
Republican Women when he said he did not back President Clinton's move to
send 20,000 troops as a peace-keeping force to his former homeland.

Eck Spahich, a West Texas A&M Univeristy student in the late 1960s where
he earned his bachelor's degree in journalism, spoke last Tuesday night
for the GOP group at the Railroad Crossing Restaurant.

"I have promoted the idea of lifting the arms embargo of my country
(Bosnia), but I have never supported sending troops to Bosnia," Spahich
said.

The naturalized American citizen who joined the U.S. Army for a tour of
duty in Vietnam, where he was awarded a Bronze Star for his actions,
pointed out that Serbs had removed all weapons from the Bosnian Muslims
and Catholics before begining their genocide campaign.

Th U.S. Congress had voted to lift the arms embargo, but Clinton would not
comply, he said. It left the Muslims and Catholics defenseless.

"Three-hundred thousand people have been killed. The same genocide
happened in Germany during World War II. We said it would never happen
again, but it has."

Spahich reported that possibly a half-million people have been wounded
during the Serb's attempt at their "ethnic cleansing" movement, mostly
children.

He told his audience that 65 people from Bosnia now live in the
Canyon-Amarillo area. Three members of the Barakovic family, who moved to
Canyon about six months ago, were introduced at the meeting.

Others introduced were Sanela Besic, 24, who plans to enter Amarillo
College to begin her studies as a nurse, and longtime Amarillo resident
Dorothy Laurich, a registered nurse who recently visited her homeland of
Slovenia.

Spahich, now a Realtor, currently spends much of his free time helping his
fellow Bosnians find places to live and work.

Bosnia was described by Spahich as always having had an ethnic mix- like
the United States. However, only Serbs have seen that as a problem.

"The Muslims, Catholics and other Christians, we lived together
peacefully," he said. "What if Americans said they coudn't live with
Baptists, Nethodists, Presbyterians, Mormons, Catholics? That's how it is
in Bosnia."

Spahich, born in January 1945, was raised in Tuzla. His parents fled to
Austria as a means of escaping the communist Iron Curtain. He remained
there until he was 15.

During the bitterest part of the 1995-96 winter, the bombed-out Tuzla
became the base for the American peace-keeping force, under an agreement
worked out by leaders of the the former Yugoslavia and Allied Forces in
Dayton, Ohio.

"But the Dayton agreement," Spahich questioned, "was it just peace or just
a piece?"

Will there be peace when the American troops leave Bosnia? He doesn't know
he said.

However, he believes that all the rapes and murders committed by the Serbs
would never have happened if the United Nations had taken action sooner
than it did.

"I hope the United Nations never has to protect the United States,"
Spahich said.

He pointed out that a referendum conducted in February 1992 throughout
Bosnia indicated that 90 percent were for freedom from Communism, which
meant bringing Yugoslavia to an end.

"But the Serbs did not want to lose Communism. They created the Socialist
Party of Yugoslavia."

"Back in the 1980s, President Reagan had the courage to say that
Yugoslavia is an evil empire."

Spahich recalled a time when a cousin called him from Croatia. "Eck, he
said, 'they just started bombing Tuzla. You've got to get me out of
here!'. But I coudn't. No matter what I did, I coudn't help him."

He confessed, "I wanted to bow down and kiss the floor of my house. I
wanted to thank God that I was in America."

He urged his audience that they should never be ashamed of America. "There
are problems here, but they can be fixed. This is a great country,
probably the best anywhere."

Spahich read the last paragraph of a column published two years ago in the
Canyon News concerning his unusal life:

"I wish desperately that I could dry his (Spahich's) tears for all time
through peace in Tuzla, Bosnia, and Croatia. But how? I can only pray that
it happens. There is nothing too hard for the Lord Jesus Christ."

Spahich said: "I, too, have prayed about the situation. Regardless of the
religions in Bosnia, these are my people. We have learned to tolerate
religions. Religion to me has been very personal. Most Bosnians are
Muslims. I promise you that their coming here will help America be a
stronger country."

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