by Momcilo Selic

About the author: Momcilo Selic is a writer and journalist in Belgrade, Serbia. Selic was a war reporter in Bosnia in 1992 and volunteered in the Serb military in 1993. He was the managing editor of Chronicles magazine from 1987 to 1989.

In the twilight, the machine gunner holds aloft the disassembled barrel of his weapon, his hands oily and stained, and grins at me. White-toothed, red-haired he wears his beret like a bonnet. Cocky, not too large, he laughs, then swears a heavy, loaded Serbian curse, unsparing of the Croats.

The machine gunner is a Kraina Serb: he and I are both part of a military company whose task is to defend the Serbs, and, if need be, to hurt the Croats. Both of us are preparing for a night assault on a Croat-occupied Serb village...