by Allen Ouellette

Created on: January 21, 2007   Last Updated: May 14, 2007

They were hoping to go to America as refugees, and I was to determine if they qualified. None of them spoke English.

"Bring them in," I said to the interpreter. I reached for the case summary attached to the father's file. At the top of the page was a note from the case worker: Sometimes distracted, has difficulty remembering names, dates, etc. I skimmed hurriedly through the summary. Village majority before outbreak . . . Territory now ceded by Dayton Accord . . . father and son held as prisoners . . . No International Red Cross registration . . . Priority One (Violence).

"Here they are," she said, as she led the three of them into the room. The father was a little man, not much more than five feet tall, but he strutted in like a general about to review his troops. The interpreter indicated that they should sit in the semi-circle of chairs facing my desk. The little man marched to a chair, surveyed his position, and sat. There was a hand-sewn patch on one sleeve of his battered coat. The mother wore a shawl which matched the blue of her tired eyes. She looked to her son. He nodded. She sat. The son eased himself into the middle chair, slightly behind both of them, his image floating between them. He was taller than his father. His beard was trimmed unevenly, his face lopsided and scarred.

"Let's get 'em under oath," I said. I stood, raising my right hand in example. We went through the preliminaries, and I started the interview. The father sat straight up, his general's eyes going from me to the interpreter, back to me. His answers were rambling and disconnected but reflected what information I had hurriedly gathered from the case summary. With almost every question he would glance at his son, as though seeking confirmation or encouragement - or some hidden signal. Often, he would seek the mother's eyes too. The mother sat quietly, listening intently.

The son and the father had been seized on the same day, but at different locations. The son had been seized at their home when the soldiers broke in and looted the place, ostensibly looking for weapons. The father had been seized along the road. They had been taken to the same prison, but neither had known that the other was there. During the first few days, the son was beaten, his jaw broken, some of his teeth knocked out. He was held for three weeks, released only upon the intercession of a former teacher, a neighbor who was now a prison guard. On the day of the son's release, the Red Cross investigators came to

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