Survivors of Genocide

For an introduction to the Bosnian Genocide, please view the video above. You can also find a more expansive summary document on the THGC website HERE.

The Interviews

Mirzeta Colic - Houston, TX

Mirzeta Colic grew up in the city of Bijeljina along the Serbian border in her native Bosnia. Trained as an electrical engineer, she worked closely with a team of Serbs until war came to the region in the early 1990s. She escaped with her pregnant sister under the threat of violence, settling in Germany from 1994 to 1998, before immigrating to the United States and finding work in the banking industry. She has worked since then to assist most of her immediate family to resettle in Texas.

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Interview in BUIOH Digital Collections

Abdulah Hasic - Fort Worth, TX

Abdulah Hasic was a resident of Srebrenica who lost his brother and father in mass executions during the war in Bosnia. A ham radio operator, he was used by UN officials to communicate and gather information during the conflict.

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Interview in BUIOH Digital Collections

Baisa Heldic - Burleson, TX

When war came to her country of Bosnia in 1992, it separated Baisa Heldic from her daughter for three years. She survived amidst increasing oppression and violence toward  Muslims in her city of Banja Luka. She continued to work in a local vegetable market and relied on her wits to survive until finding her daughter and escaping to the US in 1995. Despite a difficult transition to living in the US and missing her home country immensely, Baisa built a life for her family in the Burleson area. She currently owns and operates a retail cleaning business.

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Interview in BUIOH Digital Collections

Hajrudin "Dino" Jusupovic - Plano, TX

Dino was in high school in Rogatica at the outbreak of war in Bosnia in April 1992. His family escaped to Zepa which became a Boniak enclave surrounded by the Army of the Republika Srpska just upstream of Srebrenica during the over three-year conflict. When the town fell in 1995, he fled to Serbia and was held in Sljivovica concentration camp for several months before his relocation to the United States. He was soon after rejoined by his parents and future wife from his homeland. After working several temporary jobs he built a career in real estate in the DFW Metroplex.

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Interview in BUIOH Digital Collections

For an introduction to the Cambodian Genocide, please view the video above. You can also find a more expansive summary document on the THGC website here.

The Interviews

Albert Cheng - Richardson, TX

After forced evacuation from Phnom Penh, Albert Cheng survived interrogation before escaping into the jungle, a place where he spent much of his childhood. Later recaptured, he experienced years of forced labor and reeducation before fleeing to a Thailand refugee camp. He was resettled in the United States to Houston in 1980, but soon moved to be a part of the Cambodian community in Dallas. In 1997, he made his first return trip to Cambodia for a reunion with his brother. He has since made trips back to work in a medical clinic and other humanitarian efforts.

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Interview in BUIOH Digital Collections

Savann Kruoch - Houston, TX

The son of a rice farmer, Savann Kruoch was involved in the mass evacuation from Phnom Penh where he was attending college. He survived four years of forced labor under the Khmer Rouge until the invasion of Cambodia by the Vietnamese. After spending time in several refugee camps, Kruoch was able to resettle in the United States. For over twenty five years he has been pastor of the First Cambodian Baptist Church, Aldine, Texas, and has led several mission trips back to his home country of Cambodia.

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Interview in BUIOH Digital Collections

Sichan Siv - San Antonio, TX

Sichan Siv experienced horrific violence at the hands of the Khmer Rouge as they took over his home country of Cambodia in 1975. After injury, abuse, and forced labor, he would escape to Thailand and then the US in 1976. Despite the recent loss of his family, Siv decided to enter school at Columbia University. He has since held various posts in the private sector, written books, and served as a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

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Interview in BUIOH Digital Collections

Paul Thai - Rockwall, TX 

Paul Thai, one of seven sons in a middle class family, spent his early life in Phnom Penh, his father a restauranteur. The Thais moved several times during the Cambodian Civil War to escape the conflict before being broken apart and scattered with the takeover of the Khmer Rouge. After several years in work camps, the Thais were reunited only to encounter additional hardships attempting to flee their country. Currently, Lieutenant Paul Thai serves the city of Dallas as a police officer, providing a safer and more just community for his new Texas home.

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Interview in BUIOH Digital Collections

For an introduction to the Darfurian Genocide, please view the video above.

The Interviews

Nasma Abdulkhalik - Houston, TX

Nasma Abdulkhalik was only seven years old when war came to her home in western Sudan. Taking her three brothers, she fled immediately to the mountains. Despite horrific violence all around her, Nasma joined the millions of Darfuris displaced by war as she searched for peace and reunion with her family. After time in Chad, Kenya, and Burkina Faso, Nasma came to the United States with her family in 2010 where she entered the Houston school system, first as a middle schooler before quickly promoted to high school. In June 2013, she married Khaled Handhal, and they currently have two children.

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Interview in BUIOH Digital Collections

Khaled Handhal - Houston, TX

Khaled was born near the city of Kutum in the state of North Darfur in Sudan. He worked as an interpreter for the International Committee of the Red Cross in various refugee camps in and around Sudan from 2007-2008. In the aftermath of the militia attacks he documented the atrocities, interviewing the displaced and injured and calling international attention to the ongoing violence in his home region.

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Interview in BUIOH Digital Collections

Ibrahim Mohammed Ishag - Houston, TX

A long-time advocate of the history and culture of Darfur, writer and journalist Ibrahim Ishag worked in the aftermath of militia attacks to document atrocities and interview the displaced and injured. After relocating to Egypt in 2007, he continued to serve his home region by calling international attention to the ongoing violence in Darfur. He also served as the leader of the Civil Society of Darfur, which works to assist Darfurian refugees, before his resettlement to the United States in 2015.

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Interview in BUIOH Digital Collections

For an introduction to the Rwandan/Burundian Genocide, please view the video above. You can also find a more expansive summary document on the THGC website here.

The Interviews

Serge Gasore - Fort Worth, TX

Serge Gasore was only eight years old when war came to his small village of Ntarama. He lost his family before spending months evading capture, fighting off attackers, and helping fellow Tutsis survive the violence. He came to the United States in 2005 to attend Abilene Christian University on a track scholarship. Serge and his wife are the co-founders of Rwanda Children, which provides aid to vulnerable children in his home village of Ntarama.

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Interview in BUIOH Digital Collections

Valentine Iribagiza - Bedford, TX

Valentine was only ten years old when violence came to her village in Rwanda. Her family fled to the nearby Roman Catholic Church to seek sanctuary. She barely survived the ensuing Nyarubuye massacre at the church (an estimated 20,000 deaths), enduring injury, deprivation, and starvation before rescue and recovery. Friends from the United States found Valentine after seeing her picture in the Rwandan National Museum and invited her to come visit them in Vermont. She then procured a student visa to study at the University of New Hampshire before eventually relocating to Texas.

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Interview in BUIOH Digital Collections

Gilbert Tuhabonye - Austin, TX

Young Gilbert Tuhabonye was attending school in Kibimba on October 21, 1993, when violence between Hutus and Tutsis erupted into mass atrocities. It would be a day that changed his life forever. Escaping fire and slaughter, he made his way to a local hospital before finding assistance. Gilbert then came to the US as part of an Olympic training program and received a track scholarship from Abilene Christian University. He is now the award-winning running coach of Gilbert’s Gazelles Training Group in Austin and the co-founder of the Gazelle Foundation, which seeks to improve the lives of people in Burundi regardless of tribal affiliation.

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Interview in BUIOH Digital Collections