The grace of figure skating, the excitement of ice hockey and the thrill of the grand slalom: It’s the Winter Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan.However, 14 years ago, all the glory belonged to Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where no trace of that peaceful time can be found any more.The memories of the 1984 Winter Olympics stay in the heart of Denis Garagic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a doctoral candidate in mechanical engineering. The memories of fleeing from his war-ravaged homeland in 1992 are still with him also.In 1984, Garagic was a high school student living in a town called Doboj, two hours north of Sarajevo. b was one of six republics of Yugoslavia at the Olympics.Garagic said the whole country was surprised when it found it would host the ’84 Winter Olympics. He said his parents had to give one month’s salary to the government to support the Olympics.It didn’t snow at all that year, “but a night before the Games, we had a huge storm,” Garagic said. “It was like somebody sent it for us.”During the Olympics, Garagic only saw the games on television because tickets were hard to get.”But, it was still exciting to think people from around the world are competing in Sarajevo,” he said.After the Olympics, the country remained peaceful for eight years.In April 1992, the country became independent from Yugoslavia after a vote. However, Serbs opposed the move and ethnic disputes broke out among Croats, Muslims and Serbs.The nightmare of killings and “ethnic cleansing” continued for four years, until the signing of the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed in the war.”I didn’t imagine [that the war would begin] even one day before the war,” Garagic said.He remembers the day the war started.At about 8 a.m., he woke up to the sound of tanks outside and the army’s shouting, “We will burn your house unless you give us your guns by 2 p.m.”His town of 45,000 people, mainly Muslims, was occupied by the Serbian army.”I was in my pajamas standing in a balcony, saying ‘What’s going on? Yesterday, everything was OK,'” Garagic said. “It was scary. You wake up and now here is a war.”At 2 p.m., the army started shooting; the burning of houses began at 4 p.m. More than one-third of the people in his town fled that day, he said.The army continued to attack. About six months later, his father arranged to smuggle Garagic and his brother out of the country by paying money to a mafia so his sons would not be forced to fight in the war, he said.They were given Serb names, fake documents and old passports which probably belonged to dead Serbs, he said. Holding them for four hours, the mafia took them north to the Hungarian border through Serbia. On the way, there were many towns burned down and completely destroyed.After arriving in Hungary, they headed for Germany, which was accepting refugees then.Garagic said while waiting for a transfer train at a station in Prague, the Czech Republic, they met a man who was returning to England via Germany and talked to him about their situation. The man generously gave them a key to stay in his apartment in Prague.Garagic and his brother stayed there, where their parents joined them after the war, he said. “During the war, my parents were jailed for God knows how long,” he said.He still doesn’t know what exactly happened to his parents during the war because they wouldn’t talk about it.Even in peaceful Prague, “they hide from policemen or any uniformed people because they are afraid of being taken,” Garagic said.His uncle was the only person in his family killed during the war.”I have not seen my country ever since [I fled],” Garagic said. “I love my country but I’m afraid to go back there, plus I don’t have a place to go any more. Everything was taken away now.”Sarajevo and the surrounding towns were devastated. The stadium used for the opening ceremony for the Olympics was converted to a graveyard and all the facilities for the games were destroyed, he said.The war is officially over, but Garagic doesn’t think so.”To forget and forgive will take time,” he said. “I don’t know whether people are willing to do that.”Awarded a scholarship from Ohio State, Garagic came here in March 1996 and has a few more years before graduation.”If something changed in my country, I might go back, but it seems that nothing is going to change, so I don’t know,” he said.