Eric Hauck: "Nowhere do they teach you how to repatriate a friend and hand over the body to their parents."

BarcelonaThe first foreign fatality of the Bosnian War was the Catalan photojournalist Jordi Pujol Puente, who had gone to cover the siege of Sarajevo with journalist Eric Hauck.TodayIt took thirty years for Hauck to recover this story. Lethal Amnesia (Folch&Folch, 2026), a "therapeutic exercise" in which he has poured his love for his beloved Balkans, from the experience of a conflict reporter, the knowledge of a seasoned diplomat, and the gratitude of'an honorary citizen of Sarajevo.

Why did it take him three decades to write the book?

— First, because journalists tell stories that aren't their own. This was a story that, as Ernest, my editor, told me, "only two people could tell: Jordi and you." That was the turning point that convinced me. But above all, it's been a therapeutic exercise. Returning from Sarajevo in '92, I did some post-traumatic stress detox from that time. But it didn't quite work. I wanted to work and go back, because I'd left so many people stranded in the city. In the end, I still needed to do some deeper therapy. And that's how I started this project. You have a lot of things stuck inside you that you need to get out. Obviously, it's a tribute to Jordi, but also to the citizens who lived through the 1,425 days of the siege of Sarajevo.

He arrived in Bosnia at the age of 24, but he already had the experience of several conflicts.

— I started in Bucharest in '89, the day Ceaușescu was assassinated. Afterward, we were lucky enough to jump over the Berlin Wall as the bipolar world crumbled. It was a moment of hope; everyone was excited. As journalists, it was thrilling. They sent me basically because I had a press card and spoke German. And I became the journalist who went to conflict zones. When we started to suspect that something big was going to happen in Sarajevo, they sent me. There had been fighting since the spring of '92, but Sarajevo was considered the safest city in the world. At first, we went for three days. We flew to Belgrade, but we never came back. Our suitcases stayed there. Thirty years later, I asked them if they still had them.

When the siege begins, the international press leaves. But you decide to stay. In the book, he recalls these words: "Please don't leave, because without you, without your testimony, the city will fall and it will be a massacre."

— Working in those conditions is nearly impossible if you don't have local people who appreciate the work you do. The Serbian militias' strategy was to cut off the city's communication, lay siege to it, and bomb the post office so that no one outside could explain what was happening. They wanted to conquer the city and they didn't want any witnesses.Then we faced an ethical dilemma. What do you do: march and save your own skin, or stay put? Marching was also very risky. In the end, we stayed in the city center because, paradoxically, we felt safer there and because a television crew lent us a satellite phone. Our mission was to work. But because we stayed, we became a military target; we broke a supposed neutrality. But we weren't supporting any government; we were supporting the victims.

And then Jordi dies. 

— Okay, they kill him. For a while, I was asked if we had reported Jordi's death as a murder, and it probably was. But obviously, it's hard to prove. We hadn't heard practically any explosions that day. It was midday, and it was perhaps the only explosion, or one of the only explosions, that day. He and David [Brachuli, AP photojournalist] were trying to get closer to the front to take pictures of the front line, and the gunner probably saw them or mistook them for soldiers. It was certainly intentional. But it's part of the possibility if you do that kind of work.

How does he/she process it emotionally?

— One of the reasons this story is so difficult to tell is because you think, yes, it's very dramatic, but ultimately, emotionally speaking, there are many people who have suffered tragic losses. And then what do you do? Nowhere do they teach you how to repatriate a friend and hand over their body to their parents. When you undertake a mission like this, you don't factor in the possibility that one of you might not return. In this case, the bomb fell on both of them. What saved David was his bulletproof vest. Why didn't Jordi wear one? I don't know. Maybe because you feel stupid wearing it. If 400,000 people don't wear vests, why should you have that privilege? It wasn't our war; we were working. But there came a point when it became our war too. Three decades have passed, but now, when I do this [runs his hand across the table], I can still feel the texture of the coffin's wood.

What makes the Bosnian War different?

— The siege of Sarajevo was the first medieval siege of the modern era. It was part of a strategy of ethnic cleansing and, therefore, of genocide. It wasn't just about wearing down the enemy and forcing them to surrender. It was also different because of the people's resistance. They continued living their lives normally, the opposite of what the enemy expected. Until that moment, Sarajevo was an example of cultural production, of coexistence, a model city. And highly symbolic; the Jerusalem of Europe.

In the 1990s, Catalonia mobilized to stop the conflict. Is it becoming increasingly difficult for civil society to react?

— In Bosnia in the 1990s, we knew, at least, that if the war criminals were ever identified, they would be tried and convicted. There were international tribunals that could do something. The perpetrators of genocide should face the consequences. Now, those perpetrators have destroyed the very system that was supposed to judge them: international law, humanitarian law, and multilateralism. Now we find ourselves in a moment of despair, and we don't know who can stop them.

The book says that "in Trump's world, Milosevic would be a hero and a patriot." Is that the kind of forgetfulness the book title refers to?

— It takes an arsonist to start a fire. Therapists know more than I do, but both share that megalomania, that desire to perpetuate themselves in power. That contempt for democracy, for the international order, that victimhood… The big difference is that Milošević and Karadžić were brought before the International Criminal Court, which, despite its imperfections, had the capacity to try war criminals. Both they and Trump use the same strategy, the same one used by today's far-right parties: they look for a common enemy and slogans that are easy to understand.

He has dedicated his entire life to cultivating the link between Catalonia and the Balkans. How does he see this link today?

— Sarajevo has made honorary citizens of some thirty people, five of whom are Catalan. This speaks volumes about Catalonia's level of involvement. The fact that the first foreigner killed in the war was a Catalan, Jordi, and that Pasqual Maragall later appealed for aid to the city during the Olympic Games, sparked massive demonstrations and the dispatch of hundreds of truckloads of supplies. Bosnia is part of our history and our culture. And yet, it has been waiting longer to join the EU than it spent under communism. The Balkans can be part of the solution for a Europe now suffering Putin's onslaught. They are waiting for us to open the door for them.