Frontline: Berne- Friends save day for school team's star footballer
Independent, The (London), Jun 22, 2001 by Alison Langley

THEY CAME for Nermin Zulics on his first day back at school after the Christmas holidays. The police stripped him of his laces and cuffed his hands behind his back at Langenthal Junior High School just outside Berne.

One of the school's best footballers and a top student, Nermin, then 13, left without a word. His teachers explained that the authorities had denied the Zulics family's request for asylum and that Nermin was flying back to Bosnia that very day, 10 January last year. That was the last his friends saw of him, but he was not forgotten. After an 18-month campaign, Nermin will now be allowed back to Switzerland to complete his studies.

"It looked hopeless for a while," said Simon Hugi, 14, a friend of Nermin who, with his father, Beat, led the fight to win Nermin's return. "I learnt you have to have lots of patience but it pays off. I feel great that he's coming back."

Nobody knew that Nermin had been a refugee. He had never told anybody of the night when he was five and Serbs fired rounds of ammunition through the windows of his house, grazing his father. He didn't speak of escaping to his grandmother's house, then finding his home burnt to the ground in the morning.
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Nermin lived for more than seven years in Switzerland with his father, Nemsud, his mother, Fatima, and his sister, Emina. Nermin and Emina, two years younger, started kindergarten and spoke accent-free Berndeutsch, the local dialect. The parents were not allowed to work, so they turned all their attention to their children and the asylum request. They had many friends and Nermin was named one of the top 25 footballers in the canton of Berne.

Nermin's classmates wanted their friend back. They wrote a letter to their member of parliament. Their teacher and parents became involved. A lawyer donated his work and began a series of appeals.

Last summer Simon, his father, a teacher and a photographer visited the Zulics family in Bosnia. Simon said he was shocked at what he found. He described the town as "a war zone, with bombed buildings everywhere. There were few stores, hardly any cars and the K-For troops patrolled all the time". And, he added, there were no football fields. Simon and Beat Hugi wrote a book about Nermin. Simon and a friend, Oli Zurkirchen, set up a website, www.nermin.ch.

"We wanted to make it as public as possible," Beat Hugi said. Each attempt to bring back the Zulics family failed. In the end, the lawyer decided to focus just on Nermin.

Government officials said they didn't want to set a precedent of bringing back repatriated refugees. And, they added, they had no guarantee Nermin would leave once he had completed his studies.

All appeals were exhausted. The tight group dwindled. Only six classmates remained. The last chance hung on the canton of Berne's parliament. The Hugis were disappointed when the first radio report came out. "The radio initially gave out a false report," Beat said. But then it was corrected.

Nermin can return and stay with his uncle and aunt, who had been given asylum because he is Muslim and she is Serbian. "Nermin is such an intelligent guy," Beat said. "He should be given a chance."

Copyright 2001 Independent Newspapers UK Limited
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.

Quelle: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20010622/ai_n14393993

Website der Zeitung: http://www.independent.co.uk/