By ETHAN SCOTT
When Doug Halversen found out about the Kosovo peace deal, he was very excited.
“I was like jumping up and down and then I called my friends,” he said. “I just hope things stay peaceful.”
Halversen, 22, a sophomore from Martinez, Calif., majoring in chemical engineering, has a different perspective on the conflict than most Americans because he spent two years in Yugoslavia as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
He also views Serbians differently than the average American.
“They aren’t the scary people and murderers that most people think they are,” Halversen said.
“Once you become their friend, they’ll be your friend forever,” he said.
Media reinforced stereotypes of Yugoslavians have been hard to overcome, Halversen said.
“I pretty much just figure everybody has their own opinion,” he said. “If someone wants to believe CNN that’s their business. I’ve lived there, so I know what they’re really like.”
Images on television and stories in newspapers have made it tough to tell others about the good side of Yugoslavians, said Annalisa Brown, 23, a junior from Mapleton, majoring in elementary education.
“In my opinion, the media has made the Serbs look so bad that no one ever even listens to the side of the Serbians that I talk about,” said Brown, who returned from a mission to Yugoslavia in July.
“They feel really misunderstood by the rest of the world,” Brown said.
Questions about the conflict in Kosovo have been constant for missionaries who went to Yugoslavia.
“Most times when people find out I’ve been there they ask me, `What do you think about what’s going on?’ But I never really know what to say,” said Heather Williams, 23, a junior from Chicago, majoring in physical education.
The NATO bombing has cut the lines of communications between the former missionaries and many of their friends in Yugoslavia.
At the beginning of the bombing, Williams was exchanging e-mail with a friend who lived next to the main police station in Belgrade. Contact was cut after NATO bombs made her residence uninhabitable, Williams said. Williams’ friend escaped unharmed, but she no longer has her computer.
Halversen, on the other hand, stopped writing once the bombing started to protect friends and church members in Yugoslavia. He said he feared correspondence with an American would raise suspicions from Yugoslav officials.
Now that the bombing is over, Halversen said he hopes to re-establish contact.
