Frag Out! Magazine

Bartosz, how long have you been a soldier of the Polish Army? Twenty two years, four months and eight days. After graduating from the military academy, all the time I have been a diver in the Polish Military and Scuba Diving Training Centre in Gdynia. I have served on the rescue naval vessel for two years. Yet, you have decided to leave it. Due to one news. Certainly, it has been a product. It is not than that I have not been interested in this conflict, but it has been the last straw that breaks the camel's back. This communication has been related to a young boy... Yes, a twelve-year-old boy. I have this news in front of me. It is a message from 7th October 2015. It says that ISIS cut him the pulps of the fingers. It is a punishment described in the Quran. They tortured him and then crucified him. Then, they crucified his father. All of that was about forcing him to abandon his faith. The ISIS murdered at that time also eight employees of the aid organization, including few women. Firstly, they were raped, and then they were beheaded. Where did it take place? In Syria, not far from Aleppo. So, why have you quit your job after reading it and you have gone to Iraq? At the stage of scheduling this trip I have been a soldier of the Polish Army. I could forget about going to Syria as the soldier. So, I have decided that I will go Iraq, find the Christians who fight there with the so called the Islamic State (Daesh), and I will talk to them. Syria was still my objective. But I have wanted to get to know where the Christians fight with the Daesh. There are two such places – Iraq and Syria. As I haven't been able to go to Syria as first, Iraq has been my natural choice. And what had you known about Iraq, before you went there? Well, in what way what? The same what each average Pole. I have never been there, because I have not going for any missions. You know, when at my work I have made a decision that I leave, I have taken out a piece of paper and I have wrien on it a To-Do List before my departure. A control medical examination and supplementing my vaccinations, a purchase of a new PC, establishing contacts and an aempt to get a press card… A lile bit of issues to deal with. Tell me about this travel. Two days spent on the way, through Ukraine and Turkey to Kurdistan, and then by taxi to the North. By taxi? By taxi to Kurdistan? Yes, there people travel like this. It is only essential to collect the taxi full of people. It is cheaper then. Listen, after all a lot of persons and organizations are involved in providing help in Iraq and Syria. Have you really done it all only by yourself and moreover leave the army? But, I haven't wanted to do it in such a manner. I haven't wanted to do it myself, I haven't wanted to establish a charity fund. In the first place, I have called to the others, already existing ones. I have asked everywhere if they operate on the spot. And everybody, absolutely, everybody have told me that they give aid there, but they are not present there. And when I have come back after my first trip, I have been sure, that nobody of them has had a double-track approach. If anybody helps, so only the victims of the ISIS. interview

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