Izo comes home

Izudin Becic will speak about his art tonight at 700 pm in the PRPL. After your bratwurst at Wells Fargo stop by and prepare to be fascinated.

Refugees no longer

By Joe Whetham
The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead
August 25, 2006

For more than a decade, Izudin Becic lived in uncertainty. In the early 1990s, the Bosnian native lost his home and job virtually overnight as a 3½-yearlong war raged among the country’s Serbs, Muslims and Croats. He and his family fled to a refugee camp in Croatia, then on to Germany, where they lived for seven years before moving to Moorhead in 2001. The Becics could never truly say they had a home. That changed Thursday. Izudin, his wife, Mina, and sons Edin and Dzenan were among 12 people who officially became U.S. citizens during a ceremony in Fergus Falls, Minn. Izudin, a skilled woodcarver, said gaining U.S. citizenship is like having a 300-pound weight lifted off his shoulders. “Now I feel I can stay here,” he said. “It is really, really important” not being labeled a refugee. Izudin is working on a Fargo Spirit Room exhibit of Bosnian furniture -- a dream project he hopes will give the Fargo-Moorhead community a glimpse of his country’s traditions. Earlier this year, the Spirit Room won a competitive $10,000 national endowment for an art grant to host Izudin’s dream room. He credits his success and rekindled outlook on life in part to members of the Red River Valley Wood Carvers. They welcomed Izudin into their organization five years ago, introducing him to the local woodcarving scene and offering the support he and his family lacked in Germany. At a celebratory dinner Thursday at the Fargo Holiday Inn, Izudin’s friends shared stories of when they met, swapping laughs and the occasional tear. “Not every story goes like this,” said an emotional Howard Rasmussen, a River Valley Wood Carvers member. “I’ve really enjoyed helping you.” Choking back tears at times, Izudin thanked Wood Carvers members for helping to change how he viewed life: as a means of survival. “I feel very, very happy today to have friends like you,” he said.