(12) Bosnia twenty years later a girl from Zenica tells her story

(Zenica)

1)Do you remember where were you when you realized the war was imminent?
In my hometown Zenica
2) Do you remember where were you when the war broke out?
I was standing in my back yard, and it was sunny. The sirens went off and I thought it was to honor the ex Yugoslav president Tito. However, I soon realized the neighbors started panicking and going to basements.
3) Where were you when the war came to your town?
I was in my hometown Zenica. I was standing at the threshold of my basement.
4) The most memorable event of the war for you was?
The sound of the first grenade. I was standing at the threshold of the basement and I heard the explosion. I rolled down the stairs, my head hitting each step.
5) What made you hopeless during the war?
I always believed the war would end, but I feared from the airplanes and shootings in the distance. I always thought it would come near my house. I didn't like the fact that whenever I would go to school, the shooting or sirens would go off and I would have to hide or run back home. Or when I would go outside and play, I'd be half way there, and sirens would interrupt me.
6) What gave you hope during the war?
Finding four leaf clovers and wishing the war would end.
7) Did you lose anyone close to you during the war?
Not by shooting. But great aunt died of hunger.
8) Were you wounded during the war? Where were you wounded?
No.
9) Your biggest loss during the war was? N/A
10) What was the hardest part about the war? When war ended, we had to leave because we sold our apartment building and my parents lost their jobs. We lived with my grandma and she didn't want to leave her land, and this was by far the hardest part. It was even harder than being hungry, thirsty and without electricity for 4 years during the war.
11) Did you leave the country during the war?
No. I left in 1997.
12) 20 years later, what do you think of what happened?
I am just now understanding what really happened and believing that there was ethnic cleansing in my country that I wasn't aware of before.
13) Are things better or worse than what you expected 20 years later?
Worse.
14) Do you think war will return to BiH?
No. I would like to believe not. But there will always be tensions which will make it hard on the generations after us to live here.
15) What do you think the future of BiH will be? Difficult. It will hard for the youth to exist here due to the corruption in every aspect, not just in finding a job.