This Was Not Our War Swanee Hunt This Was Not Our War Bosnian Women Reclaiming the Peace foreword by William Jefferson Clinton Duke University Press Durham & London 2004 © 2004 Duke University Press All rights reserved Printed in China Designed by C. H. Westmoreland Typeset in Dante with Helvetica Neue display by Tseng Information Systems, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in- Publication Data appear on the last printed page of this book. This book is dedicated to my daughter, Lillian, also a survivor determined to reclaim the peace. Contents ix list of illustrations xi foreword xv preface context xxvi The Balkans xxviii Key Terms and Places xxxi Key Players xxxiii Timeline 1 Introduction 7 I Madness 15 1. Hell Breaks Loose 59 2. Love in the Crucible 73 3. Reasons for the War 95 4. The Lie of Intractable Hatred 115 II To Heal History 119 5. Challenges 137 6. Women Transforming 169 7. The Road to Reconciliation 191 Epilogue: The Courage to Hope 197 Profiles 251 Closing Thoughts 259 acknowledgments 263 notes 291 bibliography 297 index photo credits Photos by Swanee Hunt: xiii, xiv, xxx, 8, 14, 21, 31, 60, 96, 116, 136, 146, 168, 191, 192, 296 Photos by Tarik Samarah:ii,xxv,7,115,198,200,202,204, 206,208,210,212,214,216,218,220,222,224,226,228, 230, 232, 234, 236, 238, 240, 242, 244, 246, 248 Photo by Charles Ansbacher:250 Illustrations xxvi Map of former Yugoslavia xxvii Map of Bosnia and Herzegovina xiv Civilian targets: Sarajevo maternity clinic xxx Shattered dreams in Dobrinja 8 From the stairwell to the Zena 21 office 14 Bus becomes barricade 21 Along the main road from the airport to Sarajevo 31 Exodus of Serbs from Sarajevo 60 Sarajevo soccer field 96 Remnants of better days in Mostar 116 Shattered blessing 136 Olympic Village on the outskirts of Sarajevo 146 Mostar cafe life 168 Sarajevo bread factory 192 Commerce shattered under siege 296 Inside the National Library in Sarajevo 197 Profiles 198 Alenka Savic 200 Alma Keco 202 Amna Popovac 204 Ana Pranic 206 Biljana Chengich Feinstein 208 Danica Petric 210 Emsuda Mujagic 212 Fahrija Ganic 214 Galina Marjanovic 216 Greta Ferusic-Weinfeld 218 Irma Saje 220 Jelka Kebo x list of illustrations 222 Kada Hotic 224 Karolina Atagic 226 Kristina Kovac 228 Maja Jerkovic 230 Mediha Filipovic 232 Mirhunisa Zucic 234 Nada Rakovic 236 Nurdzihana Dzozic 238 Rada Sesar 240 Sabiha Hadzimoratovic 242 Suzana Andjelic 244 Tanja Ljujic-Mijatovic 246 Valentina Pranic 248 Vesna Kisic 250 Swanee Hunt Foreword BosniawasoneofthetoughestchallengesIfacedasPresident.In1995,Iaddressed the nation, describing the situation: For nearly four years a terrible war has torn Bosnia apart. Horrors we prayed had been banished from Europe forever have been seared into our minds again. Skeletal prisoners caged behind barbed-wire fences, women and girls raped as a tool of war, defenseless men and boys shot down into mass graves, evok- ing visions of World War II concentration camps and endless lines of refugees marching toward a future of despair. Bosnia was a small spot on the map of the world where humanitarian and geopolitical considerations collided, forcing the conscience of a superpower to come to grips with its role in the world. As the war raged in Bosnia, Swanee Hunt, serving as our ambassador to Aus- tria, brought to my attention news not making headlines: that the women of Bosnia had been organizing to try to prevent the war, and they were still doing everything they could, even in the face of ruthless ‘‘ethnic cleansing,’’ to hold together their culturally diverse communities. She came to me again in early 1996, right after the Dayton Peace Agreement was signed, to discuss the bridge- building work of those women. I immediately recognized a good idea and was proud to announce a few months later a $5 million start-up contribution by the U.S. government to a new Bosnian Women’s Initiative. Through training and microcredit loans, that program has enabled many war-weary women to im- prove their families’ situations, and, at the same time, help regenerate a ravaged economy. The United States supported numerous other endeavors, public and private, to promote lasting peace and prosperity in Bosnia.Whether in economic activity, democracy building, or cultural exchange, our assistance has aided those who believe in bringing people together rather than dividing them. We Americans enjoy a great many privileges, but we also have a responsibility to be true to the values behind those privileges whenever and wherever we can. It’s in our best interest. xii foreword Women must be included in this work. Coming out of a vicious war in which so many men were killed in the fighting, Bosnia’s future may depend more than ever on its women. A democracy functions best when all its citizens are en- gaged. Replacing tyranny with justice, healing deep scars, exchanging hatred for hope...thewomen in This Was Not Our War teach us how. Peace isn’t an event, it’s a process—and as the Middle East and Northern Ireland have shown us, it doesn’t always move forward. These women inspire us with their courage to hope. In return, we owe it to them to help them lock in their gains and keep their momentum. I keep near me in my office the following lines of verse by Seamus Heaney, which I have repeated often around the world: History says, Don’t hope On this side of the grave. But then, once in a lifetime The longed-for tidal wave Of justice can rise up, And hope and history rhyme. So hope for a great sea-change On the far side of revenge. Believe that a further shore Is reachable from here. Believe in miracles And cures and healing wells. With those words in mind, I think of Slobodan Milosevic and others indicted for crimes against humanity in The Hague. And while, yes, that looks as if it’s a miraculous achievement, much work still remains to be done in Bosnia at the grassroots. Peace is built every day through ordinary exchanges and events. The women of This Was Not Our War know that, as they know unity and strength can come from diversity, that it’s possible to honor their distinctive traditions and still relish life with their neighbors, and that the source of lasting peace is the human heart. I salute their foresight and their courage, their action and resolve. In their stories, we read the history of humankind. In their vision, we glimpse possibilities for our future. william jefferson clinton Civilian targets. Bus outside the Sarajevo maternity clinic, in the line of fire of Serbs shelling from the surrounding hills. December 1995. Preface September 11, 2001, I was sitting at mydesk, writing captions for my photographs of shelled buildings in Sarajevo, for the Bosnian edition of this book. With shock written across her face, a colleague summoned me to the tv. I watched as a plane hit the second WorldTrade Center tower.Then I returned to mydesk, not daring to say aloud what I was thinking: ‘‘Now maybe we’ll understand what the people in Bosnia felt.’’ How naïve. Wasting no time on reflection, America’s leaders launched into bellicose breast-pounding. Human rights were flagrantly disregarded.The world mapwas painted in black and white: ‘‘You’re either for us oragainst us,’’ President Bush declared. The terrorist act was transformed into an excuse for attacking Iraq, whose leader, our erstwhile friend Saddam Hussein, was suddenly worth spending hundreds of billions of dollars to bring down. The ‘‘opportunity costs’’ of that decision were staggering. With the same re- sources, America could have solved most of the humanitarian crises in the world and become the friend of billions. Instead, legions of Muslims feel humiliated by the arrogance implicit in our go-it-alone foreign policy and have vowed revenge. What went wrong? The swagger in ourcurrent foreign policy leadership is not only unseemly but also dangerous. To quote a wise bumper sticker, ‘‘We’re making enemies faster than we can kill them.’’ In contrast, this book proposes a decidedly unswaggering view of foreign policy. It looks to long-term relationships rather than short-fused rhetoric. It grapples with issues in the gray middle—issues like accountability in the midst of mass hysteria, the preservation of privilege cloaked in victimhood, and the psychological demand for justice. It elevates the voices of those who can distinguish between religion as a path for life and religion as a pretext for killing. It empowers leaders invested in a safe place for their children more than territory for themselves. It listens to the cries of women in war, understanding that their experience is instructive and their perceptions insightful. xvi preface Such common sense is often ignored nowadays by the foreign policy estab- lishment. I certainly wasn’t taught it in my ambassadorial training. In fact, just how I became aware of the importance of listening to women’s stories is a story in and of itself, beginning a decade ago. On July 4, 1994, during a lull in the fighting, I flew down to Bosnia in the belly of a cargo plane, strapped in between 50,000 pounds of flour—supplies urgently needed to feed the 200,000 Sarajevans under siege since April 5, 1992. I was bring- ing greetings from President Clinton to a few hundred Bosnians gathered in the American embassy yard to celebrate our ‘‘national day.’’ On the patio next to the bare building (our flag flewoveran embassy not yet furnished or inhabited), I met with seven women who, in bizarre juxtaposition with the grittiness of war, wore pearls, high heels, and carefully applied makeup as they relayed accounts of prac- ticing medicine in hospitals without anesthetics and teaching architecture classes without pencils.