TELLING STORIES, MAKING SELVES RECONFIGURING SOCIAL AND POLITICAL BELONGING IN POSTWAR SARAJEVO Victoria Ingrid Einagel Dissertation submitted for the degree of Philosophiae Doctor (PhD) in Human Geography Department of Sociology and Human Geography Faculty of Social Sciences University of Oslo June 2018 © Victoria Ingrid Einagel, 2018 Series of dissertations submitted to the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Oslo No. 719 ISSN 1564-3991 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission. Cover: Hanne Baadsgaard Utigard. Print production: Reprosentralen, University of Oslo. To the memory of Aunt Louisa (1915–1992) This dissertation is dedicated to all my research subjects who shared their stories, generosity and friendship; further, to all those who are working to build durable and just forms of peace, and a future in which coming generations are not burdened by war, nor by the enormous work entailed in restoring the lives blighted by it. Sa poštovanje i hvala hiljadu puta! iii iv TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF MAPS AND PHOTOS IX ABSTRACT XI ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS XIII ABBREVIATIONS AND GLOSSARY XVII CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1 THE INDELIBLE IMPRESSIONS OF WAR AND POSTWAR ENVIRONMENTS 1 RECONFIGURATION OF MEMORIES AND BELONGING AFTER WAR 3 AIMS AND FOCUS 5 RELEVANCE OF RESEARCH ON THE SOCIAL IMPACT OF WAR 8 STRUCTURE OF THE DISSERTATION 9 CHAPTER TWO: A THEORETICAL APPROACH TO RECONFIGURING BELONGING AFTER WAR 11 ETHNO-NATIONAL IDENTITY-FORMATION 11 BELONGING 16 MEMORY 19 THE VIOLENCE OF WAR AND NATIONALISM 21 THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF WAR 24 CONCLUSIONS 26 CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCHING LIVED EXPERIENCE IN THE AFTERMATH OF WAR 27 METHODOLOGIES AND METHODS 27 Ethnographic Fieldwork 28 Life-Story Approach 29 The Role of Emotions in Doing Ethnographic Fieldwork 30 PREPARING FIELDWORK IN SARAJEVO 32 Motivations, Assumptions and Reasoning Informing the Research Design 32 Friendship and Narrative Practices 34 Accessing Informants: Openness and Empathy 36 DATA GENERATION: THE PRODUCTION OF FIELD RESEARCH DATA 37 Bearing Witness 40 ANALYSING THE DATA: THE POWER IMBUED IN REPRESENTATION AND THE WRITING OF THE GEOGRAPHICAL TEXT 43 The Impact of Doing Ethnographic Research: The Creation of Doubleness 45 Positionality: In-Between Positions 47 Writing Selves 51 CONCLUSIONS: PERFORMING INTERSUBJECTIVITY 53 v CHAPTER FOUR: SARAJEVO BEFORE AND AFTER WAR 59 THE EMERGENCE OF ETHNO-NATIONAL IDENTITIES 61 Sarajevo and Bosnia Before the War 64 THE OUTBREAK OF WAR AND THE SIEGE OF SARAJEVO 68 THE DAYTON PEACE AGREEMENT: BOSNIA AND SARAJEVO AFTER WAR 71 CONCLUSIONS 74 STORY ONE – MIRELLA: EVERYTHING HAS A HISTORY 77 CHAPTER FIVE: BELONGING AND EVERYDAY LIFE IN SARAJEVO BEFORE THE WAR 85 SARAJEVO: OVERLAPPING SPACES OF BELONGING 85 A City Filled with Spirit and Soul 85 Mixed Marriages 90 The Celebration of Religious Holidays 93 MULTI-LAYERED BELONGING: YUGOSLAV AND BOSNIAN AS WELL AS SARAJEVAN 96 The Insignificance/Significance of Nationality 98 Generational Differences and Geographic Variations 102 CONCLUSIONS 104 STORY TWO – EMINA: SUSTAINING OURSELVES THROUGHOUT THE WAR 109 CHAPTER SIX: SURVIVAL IN THE BESIEGED CITY OF SARAJEVO 117 THE SHOCK, SUDDENNESS, AND CHAOS OF WAR 117 Shattering the Sense of Security and Safety 120 SUSTAINING ONESELF DURING WAR 123 Maintaining Normality in the Midst of War 123 The Traumatic Consequences of Personal Decisions 128 Culture and Friendship as Survival Strategies 132 Making Sense of the Siege 135 CONUNDRUMS AND MORAL DILEMMAS 136 Resurgence of Ethno-National Identities 136 Paradoxes of Faith-based Humanitarian Aid 140 ‘Should I Stay or Should I Leave?’ 142 CONCLUSIONS 144 STORY THREE: SANDRA – ‘IT WASN’T ORDINARY PEOPLE WHO STARTED THIS WAR!’ 147 CHAPTER SEVEN: FINDING ONE’S PLACE IN POSTWAR SARAJEVO 161 Vesna’s Experience: Working through the Memories and Emotions of War 163 THE MULTIPLE ASPECTS OF LIFE IN POSTWAR SARAJEVO 167 Everyday Life in Postwar Sarajevo 168 Returning to the Harsh Realities of Postwar Sarajevo 171 Tensions Among Those Who Left, Those Who Stayed and Those Who Returned 173 Opposing Views of Postwar Sarajevo 175 The Emotional Aftermath 176 THE GROWING SIGNIFICANCE OF ETHNIC AND NATIONAL CATEGORIES 179 vi RETURN AND RECONSTRUCTION 182 The Issue of Return 185 Implications of Return 187 CONCLUSIONS 190 CHAPTER EIGHT: CONCLUSION 195 SUMMARY OF THE DISSERTATION 195 The Bosnian War and Survival in the Besieged City of Sarajevo 196 Researching the Impact of the Trauma and Violence of War on Identities and Belonging 197 Sarajevo Before, During and After the War 199 KNOWING WAR INTIMATELY: PERSONAL RELATIONS AND SOCIO-POLITICAL BELONGING 203 Implications for Future Research 206 REFERENCES 211 APPENDICES 224 APPENDIX I: INTERVIEW GUIDE AND LIFE STORY DETAILS 225 APPENDIX II: LIST OF RESEARCH SUBJECTS 228 vii viii LIST OF MAPS AND PHOTOS Figure 2. Photograph of Sarajevo before the war xix Figure 3. Photograph of Sarajevo xix Figure 4. Bosnia and Herzegovina xx Figure 5. Bosnia and Herzegovina and its sub-governing regions xxi Figure 5. The River Miljačka, Sarajevo xxii Figure 6. Districts of Greater Sarajevo City 76 Figure 7. Sarajevo Canton and the Districts of Sarajevo 76 Figure 8. The Sarajevo Survival Map, 1992–1995 115 Figure 9. Front lines around Sarajevo during the Siege 116 Figure 10. ‘Sniper Alley’, vicinity of Otoka District 116 Figure 11. Ticket for Đorđe Balešević Concert, Sarajevo, 7 February 1998 162 Figure 12. Buildings damaged by artillery shells and mortar fire in the Otoka District 193 Figure 13. Reconstruction and refurbishment of buildings underway 193 Figure 14. The Sebilj Fountain 209 ix x ABSTRACT This dissertation is a study of ethno-national identities and belonging in the aftermath of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The focus is on the everyday lives of Sarajevans, exploring their experiences and memories some two years after the end of the war. In so doing it provides insights into the ways in which war shapes and reconfigures feelings of ethno-national identities and belongingness. The aim of this dissertation is to explore the impact of the trauma and violence of war on the reshaping of identities, memories and belonging in the everyday lives of Sarajevans in the aftermath of the Siege of Sarajevo and the Bosnian War 1992–1995. How does war impact on the reconstruction and reconfiguration of belonging? How does this process unfold in a postwar society? This research focuses on practices of everyday life as expressed through social interaction and encounters, based on the view that nation and belonging are socially constructed through the stories and actions that actors share. The following three questions have guided the research process: What significance is attributed to belonging to a specific ethno-national and religious group, and has this changed as a result of war? How do these apparent changes translate and/or manifest themselves in the daily perceptions of Sarajevans, in their attitudes and patterns of behaviour in everyday life? How do these changes impact on Sarajevan conceptions of belonging to place in general, and on the feeling of belonging specifically to Sarajevo and Bosnia? The study explores the identities, feelings of belonging and understandings of ‘self’ and ‘other’ prevalent amongst Sarajevans in the aftermath of war and within the framework of the implementation of the Dayton Peace Accords. The dissertation thus engages with several of the main processes at work in personal and collective identity formation in times of crisis. At such times, these processes become magnified. Identities contested and still in the making generally become strengthened and further entrenched, while identities of resistance maintain their hold. xi xii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank my research subjects in Sarajevo who gave generously of their time and whose voices fill these pages. Special thanks go to Vesna, for providing me with a home away from home. This dissertation would not have been possible without your openness and willingness to share your lived experience and stories. To all my respondents: I am deeply indebted to you, for your generosity of spirit and friendship in sharing your pain as well as your laughter. I stand in awe of your incredible courage, humanity, and dignity in surviving the Siege of Sarajevo, and your continued strength and resilience in working to restore and heal your lives in the aftermath of war. I can only hope that, by giving voice to your pain and suffering, your resilience and strength, alongside your laughter, in writing about your anguish over the Siege of Sarajevo and the destruction of Bosnia and Herzegovina, I can contribute in some small measure towards the never-ending struggle for social justice. Further, I wish to thank the team at the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo Office, headed at that time by its founder, Srđan Dizdarević, for providing office space, critical discussions and companionship. I am grateful to Christopher Bennett, former Director of the Balkans Project, International Crisis Group (ICG), Sarajevo Office, for providing office space in my final month of fieldwork, as well as access to ICG reports and lively discussions with the local team. My heartfelt thanks go to Selma Hadžihalilović, Jadranka Miličević, and Memnuna Zvizdić at Žena Ženama (Women to Women) Sarajevo, for their enthusiasm and generosity, and for welcoming me to join in their activities during the fieldwork