Interview with I.S., The Life of a Boy from Bosnia: War, Genocide, and Immigration, History 150 Honors Spring 2021, Conducted by Mya Gonzales, March 6, 2021.

Overview to Interview

This interview is with I.S., who was raised in a town called Tešanj in Bosnia Herzegovina (Bosnia for short). He witnessed the Bosnian War and Genocide in the early 1990s, which is the timeframe this interview focuses on. Specifically, violence erupted in 1992 after Bosnia split from the Yugoslavia Republic because the leader, Joseph Tito, had recently died, and political instability was ensuing. Bosnian Serbs, a major ethnic group of the country, militarized themselves after the secession and began “ethnically cleansing” Bosnian Muslims because Serbs wanted to form their own country. Serb forces surrounded Tešanj, which eventually led to I.S. being shot at when he fled the town.

This is the backdrop of I.S.’s young adulthood, which makes for many compelling but heartbreaking stories. I.S. talks about growing up in a Muslim household but never practicing his religion while living under a communist government to avoid persecution. When war broke out, he experienced immense tragedy. I.S. shared that his friend threatened to kill him for being Muslim, and his sister witnessed their mom die from bomb shrapnel. Both of I.S.’s parents passed away in his childhood, so his younger sister went to foster care in the U.S. while he moved to Malaysia to pursue a college degree on a government scholarship. Once immigrating to Malaysia in 1992/1993, he met an American who became his wife, and they later moved to the United States. I.S.’s interview covers the topics of communism, discrimination, and immigration but shows how he persevered through all these hardships despite experiencing so much loss.  

Biography

I.S. grew up in Bosnia Herzegovina, which was one of the six republics of Yugoslavia. In the early 1990s, the other republics began leaving Yugoslavia to become their own countries, and Bosnia followed this course of action in 1992. Bosnian Serbs opposed the idea, and war broke out. Bosnian Serbs targeted Bosnian Muslims called Bosniaks, which were the majority of the population in Bosnia. I.S. was (and is) Muslim, so he experienced this persecution and violence. His hometown of Tešanj was under constant attack from Serbs, so he decided to flee to Croatia and then to Malaysia to pursue an education at the end of 1992/beginning of 1993.

He lost his mother from the war, and his father died in his childhood, so he and his sister were orphans by the time I.S. was 18 years old. His sister was able to enter the foster care system in the U.S. while I.S. attended college in Malaysia, and they went seven years without seeing each other. I.S. got married to an American girl he met in Malaysia, which enabled him to secure a visa to move to the United States in 1998, where he later started his family in the Northern Virginia area.

Transcription

Mya Gonzales 0:01
Okay, this is a digitally recorded interview with I.S. conducted by myself, Mya Gonzales. The date is March 6, 2021, and it is about 2 pm. Okay, ready?

I.S. 0:12
Ready.

Mya Gonzales 0:13
Okay. So the first question I have for you is what do you remember about growing up in Bosnia-Herzegovina prior to them splitting up from Yugoslavia? [Bosnia and Herzegovina is often shortened to just “Bosnia”].

I.S. 0:23
So, one of the big, big things and everything we were born and raised in a communist country. So, you know, we were part of Yugoslavia, obviously, before they [Bosnia] split and everything. So in my country, Russia was very close, so we had to learn both Cyrillic as well Latin language. So it’s like, so you… In school, you have to learn Russian as a part of your education. We didn’t have opportunity like here in America to have English or German or French. We had to do Russian because, at that time, we were very closely tied with Russia. But as many people always say, you know, “Communist is bad and everything”, but we never felt that way. You know, our vacations were 30 days, you know. My mom and my dad could go to the sea for 30 to 40 days, you know, a whole month in comparison to America which is like work, work, work. As well as… My dad was in the Communist Party because, at that time, there was no option to not be. If you are not, you may be in prison because of that. But very good childhood. We spent a lot of time… We didn’t have obviously, it’s early in the 80s, we didn’t have TVs, channels, and everything. So most of the stuff what we did was outside playing. We were really into sports, and I particularly was into sports, so that was majority of it.

Mya Gonzales 1:53
Was the education at all like politicized propaganda or was it just normal? [I.S. previously mentioned to me that there were political agendas that affected his education, so I asked this question to get him to talk about that].

I.S. 1:58
It definitely was politicized and propaganda 100%. It was all about Yugoslavia. So even in the morning, we had a ceremony, you know, singing the National Anthem just like in America in that way, but it is more about unity and everything. We all wore same clothes. So it was like a jacket, a blue [a blue jacket] with caps, which is a red cap with the star because that was our, you know, that’s what Yugoslavia was; it was the red star. And… But it definitely was 100%. It was all-even the books- it was all about the partisans. The history was about how we fought the Germans, and our history was that even though we stayed a communist country, we did not want to join Russia. Because after the World War II in 1950, Tito [Josip Broz Tito, the leader of Yugoslavia] actually was our president. At that time [Tito] rejected to be joined with Russia because Russia offered Yugoslavia to join and become one. We still… We were still communist, but we did not join them. But it was free education, free doctors, and everything was free as a part of the communist country. And one of the things was always that nobody was rich. You had a middle-class and poor, so it was like whether you had little bit of money or you didn’t have any money. That’s how it was usually. People had two kids, you know, and one car. It was not like in America obviously everybody has a car.

Mya Gonzales 3:34
Right like their own car.

I.S. 3:34
There was one car and that was like a “weekend car” we called it because nobody drives, everybody walks everywhere because it was a small town. My town is around 3,000 people. [The town I.S. grew up in is called Tešanj, pronounced TESH-ahn].

Mya Gonzales 3:34
Right.

I.S. 3:34
I was raised there and everything. “Where you going to walk”? Just everywhere. “Where are you going to go with a car?” You just use it like once a while on the weekends just to be able to do that.

Mya Gonzales 3:56
Was your family then in the lower class section or the middle-class section?

I.S. 4:00
We were in the middle-class section. Like I say, my dad was… He actually was in Communist Party. He worked in the government office. So, he… My mom also was working the same thing in the government. Even though we were raised as Muslims and everything, we never practiced, and we never did anything because it was so politicized. If he [I.S.’s father] said that he is a Muslim, and he’s going to go to the mosque or anything like that, that basically meant prison. So never…

Mya Gonzales 4:33
Wow.

I.S. 4:33
So for me, it was always like my grandma prayed and everything, and I was like, “Why do you wake up so early? Why do you pray and everything?” Even though my name is actually Ibrahim, you know, I never did that. I never knew like “Hey, I’m Muslim. We go do this and everything.” We just knew we were Muslim by name but never practiced anything for a long time.

Mya Gonzales 4:54
Did that bother your parents or were they fine with it?

I.S. 4:57
They were totally fine because, you know, there was like I say, two options: whether you are in the Party and you are supporting the Communist Party and you go out there or you basically are going to be poor and maybe in the prison. There was a lot of young Muslims who were coming at the time and you know, we are Muslims trying to do this. And because it’s like every country who has Communists or whatever, they will target those people, put them into prison, and forget about them. So it was more into how do you survive and how do you be there versus anything else.

Mya Gonzales 5:36
So then how long was the time period from you said like your childhood to when you remember things getting violent and war starting to breakout? How long was that gap?

I.S. 5:43
So, I was going to school in electrical engineering, which was in Doboj, the city, and we do not have a high school in my hometown. We actually had to use public transportation, not have buses and everything like that. We had to go on public transportation driving to this city, which was like 20 kilometers away from us, and we were driving there to go to the high school. So, at that time, the war or there was like a lot of this between Slovenia and Serbia because Slovenia wanted to disconnect between the country and we were like, you know, in Bosnia because it was like mix cultured.

So, you have Bosnians, you have Serbs, you have Croatians, you have everybody there. But in Slovenia it is a majority of Slovenians, so they are just living in it. In Croatia, there is a majority of Catholics and just Catholics, and there’s not many Muslims or Serbs. When Slovenia wanted to separate, Serbia said, “No, no, no, you cannot”, but then, because everything was controlled by Slovenian army, they were very easily separated. So it was just scuffles, nothing big. Croatia was a little bit bigger [bigger fights] because, in Croatia, there was, you know… The Serbs were very smart the way they did it. All the generals and all the high soldiers within places in Croatia everywhere were Serbs, so they were the big guys and everything. So they were smart about the way they did it. When Croatia started the war and when that started, we were like, “Ah, this never gonna happen to us.” You know this is just Croatians. Catholics are going against the Christians. So it’s the war between Catholics and Christians, and we Muslims were like, “This is never gonna happen. This is, you know, whatever.” Unfortunately, obviously, we were not ready even in that time. You may not have heard this, I didn’t tell you or anybody, which is that every single city within communism had its own defensive or weapons caches. So, Serbs were basically going around Bosnia and picking up those weapon caches, and we never even questioned, “Why did they come in to take our weapons away?” [Slovenia had an easier time separating from Yugoslavia with little to no conflict. However, when Croatian declared independence, Serbs in the country wanted to form a country of Serbia, so they fought back. Eventually, Croatia gained independence but it left thousands dead and even more forced out of their homes].

Mya Gonzales 7:58
The weapons, right.

I.S. 7:58
Because in a case of communism it’s like you’re going to want to make sure that you defend each city, and each city can defend itself. So even if somebody comes attack us from anywhere, like, every city can defend themselves. But we never questioned that because we were like, “Ah, we are going to be fine and everything.” So the war really, when it started it was really interesting. It was like, I got to receive the call… And I tell this story to many people and everything… My best friend was Serb. You know, he was in Doboj, and I was there. I slept in his house. I ate dinners, lunches, and everything. I mean, it was like, my best buddy, you know, and everything. And then it comes to the point where I receive this call from him where him and his parents are saying that they’re going to come and kill us because we’re Muslims.

Mya Gonzales 8:45
Wow.

I.S. 8:46
Then you are like, you know, I don’t even you know… I don’t even… I was like, “What are you talking about, dude? What’s wrong with it and everything?” He’s like, “You guys are Ottoman Empire” because Serbs always had a very big issue with Ottoman Empire Turkish because that’s how Muslims came to Bosnia. Because Turks conquer everything and kill. You know, one of the biggest battles in, you know, in that time, was when they destroyed all the Serbs and made even a castle from the Serb heads. So, Serbs celebrate that like a victory where they lost like thousands of people. [When Serbia tried to overthrow the Ottoman Empire in 1809 in Niš, Serbia, the Turkish general created a tower out of their skulls to send a gruesome message to rebels]. They [Serbs] always had a national propaganda against Muslims and everything. And really, that’s how war started. It was… We did not… We defended ourselves because my city is in a valley, so it’s very difficult to get in. It’s like a one way in and one-way out. So there are no ways of multiple entries of the points. So for them [the Serbs], they did not know this. We defended our city, basically with shotguns and pistols and everything. There was really not much. But that was the start when it [the war] started. It was just like that. And then obviously, Serbs took everything. There was a lot more. There are not many cities where, you know… My city became from 3,000 to like 15,000 people because all of the surrounding cities, a small city-state, everybody came in because they [the Serbs] couldn’t get into our city. But everybody else was getting… But we were surrounded for a long time, even when I left, we were surrounded. And the city was surrounded for a significant time. [During the war, Tešanj was surrounded by Serb forces, so it was extremely difficult to get in and out of the town. Serbs sieged the town for 10 months and cut off Bosnians from food and supplies].

Mya Gonzales 10:22
How old were you when it started happening?

I.S. 10:25
I was almost 18 years old. [I.S. was 18 years old 1992, which would have been the very beginning of the Bosnian War].

Mya Gonzales 10:27
Oh wow, just about to be an adult.

I.S. 10:29
Yeah. So I was like that. We were… We were defending our city. We were digging the ditches. You know, we were trying to just make sure that they can’t get in. Like I say, they were surrounding our city. They were bombing nonstop. And even when I left, you know, I was left with one of my friends to Zagreb [capital of Croatia] at that time, my city was still surrounded. Even though so… It’s a very interesting fact that we had called it “highway”, which is like a two-way street where on one side of the road were Serbs and one side of the road were Muslims and Croats, which we went together. It’s like going in the car between those things and they shooting [Serbs shooting] just to get out and that’s how it is. But Serbs were all around so nobody… Even when America was helping us and dropping packages and everything like that… We were, you know… A lot of people died just going to get the food because they [Serbs] were on the high hills and surrounding our city. So… [With Tešanj being besieged, NATO began airdropping food and supplies. However, getting the packages was no easy feat and many were killed trying to secure them].

Mya Gonzales 11:30
So they shoot at you?

I.S. 11:32
Yes, so a lot of people died just trying to get food when Americans were dropping it down. But Serbs were very…

Mya Gonzales 11:42
Give me one second.

[INTERRUPTION]

Mya Gonzales 11:43
Okay, sorry for the interruption. So what were you saying? The highway? [The chirping in the background is from I.S.’s pet birds but it goes away, and you can clearly hear what is saying still].

I.S. 11:48
So the highway is like one street was Croats and us and one street them. And they [Serbs] were like, you know, basically kill… Shooting at us and trying to get us at this particular time. But what Serbs always did is basically even when they were letting people come into the city, what they were doing is really getting to the point that they will wait three days, people will come outside and look at it that everything, and then they will start bombing and doing the grenades and everything just to get them destroyed and everything like that. [Serbs would wait for more Bosnians/Croats to come into the city and then bomb them]. So I was not there at that time. I left a little bit earlier, but my sister was in the park and with her friends. My mom was coming out [of the house] and just Serbs started launching the grenades, and when they were going out [going off], my mom was running back to the house, and a small shrapnel hit her under her breast. And that’s how she died. [Tešanj was the source of many grenade and bomb attacks from the surrounding Serb forces and dodging these weapons was a daily task].

Mya Gonzales 12:51
Oh, your mom?

I.S. 12:52
Yes. And that’s how she passed away. They [doctors] thought she had a heart attack, she got scared or something like that. But it was to the point where the small shrapnel tore her arteries and killed her.

Mya Gonzales 13:03
Wow, that’s so sad.

I.S. 13:04
And my sister was there.

Mya Gonzales 13:05
So she was there?

I.S. 13:07
She was there. She was much younger than I was – three years younger. She was, you know, 15 years old, 14 years old at that time. Being you know… And we lost our father earlier, you know, from a heart attack. So that’s not part [his dad’s death was not from the war], but my sister was all by herself at that time.

Mya Gonzales 13:28
Were you still… You were still there, though, right? At Bosnia at the time when that happened?

I.S. 13:31
I was in Croatia at that time. When this… When my mom passed away, I actually left after, you know, a couple of months being in there. I left to Croatia because my mind was always like, you know, “No, you need to leave. You need to leave. You don’t need to be here.” And I left to Croatia at that time to go and join some of the people who were immigrating or leaving to Malaysia for college because they were sending some people from Sarajevo and around the country in Bosnia to Malaysia because they were accepting students to be there. [Sarajevo is the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina where Serbs later attacked and killed over 11,000 people]. So, I was actually… I left there to Malaysia and started my college – obviously had to learn English. [I.S. left for Malaysia at the end of 1992/beginning of 1993 since the country implemented a government program that was sponsoring Bosnian Muslims to receive an eduacation].

Mya Gonzales 14:14
Yeah. Was it easy to leave from where you were living to Croatia or was it hard?

I.S. 14:20
No, no, that was not easy whatsoever. So it was like I say that was a… First, we were sitting in the [car] when we left home. My friend, one of my best friends as well in my hometown, we actually had to sit in the back seat [of a car] laying down. One of the sides of the door we put the steel barrier because when the Serbs were shooting, we wanted to make sure that they couldn’t get through the door on one side of the road, you know, because the other side that’s our guy. [I.S. is explaining that they put a steel barrier on the car door that faced the Serbs’ side of the highway, and the other door was safe because it faced the Bosnians]. So we were going. Back home we don’t have automatic cars, so his dad [friend’s dad] was driving the car and trying to lay down and make sure that he doesn’t get shot as well and going to Croatia. And then, we actually had to cross a river as well to just get to Croatia, so that’s how we got in. So him and I, my friend… His dad went back to my hometown. But his dad, you know, left us and we went and joined. We had some friends in Zagreb, who had like cousins or something like that, and then we stayed with them until we were able to actually… I left to Malaysia, and he left to Italy at that time.

Mya Gonzales 15:28
Wow. What – so what happened to your sister then at that time?

I.S. 15:30
My sister was like I say… The only reason my sister survived the attack and everything really was because my hometown in between, in the middle of my hometown, there’s a river. So the river bed basically is what saved my sister and a lot of her friends. And you know that in the park because the park is just adjacent to the river bed, so when the grenades fell down, all the shrapnel was hitting the side of the riverbed, so it didn’t go above it. That’s how they survived. But my sister was there till… And then, she was able to go to Croatia after a couple of months and everything. And then, America was accepting children without orphans basically [children without parents is what he meant]. So she was able to go to Olympia at that time in America, close to Seattle, and she was in foster care. So, she actually was in the foster for two years before she became 18 years old.

Mya Gonzales 16:34
Wow. So while you were in Malaysia, then she went to the United States? You guys were separated, right?

I.S. 16:37
Yes. So I was in Malaysia studying and everything, and she went to the United States as a part of the America accepting children without parents, basically orphans. So, she was able to get in with a lot of people, and she was in foster care for a little bit.

Mya Gonzales 16:53
So, how was Malaysia then after you learned English? Was it fine? Did you adjust well?

I.S. 16:58
It’s like, one of the things which is like… I tell people this, people laugh at it. Really the war, you know, and everything is when I realized, you know, that my name is “Ibrahim” and that I am a Muslim. And you know, before I never… We were like very modernized and everything. We never associated [with Muslims]. You just like, “We’re Bosnians.” You know, there was no Croatians, Serbs, and everything like that, or “I am a Christian or Catholic or Muslim.” There was never… We never had that thing within Bosnia. It’s a melting pot, basically how it was. When we get back to Malaysia, you know, you realize “Oh, okay, so they were trying to kill me because I’m a Muslim. They tried to kill me because my name is Ibrahim and everything.” So, Malaysia was interesting in a sense like you start your college, you know, it was like you’re by yourself, you know. Malaysian government did support us and we had a scholarship, but, you know, we lived in dorms. So, it was, it was… That was the best years of my life, honestly. I always say, I mean, I tell you and tell everybody else is that’s the best years of my life, you know. It took me a little bit longer, you know, to finish [to finish college], but I really was… Every summer I was going to Germany to some of my friends to be able to get some money to be able to survive because I… Most of my friends had parents which are still alive and you know, around, and they were able to send them some money and everything. I really did not have anybody, so it was all up to me to be able to survive and have extra money if I wanted to do something. So every summer I never did summer classes like most of my colleagues or my friends. I went to Germany, worked three months, you know, in Germany and then got back to Malaysia.

Mya Gonzales 18:49
And then finished, I see.

I.S. 18:50
So that’s why I took a little bit longer to finish because I was like… I was just like… I didn’t know what… I really did not have an option. “Where will I go? Where do you want to go after this? You want to go back home? You don’t have anybody. What you going to do? Where you’re going to go?” Stay in Malaysia was not option because Malaysia don’t accept foreigners and everything like that. It was really hard to be there by yourself and just to stay without, you know, work visas or working for somebody or something like that. So it was really difficult. But it was always… Like I say, interesting times, interesting things. I visited most of the countries from Indonesia to Thailand to all around. If you visit Malaysia, it’s a beautiful country to be in and explore.

Mya Gonzales 19:36
Was there no discrimination or was there discrimination when you went to Malaysia for being Muslim? [I asked this question because I.S. mentioned the discrimination he faced in Bosnia for his religion, and I was curious if he faced the same problem in Malaysia].

I.S. 19:40
So Malaysia is all Muslim. The discrimination Malaysia was they called you a white boy. So in the year when we were there in 90s, you know, so there were not many white people. So to them, we were like different. And for them also for Malaysians they were really, I’m not saying they were racist or anything like that, or we were racist, but I’m saying they were always like, “Oh, these guys, you know, these guys…Why are you doing here? Why are you this? Why that and everything?” So it was a lot of animosity between us honestly. A lot of they didn’t like us, you know and everything, but it is what it is. We did have our friends and groups and everything like that. And you know, I had a lot of Malaysian friends and everything but, you know, it was definitely a difficult time, and you know, the way it was.

Mya Gonzales 20:34
So after you finished your education, how did you come to the United States? What was that process like?

I.S. 20:38
So I was… In Malaysia, I had met a girl who was actually from U.S. and everything. She was born and raised here in Indiana but lived in Herndon area [a town in Northern Virginia]. Her dad was the Dean of University. So, he was the Dean of my Communication, Public Relations and Organization Arts College and everything. So I remember, you know, we, and… We started dating and everything, and we were talking and everything. And she comes from very traditional Muslim, you know, background where her dad is from Iraq. Her mom is from Syria. And like I say, they came just for him to be in this university and, you know, help out and everything. So, I remember, we go there and everything. And he’s like, “Okay, you have, you have two options. You have options to finish your college very quickly and going back with us to U.S., or this is it.” Because they don’t believe in long dating or anything like that. There’s no dating. Really they’re more into, like, “You got to have a chaperone or somebody else to be with you and everything.” They’re very traditional from that perspective. In some cases, you know, there’s a lot of fixed marriages, you know, because somebody knows this and that. They don’t believe in that. And it was not so… They are not people who were like, “Oh, no, you have to be from, you know, Arab American or something like that, for you to marry my daughter.” And I was obviously a Bosnian Muslim, white guy and everything. So that was, that was the way… When we got married in Malaysia, I was able to, you know… We first actually went to Syria. I lived in Syria for one year, where I learned Arabic, and I was able to explore the Syria and everything at that time. And then we moved in America in 1998.

Mya Gonzales 21:45
Did you get a… Were you able to immigrate here because then you were married?

I.S. 22:47
Yes, yes. I was able to immigrate to America because I was married to American citizen, and I got a visa to be able to get there as a part of the marriage.

Mya Gonzales 22:59
Okay, that makes sense. So then when you got here, was the first thing you did reconnect with your sister or how did you end up finding her again when she was here?

I.S. 23:06
Yeah. So we talked quite a bit on the phone and everything, obviously, even though she was in Olympia and Seattle, after that and everything. And once I came back to Herdon, that was much easier for us to see each other. So that was the first time… I think it was ’99 or 2000 was the first time we saw each other for like the last six, seven years, you know. So it just… We didn’t have opportunity and everything. But yes, we were able to reconnect. She’s been on the West Coast from being in Seattle to moving to San Francisco area. She lived in Croatia for a little bit working from there and everything before she got married. And then she’s been in San Francisco for a while now.

Mya Gonzales 23:53
Right, so then when you came here were there any differences you realized before? Between Bosnia and here? Obviously, politically probably felt like a big difference, right? [I.S. had previously mentioned to me the political differences he observed in America, which is why I suggested he explain those differences].

I.S. 24:02
Oh no, definitely is the big difference and everything. The only thing you know, the freedom and everything. But you know, one thing that you see in America is obviously is work, work, work work, where back home is more into how do you… It’s chill like you finish your work or whatever, you go for coffee or you go have the things and everything. It was much more where in America you feel like it’s a lot of pressure from society from everybody. It’s like you got to work hard. You got to work more to have more and to have more. But why? Like I say the way we lived back home was very frugal and very things and everything. We did stuff. We go to the seacoast and everything. We had vacations, but it was not like here where society is really looking into you the way how you are. “Did you make it? Did you not make it? Could you do this? Could you not do this? Like do you have this? Do you not have this?” So it’s a little bit different where the way we were born and raised and everything, you know. And for me specifically, I came from nothing, you know. I always tell my kids, I came to America with $150. I mean… And you go and work hard and everything to get everything and you know… Society in America is always “work harder, work harder, work harder.” And then you want more, you want more, and more and more. And where back home is like you worked in what is the government building at that time or is like you get your salary and you live your life. And there were no credits. The difference between with America and here [Bosnia] at that time was you don’t build your house if you don’t have money. Here’s [America] is like you get the house on the credit [credit cards] and you live in it forever, and you owe forever. Where back home is like you got money, you save money, and you build your house yourself. And that’s how you had a house. Not this way. So definitely different, and like I say, the vacations are only two weeks you can’t even two weeks-

Mya Gonzales 26:02
Right, two weeks off work.

I.S. 26:04
Yeah, but you know, you just make it happen and everything. For me, the reason really staying here in rational is, you know, the kids obviously are the number one, but also is I really don’t have family back and everything. [I.S. has two kids both born and raised in the U.S]. I have a lot of property and land and everything like that, but no family per se. But nothing is driving me back home to say, “I have to go back and I’m going to go retire in the backcountry,” or something like that. There’s really nothing like that.

Mya Gonzales 26:33
If you were to go back, is it all peaceful now and everything’s resolved, or is there still tension?

I.S. 26:38
It’s one of the most amazing things to do. If anybody wants to visit Bosnia, it’s an unbelievable country. People still, you know, are amazed by the level of surprise they have when they get there to see it. The countryside, the cities, how beautiful it is and everything. So, yes. There’s no more [no more war]. It’s back to being a melting pot where everybody lives together. But obviously, there’s always going to be people who are extremists like in every…

Mya Gonzales 27:08
Right, in every country.

I.S. 27:10
Yeah, so you still have Serbs, you know, they are Orthodox Christians, so they are still talking about going against Muslims and everything. But there is no war. There is no nothing. It’s been peaceful and everything, so it’s one of my bucket lists to go back again very soon, really. That definitely needs to happen.

Mya Gonzales 27:31
Okay, thank you so much for sharing your story. Have a good day.

Historical Context

I.S. touches on many topics, but I wanted to provide context about the history and casualties of the War/Genocide to create an understanding of I.S.’s life. Beginning in 1946, Bosnia and Herzegovina became one of the six republics included in the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia, which was communist. The leader of Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito, died in 1980 creating a lot of instability. In the early 1990s, republics of Yugoslavia like Slovenia and Croatia seceded and became their own countries. With growing external and internal pressures, Alija Izetbegović, the leader of Bosnia’s “joint presidency” tried to declare independence on March 3, 1992, which sparked outrage from Bosnian Serbs who wanted to create a country called Serbia. Therefore, Bosnia could not formally declare independence until May 1992, but this still led to violence.

Militarized Bosnian Serbs were supported by powerful Serbian leaders like Radovan Karadžić and the Yugoslavic army and started targeting and “ethnically cleansing” Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) who constituted 43% of the country but lived all throughout Bosnia. In 1992, Bosnian Serbs attacked the capital of Sarajevo and killed over 11,000 people. They also seized the town of Srebrenica since the United Nations failed to protect it, which forced 20,000 people out of their homes and killed 8,000 boys and men by 1995. In totality, it is estimated that over 2 million people became displaced and 100,000 people died, with Bosniaks making up the majority.

Bibliography

“Bosnian Genocide.” Montreal Holocaust Museum, Montreal Holocaust Museum, museeholocauste.ca/en/resources-training/the-bosnian-genocide/.

Di Salvatore, Jessica. “Inherently Vulnerable? Ethnic Geography and the Intensity of Violence in the Bosnian Civil War.” ScienceDirect, Elsevier B.V., 17 Dec. 2015, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0962629815001080?via%3Dihub.

Leydesdorff, Selma. Surviving the Bosnian Genocide: The Women of Srebrenica Speak, Indiana University Press, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/jmu/detail.action?docID=670286.

Office of the Historian. “The Breakup of Yugoslavia, 1990–1992.” Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, 28 Aug. 2020, history.state.gov/milestones/1989-1992/breakup-yugoslavia.

Photos

Featured Image of Tešanj, I.S.’s hometown that was under siege in the Bosnian War.
Credit: Featured Image by Dragan Tomić from Pexels.

Follow Up Commentary

I.S. and I had follow-up conversations about the transcript on March 11, 16, 20, and 24 of 2021. I asked I.S. for clarity about words he said in the transcript that I couldn’t understand due to his accent. Also, I.S. provided me with dates and context that he forgot to mention in the interview, so I could add these details in with brackets. After reading the interview, I.S. requested no changes and approved it on March 24, 2021.

How the Interview Was Recorded

The interview was held over Zoom on March 6, 2021, around 2 pm. The interview was converted to an mp3 format with an online website converter and then transcribed by an artificial intelligence software called Otter.ai.

Transcription Process

I manually went over the transcription Otter.ai produced to check for any errors. The biggest question I had during this process was how do I ensure I maintain the authenticity of the way I.S. speaks while also editing the transcript to be more grammatically correct and understandable? To figure out the answer to this question, I followed the style guide’s instructions on communicating with the interviewee to make adjustments that they were comfortable with. Since I.S.’s first language was not English, I decided to apply grammatical rules to ensure there were no run-on sentences and verb tenses were correct. However, I let sentences start with words like “and”, “but”, and “because” since that was how I.S. spoke. I also did not add in articles like “the” and “a” if I.S. did not say them unless I needed them for clarity. The style guide recommended finding such a balance and being consistent with it, which is what I did the entirety of the transcription process.

I.S. uses many reflexive phrases such as “and everything”, “you know”, and “so” when speaking, which I left in unless they were overbearing because I felt like that was unique to his pattern of speech. I often encouraged I.S. to continue speaking by saying “okay”, “yeah”, and “right”, but I omitted these from the transcript unless they added value and also removed filler words such as “um” and “like”. Any words that were repeated while I.S. tried to formulate a sentence I removed. For example, if he said “every every person was scared”, I edited that to be “every person was scared”. Anything that I wanted to clarify, provide context to, or expand upon, I put in brackets as the style guide suggests and marked unfinished sentences with ellipses. I only departed from the style guide when I felt like my own editorial decisions captured the image of I.S. better. Being an immigrant is an important part of I.S.’s identity, so I did not want to alter the transcript to be 100% grammatically correct in fear that I would lose that.