Exploring Processes of (Re)shaping and Intergenerational Transmission of War Narratives 

The war, lasting from 1992 to 1996, is often described as an exceptionally socio-politically intricate and violent conflict characterised by atrocities and serious violations of international criminal law not seen on European soil since the Second World War. Following Slovenia and Croatia’s lead in declaring independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1991 and motivated by disagreement with Belgrade’s separatist policies and the war in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina decided to proclaim its independence in 1992. Only a month later, the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina started when Bosnian Serb forces, backed by officials in Belgrade, besieged the capital city of Sarajevo and launched ethnic cleansing campaigns in eastern Bosnia aiming to establish ethnic dominance and Serb control over the Bosnian territory. During the war, more than 36 000 civilians were killed, an estimated 20 000 to 50 000 women were (systematically) raped or sexually enslaved, thousands detained and tortured, more than 2 million people were displaced as a result of war, and 8372 (mostly) men and boys were executed in the Srebrenica genocide. It is quite difficult, especially using numbers, to describe and rightfully portray to the reader the far-reaching and long-lasting consequences of the Bosnian conflict. People of Bosnia very often, even in casual conversations, note that there is probably not a single person present in the country during the war that has not been directly affected by the war in one way or another. An information that there are still, 30 years after the war started, more than 7000 victims of war whose remains have not been found might only begin to portray the long-lasting consequences of this conflict.