Bosnian war survivor says she sees parallels with today's far-right radicalism
Gordana Knežević says the war woke 'the ghosts' of ethnic nationalism that now haunt Europe and the U.S.
Bosnian war survivor Gordana Knežević says the violence and ethnic cleansing that once plagued her home country could easily happen again today.
The Serbian-born journalist was the deputy editor of the Oslobođenje newspaper during the siege of Sarajevo, the longest assault on a capital city in the history of modern warfare.
The siege, first by the Yugoslav People's Army and then the Army of Republika Srpska, lasted four long, bloody years, from April 5, 1992, to Feb. 29, 1996.
During that time, the multicultural city was torn apart. Its people, surrounded by fighting and unable to escape, were shot down in the streets by snipers. According to the United Nations, more than 10,000 were killed or reported missing, including 1,500 children.
Knežević sent two of her children — 14-year-old Igor and six-year-old Olga — away on a bus to Belgrade on May 2, 1992, thinking it would just be for a short while until the violence subsided. She wouldn't see them again until an emotional reunion at Toronto's Pearson International Airport in July 1996.
Listen: Gordana Knežević on saying goodbye to Olga and Igor:
When foreign journalists visited Sarajevo, Knežević was often their first point of contact. That's how she met the CBC's Carol Off, who travelled to the city to cover the aftermath of the siege.
The pair have remained in touch ever since. Knežević helped Off with her book, The Lion, the Fox and the Eagle, which examined Canada's role in Sarajevo. And Off travelled to Sarajevo again in April 2012 with Knežević to interview her for As It Happens on the 20th anniversary of the siege.
Off is stepping down this week as the host of As It Happens, CBC Radio's flagship current affairs program, after 16 years. In one of her final interviews for the show, she spoke with Knežević, 71, and her son Igor, 44, earlier this month. She visited them at their home in Toronto, where Igor is caring for his mother as she undergoes treatment for brain cancer.
The following is an excerpt from their conversation. To hear the full interview, listen in the player at the top of this page.
Gordana, when you came to Canada … the friendship that I was able to have with you was more than just a friendship for me. You were always a source of wisdom for me, just a place to go and and figure out what the world was about. You taught me so much about what mattered. And I remember most clearly when you won the [2019 Tara Singh Hayer Memorial Award] at Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, they wanted to award you for everything you've done, not just for in Bosnia, but that you started a program for journalists in exile. You've done so much. Do you remember what it was like?
Gordana: It was a big surprise because I was thinking that a big portion of my life and work was outside Canada, and it was absolutely a shock for me that anybody in the country still remembers.
In your acceptance speech for the award, you said something that has haunted me ever since…. You said that you had come to the conclusion that the war in Bosnia was not the last gasp of war of the 20th century; it was the first gasp of the 21st century and ethnic nationalism and war, and that you feared the most that Bosnia was the first war and not the last. What did you mean by that?
Gordana: I just thought that nothing was wrong with our past. It was similar to any European country.
Only after the war in Bosnia, nationalism became a major issue in Europe. The other thing is white supremacy was a major issue. Far-right radicalism was a major issue. But all these things didn't exist before the war in Bosnia. It was the Bosnian War which awaked the ghosts.
When you said that at the awards, it was the first time I realized how serious it was, how seriously the world had changed. There was now this real fear that what happened in Bosnia could happen anywhere.
Igor: What mom was trying to say, I think, is that back in 1992, it seemed that Yugoslav's Bosnians were drawing borders and separating and dividing and fighting against each other, whereas the rest of Europe was uniting, erasing borders and so on. It seemed that we were sort of being left behind by history.
But it turned out that what happened to Yugoslavia, and Bosnia afterward, is what would happen to Europe to some extent, and is still happening.
We've had Brexit. We've had movements to sort of separate from the European Union in many major European countries.
In Eastern Europe, we have governments that are advocating policies, not only nationalist policies, but also toward refugees, toward people from other parts of the world trying to enter Europe, which are not that dissimilar to what was being advocated by some of the Serb and Croat leadership in the 1990s.
These emotions of xenophobia, racism, of fearing the other that you saw that broke up all of Yugoslavia, these are now emotions that are tearing apart Europe…. Do you see them in Canada, Gordana?
Gordana: I think that Canada is safe…. That's what I think. Because it would be simply too much to have trouble in every country, wherever I go [laughs].
But do you see it in the United States, though?
I think the United States are not at all a safe place anymore. Not anymore, no. I think anything is possible when it comes to the United States.
Igor: We've had a preview of what can happen in the U.S., obviously with the January 6th uprising, and which some are not taking too seriously in the U.S.
But it's similar in the sense that we also had previews of that kind in Yugoslavia and in Bosnia, violent events that we didn't take seriously.
There's one image of all these artists in Sarajevo that keeps coming back for people, and that's the image of a man who was playing his cello in the ruins of the library.
Gordana: His name is Vedran Smajlovic. And I would come to listen to him. It was absolutely wonderful because he was playing [Albinoni's Adagio in G minor.]
When you hear that piece of music, what comes to mind?
Gordana: The message was you can shoot, you can kill, but you won't kill the spirit of the city.
Igor: It was one of those many acts of resistance during the war. You know, we've said already how the war came from the future, so to speak … but when we speak of that piece of music, it was a kind of requiem for the 20th century.
If this piece of music is a message to the future, if it's a warning, perhaps, to the future, what is the warning about?
Igor: I remember there is a quote, which I can't recall exactly right now, but there's a quote from [economist John Maynard] Keynes about, you know, the thin veneer of civilization and how easily it can be lost.
Gordana: I think the message is that no country's an island.
Just to finish, I want to say, Igor, it has been, over these years, so wonderful to see you, to see you grow up and have your own child. And you've been such a good friend and a good supporter for your mom…. Gordana, you have been such a good Canadian, and I'm so happy you're here and I'm happy to have you as my friend.
Igor: And you've been a wonderful friend to us all these years since our arrival in Canada, actually. You are Canada for us in many ways.
Gorana: Igor is right, actually. You are Canada for us.
Written by Sheena Goodyear. Interview produced by John Perry and Kate Swoger. Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.
