Then they started shooting : children of the Bosnian War and the adults they become

352 Pages·2013·2.16 MB·English

by  Jones

“Human rights investigations tend to produce snapshots at the moment of abuse. T
Rarely do we have occasion to look at the aftermath. Lynne Jones adds the dimension h T h e n
of time. With remarkable insight and sensitivity, she follows a group of young Bosnians
from both sides of the Serb-Muslim conflict as they grow up. We see how they try to e
cope with, comprehend, and transcend the horrors that their elders have visited upon
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their communities. Their successes and failures deepen our understanding of human
T h e y
resilience and how people rebuild their lives from tragic circumstances.”
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—KenneTh roTh,
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executive director, human rights Watch
e S T a r T e d
“Then They Started Shooting upends the traditional discourse on the victims of war by
continuing the narrative long after the violence has ended. The stories in this book are y
eloquently and poignantly recounted, and offer a vital, complex portrait of what the

long road to peace looks like.”
S
—dinaW mengeSTu, S h o o T i n g
T
author of The Beautiful Things That heaven Bears and how to read the air
a
“Profound . . . Rarely do we get the opportunity to delve into the thoughts of the
young caught up in such a tragedy—and meet them not just once in their lives but r
again years later. This is a moving, well written and above all, deeply disturbing book.”
T
—Tim judah,
e
europe correspondent for Bloomberg World View, Balkans correspondent for The economist,
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and author of The Serbs: history, myth and the destruction of yugoslavia

S
imagine you are nine years old. your best friend’s father is arrested, half your
h
classmates disappear from school, and someone burns down the house across the
road. imagine you are ten years old and have to cross a snow-covered mountain range o
at night in order to escape the soldiers who are trying to kill you. How would you deal
o
with these memories five, ten, or twenty years later once you are an adult?
T
ly n n e j o n eS, a relief worker and child psychiatrist, interviewed over i
forty Serb and Muslim children who came of age during the n
Bosnian War and now returns, twenty years after the war began, to discover the adults
they have become. Their poignant stories illuminate root causes of global conflict, paths g
toward peacemaking and reconciliation, and the resilience of the human spirit.
Jones was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British empire for her work in
child psychiatry in conflict-affected areas of Central europe and has established and
lynne
directed mental health programs in areas of conflict and natural disaster throughout Latin
america, the Balkans, east and West africa, the Middle east, and Southeast asia. Her
joneS
field diaries have been published in O, The Oprah Magazine and London Review of
Books, and her audio diaries have been broadcast on the BBC World Service.
Children of The BoSnian War and The adulTS They BeCome
BeLLevue LiteRaRy PReSS ISBN: 978-1-934137-66-6 $19.95
www.blpress.org
l y n ne j o n eS
CoVer illuSTraTion: BoSnia & herzegoVina, The prompT rehaBiliTaTion and reConSTruCTion of houSeS
deSTroyed during The War iS a prerequiSiTe for The repaTriaTion and reTurn of aS many aS TWo million
uprooTed people, unhCr/ r. lemoyne, feBruary 1996. Blp
CoVer deSign By liSSa riVera
More praise for
Then They Started Shooting
“Beautifully illustrates the way in which people (in this case children)
actively engage with the experience of war . . . Highly original.”
—TiMes LiTerary suppLeMenT
“Out of the horror of human cruelty in the Bosnian war comes
a bright note.”
—Foreign aFFairs
“Thought-provoking and readable.”
—Library JournaL
“Careful, sensitive . . . a deeply intimate look into the emotional makeup
of children of war.”
—KirKus reviews
“Absorbing . . . offers new insights into Bosnian Serb–Muslim relations
through the eyes of children.”
—pubLishers weeKLy
“Psychiatrist Lynne Jones, working in Bosnia, discovered a striking
puzzle: most children exposed to the extreme trauma of war were not
“mentally ill.” This remarkable book not only contributes to social
history—including our understanding of the genocide in Srebrenica—
but also to psychiatry. Her astonishing work challenges the medical
model in understanding human responses to cruelty.”
—siMon baron-Cohen,
professor of Developmental psychopathology, Cambridge university, and author of
The science of evil: on empathy and the origins of Cruelty
“Part narrative, part analysis, part thoughtful reflection, this book belongs
among the classic accounts of children and war.”
—JenniFer Leaning,
M.D., s.M.h., harvard school of public health
“Lynne Jones brings to the extreme situation she describes a truly unique
combination of hands-on, communally-oriented psychiatric help;
sensitive research on the impact of war and upheaval on children; and
an astute sense of the interplay of political policies and psychological
behavior. . . . The book not only deepens our understanding of what
happened in the former Yugoslavia but contributes greatly to our more
general grasp of the consequences of death, loss, and dislocation, and the
stubborn human persistence in the face of them.”
—roberT Jay LiFTon,
author of The nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the psychology of genocide
and witness to an extreme Century
“One of the most illuminating books to have emerged out of the
embers of the Bosnian war. Few outsiders have acquired such an inside
knowledge of the thoughts and feelings of ordinary Bosnians,
on both sides of the wartime divide.”
—noeL MaLCoLM,
author of bosnia: a short history and Chairman of the bosnian institute in London
“Lynne Jones is an internationally-known expert on the effects of war on
children. Her description of the legacy of the savage war in Bosnia is a
shattering but necessary read. . . . This book should be in the knapsack of
every international administrator.”
—brenDan siMMs,
author of europe: The struggle for supremacy
Then They
Started Shooting

Children of the
Bosnian War and the
Adults They Become
Lynne Jones
Bellevue Literary Press
New York
This edition published in the United States in 2013 by
Bellevue Literary Press, New York
For Information, Contact:
Bellevue Literary Press
NYU School of Medicine
550 First Avenue
OBV A612
New York, NY 10016
Copyright © 2013 by Lynne Jones
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval
system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from
the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages
in connection with a review written for inclusion in a
magazine, newspaper, or broadcast.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
is available from the publisher upon request.
Bellevue Literary Press would like to thank all its generous
donors—individuals and foundations—for their support.
Book design and composition by Mulberry Tree Press, Inc.
Manufactured in the United States of America.
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
ISBN 978-1-934137-66-6
For Asmamaw

Contents
Maps ◆ 9
The Balkans, 1990 ◆ 9
The Balkans, 2013 ◆ 10
Bosnia-Herzegovina, 1998 ◆ 11
The Drina Valley, 1998 ◆ 12
Abbreviations ◆ 13
Introduction ◆ 17
Part One: Children in Wartime ◆ 31
1. Fighting Begins ◆ 33
2. The War Goes On ◆ 46
3. Adjusting to Peace ◆ 68
Part Two: Understanding What Happened ◆ 79
4. Why Did We Fight? ◆ 81
5. What Became of Our Neighbors? ◆ 97
6. What Country Is This? ◆ 128
7. Where Do They Come From? ◆ 148
Part Three: Psychosocial Consequences ◆ 179
8. War and Well-Being ◆ 181
9. Day after Day ◆ 198
10. Making Sense of Madness ◆ 217
Part Four: The Adults They Became ◆ 239
11. Crimes and Punishments ◆ 241
12. What They Did Next ◆ 275
Chronology ◆ 309
Notes ◆ 323
Acknowledgments ◆ 341
Index ◆ 343

Maps
The Balkans, 1990
9