Zlata's Diary

Also referred to as Bairam Kurban, this is a Muslim festival called the Feast of the Sacrifice that marks the beginning of Eid al-Adha, which traditionally coincides with the end of the Hajj (the pilgrimage to Mecca). In Bosnia, this is a secular holiday in which schools are closed for celebration, indicating the prevalence of Muslim families in Sarajevo, as well as the integration of cultures.

This is the name of a historical neighborhood in Sarajevo where several mosques, synagogues, and Orthodox churches coexist, symbolic of Bosnia’s potential for peace and reconciliation. It was one of the first areas targeted by artillery fire. Zlata fearfully describes the neighborhood’s destruction by shelling on April 6, 1992, the official start of the war.

This is a political term of mixed connotation that since the Bosnian War has become a political pejorative and slur against ethnic Serbs. The name was first used by the loose association of Serbian nationalist guerilla forces that resisted German occupation and Croat collaboration in WWII and that later fought against the socialist Yugoslav Partisans in a civil war.

After the dissolution of Yugoslavia, Serbian nationalists used the term in reference to various paramilitary groups working to further the agenda of the Bosnian Serb Republika Srpska.