Zlata's Diary

UNPROFOR is the acronym for the United Nations Protection Force, created in 1992 in response to Croatia’s war for Independence. Its role expanded into Bosnia-Herzegovina following the civil war in April of 1992. The organization’s objective was apolitical, meant only to promote enough stability within the region to enable peace talks. As such, its role was limited to defense of UN-designated safe zones throughout the region, maintaining and protecting supply chains, and safe transport between safe zones. UPROFOR was both praised and criticized following the Bosnian War. Though it enabled the continued distribution of water and food packages in Sarajevo and other besieged areas, critics argue it did not adequately protect designated safe zones. The organization was new and under strict orders not to engage unless directly attacked; consequently, soldiers on the ground were often ill prepared and inadequately supplied to fulfill their obligations.

As tensions mount in the spring of 1992, Zlata mentions the arrival of UNPROFOR, the “blue helmets,” with hope. She quickly realizes they are non-combatants. Zlata describes their role in terms of providing protection for supply transport and the accompaniment of refugee convoys leaving Sarajevo. She describes them at relief stations, where water and food packages are distributed. Later, her neighbor, Nedo, takes a job working with their transport division. His connection to the organization allows access to uncommon supplies and treats, such as soda and chocolate. He regularly brings these to Zlata, a small show of support that cheers her immensely.

UNICEF is the acronym for the United Nations Children’s Fund. Established in the aftermath of WWII to respond to the countless orphaned and displaced children, the organization continues to aid children in over 191 countries and territories, providing humanitarian support that includes vaccinations, medicine, clothing, and nutritional care. Motivated by the core belief that every child has a right to grow up in a safe and inclusive environment, UNICEF also partners with global organizations to promote policies and expand resource networks. Such endeavors include promoting gender equality, mitigating the impact of climate change, supporting children with disabilities and chronic health issues such as AIDS, and providing educational opportunities for children and their caregivers.

UNICEF played a critical role during the Bosnian War. In addition to providing life-saving medical treatment for victims of shelling and rifle fire, it also provided maternity and reproductive healthcare in the wake of infrastructure loss and the destruction of facilities (e.g., the City Maternity hospital, which Zlata reports as burning down in May of 1992). Zlata also benefits directly from UNICEF, which in addition to providing her with relief packages and holiday bundles connects her with global pen pals. The packages and letters help lift her spirits when everything else seems bleak, not least because the aid reminds her that she is not completely alone and forgotten. Fittingly, her diary’s promotion coincides with UNICEF week, a strategic maneuver on the part of the publishers that likely helped attract international interest.

Co-founder of the Serb Democratic Party in Bosnia, Bosnian Serb Radovan Karadžić went on to become the first president of the Republika Srpska, the Serbian Nationalist republic that seceded from Bosnia in 1992. Before entering politics, he was a psychiatrist. As president, he had command of the republic’s army, the VRS, including the authority to appoint, discharge, or promote officers. He faced international charges as a war criminal following the UN Tribunal investigation of Bosnia and was convicted on 10 of 11 counts relating to genocide, crimes against humanity, and violations of the laws of war. He was formally accused of commanding and initiating the Siege of Sarajevo and the Srebrenica genocide and of deliberately targeting and killing 7,500 Bosniaks.

As president of the Republika Srpska, Karadžić engaged in prewar talks and periodic diplomatic meetings throughout the war. On March 5, 1992, Zlata recounts watching a live broadcast on Yutel TV in which Karadzic calls in to argue with Bosnian Chairman Alija Izetbegovic. This event comes right after the report that 3,000 Serb-allied troops from Pale are advancing on the city with plans to attack. Zlata’s details of the exchange are sparse, coming from a child uninterested in politics, but the image of two adults in power bickering on television in a country headed toward violence illustrates The Absurdity of War. Though Zlata records the exchange with humor, it cannot erase the underlying tone of fear for the uncertain future.

First chairman of the presidency of the independent Republic of Bosnia- Herzegovina, Bosniak politician Alija Izetbegovic came to power as the ethnic tensions in Croatia between Serbs and Croats spilled into Bosnia. An activist for Muslim rights under socialist Yugoslav rule, Izetbegovic and others founded the Party of Democratic Action in 1989. Prior to this, his political activity included writing a scholarly treatise called Islamic Declaration that theorized about the creation of an ideal Islamic state. Yugoslav authorities banned the declaration and accused him and his fellow activists of reviving a nationalist group, the Young Muslims, in a conspiracy to create a pure Islamic state in Bosnia. He maintained that it was a speculative philosophical work, not a political plan.

As president, Izetbegovic negotiated with Serb and Croat parties, attempting to reconcile by setting up Bosnia as three ethnic cantons; however, he eventually withdrew support, deeming any partition of the multiethnic country unsound, and called for an independence referendum between February 29 and March 1, 1992, in an attempt to gain international recognition for Bosnian independence. International recognition would have delegitimized the Republika Srpska’s split from the rest of Bosnia, which explains the televised argument Zlata describes between Izetbegovic and Republika Srpska president, Radovan Karadžić, following the referendum. Zlata is, at the time, cautiously hopeful they will reach an agreement, unaware that the political situation has deteriorated to the point that the television argument will soon become a war.

A television personality and journalist, Goran Milić worked first in radio for Radiotelevizija Beograd, serving as a foreign reporter and then as the station’s New York correspondent. He also taught journalism at the University of Belgrade. In 1990, he went to work for Yutel, a Yugoslav televised daily newscast out of Sarajevo; there, he hosted and worked as editor-in-chief. In July 1991, he emceed the benefit concert “Yutel for Peace,” an antiwar event responding to the outbreak of war across the former Yugoslav Republic. Politically, Milić is said to have been pro-Yugoslavia, which caused his career to nosedive following a move to Croatia in the mid-1990s.

Zlata humorously describes Milić’s intervention in an argument between Serb leader Karadzic and Bosniak leader Izetbegovic on a 1991 Yutel broadcast. Zlata writes that Milić, a Croat, becomes angry with the other leaders’ argument and gets them to agree on air to meet and figure out an agreement with General Kukanjac, leader of the Yugoslav People’s Army. Zlata applauds Milić’s actions and describes the politicians as kids, creating an analogy in which Milić is the annoyed parent separating two bickering children and forcing them to shake hands.

Kukanjac was a general of the JNA, the Yugoslav People’s Army. A Serb, he oversaw JNA operations during the Siege of Sarajevo between March and July of 1992. Collusion between the Army of the Republika Srpska (VRS) and the JNA occurred through implementation of the RAM Plan, a plan to outfit Serbian paramilitaries outside of Serbia. The JNA hoped that power would eventually consolidate under Serbian socialist leader Slobodan Milošević, and the region would remain a centralized communist state.

Zlata mentions Kukanjac when she recounts the televised argument on Yutel between Republika Srpska leader Karadzic and Bosnian leader Izetbegovic. This argument follows a report of 3,000 troops marching to Sarajevo from Pale. Though Zlata does not make the connection, the JNA has armed Serb groups in Pale with arms left over from their fight in Croatia.

Born Annelies Marie Frank in 1929, Anne Frank was the daughter of Jewish German parents who moved to Amsterdam when Anne was four to escape Nazi persecution. Enrolling in school, Anne initially faced setbacks, but after learning more Dutch, she became a star student. The family settled in, and her father was eventually able to open a new business, Pectacon, specializing in the wholesale of spices, herbs, and pickling salts. In 1940, Nazis invaded the Netherlands.

Though the family attempted to emigrate to the United States, Nazi bombardment of the Rotterdam embassy destroyed their visa application. As forced deportation began, they prepared to move into hiding. From 1942 to 1944, Anne, her family, and four others lived in a secret annex behind a bookcase in her father’s Amsterdam shop. In 1944, an informant outed the group to Nazi authorities: The family was detained and transported to Auschwitz, where Anne, her mother, and her sister, Margo, were separated from her father. Later, she and Margo were sent to Bergan-Belsen, where Anne eventually died of disease. Only her father survived the Holocaust.

While living in hiding, Anne Frank recorded daily events and emotions in a diary given to her as a birthday present, which she named “Kitty.” Living through the Siege of Sarajevo, Zlata quickly sees a parallel between herself and Anne Frank. She compares the convoys of refugees leaving the city to films she has seen depicting Jewish transports in WWII. Eventually, she names her own diary “Mimmy” in a nod to Frank’s “Kitty,” recognizing that she too is recoding history unfolding around her. When her diary is selected for publication, journalists begin to visit, and they too compare her to Anne Frank. Though she initially made that connection for herself, Zlata begins to chafe at the moniker, fearing that, like Frank, she may not live to see the war to its end.

Comparison between Zlata Filipović’s work and Franks’s famous diary underscores the severity and urgency of the Bosnian War by situating it beside WWII, the most widely studied war of the modern era. The comparison also encourages action to prevent another tragic death. This urgency not only inspired repeated visits from journalists eager to spread Zlata’s story to international audiences, but also to the eventual intervention of the French Defense Minister, François Léotard, who arranged for the family’s safe extradition from Sarajevo in December of 1993.

François Léotard is a French politician. In 1977, he was elected mayor of Fréjus and then served as Deputy of Var for two terms. Rising to prominence in the 1980s, he was appointed to the cabinet as Minister of Culture from 1986 to 1988. Between 1993 and 1995, he served again on the cabinet as Minister of Defense and Minister of State, after which he worked as regional councilor of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur from 1998 to 2004. He has written several books, both nonfiction and novels, since retiring from politics.

As defense minister from 1993 to 1995, Léotard oversaw French staffing for the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Bosnia. French soldiers made up 6,000 of the UN peacekeepers in the former Yugoslav republic, the largest contingent from any country deployed. Léotard visited Sarajevo on more than one occasion. Zlata documents one such visit: In December of 1993, after UNPROFOR transports fail to pick Zlata and her family up to leave for Paris, Zlata agrees to a televised meeting with Léotard, who promises to help the family leave Sarajevo, which they did on December 23, 1993.

A French doctor, Jean-Christophe Rufin grew up hearing stories about his grandfather, a member of the French Resistance in WWII who lived through two years of imprisonment at Buchenwald. With a keen interest in human rights, Rufin was moved by the plight of children facing malnutrition and became one of the pioneers of the “without borders” movement, providing medical care to developing nations. In 1986, he did work advising the Secretary of State for Human Rights. He continued work in politics as a diplomat, serving as advisor to Defense Minister and Minister of State François Léotard.

In this capacity, it is Rufin who flies to Sarajevo to negotiate with the political powers on behalf of Zlata and her family. Zlata writes a warm thank you to Rufin for his hospitality and hard work in the last pages of her diary, understanding that his work enabled her escape.

Translating as “The Surrealists,” this is the name of a sketch comedy group from Sarajevo that started as a local Sarajevo radio group in 1979. Early episodes consisted of 15-minute segments on the Primus Program. Their popularity led to a television deal, with three complete series of the sketch show coming out by 1991.

Early segments and sketches avoided politics altogether, focusing on improvisational techniques and humorous ad-libbing, but later sketches took to black-humored lampooning of the deteriorating political situation. By the third televised series, as war was breaking out in surrounding states, sketches promoted peace by portraying increasingly absurdist sketches of the ethnic tension and UN peacekeeping.

During their first New Year’s at war, Zlata describes a get-together of family and friends. They are safe for the time being, but the mood is tense. The family turns the Nadrilisti on. Soon everyone is laughing and cracking jokes and enjoying themselves, cheered by the silliness. This much-loved comedy show provides insight into the role of humor in helping survivors remain hopeful and persevere through the war.