Extreme Case of Crisis: Definitions of War Violence in Narratives of Survivors from the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina : Ekstremni slučaj krize: Definicije ratnog nasilja u pričama preživjelih iz rata u Bosni i Hercegovini

The starting point of this article is the war that took place in northwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina and more specifi cally interpersonal interpretations of violence and the biographical impact of war-time violence. Serbian soldiers and police targeted their use of violent force directly against the civilian populations in northwestern Bosnia. In their quest to expel Bosniacs and Croats from this area, Serbian soldiers and police used mass executions, forced flight, systematic rape, and concentration camps. The aim of this article is to analyze how the survivors describe war-time violence and which discursive patterns emerge in the construction of the category “war violence.” My questions are as follows: How do the interviewees describe wartime violence? Which categories of violence are highlighted in the stories? How do war survivors describe sexual violence and other sexual abuse during the war? In this study, I seek to touch on the phenomenon “war violence” by analyzing the narratives of the informants, namely their descriptions in relation to themselves and others. This analysis will show that the interpretation of the biographical consequences of war violence is intimately related to the subject’s own war experiences. In the following, I try to highlight how the creation of the concept “war violence” is made visible when the interviewees, in the empirical material, talk about (1) a new social order in society, (2) human suffering, (3) sexual violence, and (4) slaughter of humans.Polazna točka ovog članka je rat koji je održan u sjeverozapadnoj Bosni i Hercegovini te posebno interpersonalna interpretacija nasilja i biografski utjecaj ratnog nasilja. Srpski vojnici i policajci ciljano su vršili nasilje nad civilnoim stanovništvom u sjeverozapadnoj Bosni. U svojoj namjeri da se Bošnjaci i Hrvati istjeraju s tog područja, srpski vojnici i policajci koristili su masovne egzekucije, tjeranje na bijeg, sustavno silovanje i koncentracione logore. Cilj ovog članka je analizirati kako preživjeli opisuju ratna nasilja te diskurzivne obrasce koji se pojavljuju u konstrukciji kategorije “ratnog nasilja.” Moja pitanja su kako slijedi: Kako ispitanici opisuju ratna nasilja? Koje kategorije nasilja su istaknute u pričama? Kako preživjeli opisuju seksualno nasilje i oblike seksualnog zlostavljanja tijekom rata? U ovoj studiji, želim dotaći fenomen “ratnog nasilja” kroz analizu priča ispitanika, odnosno njihove opise te odnose među njima. Ova analiza će pokazati da je interpretacija biografskih posljedica ratnog nasilja blisko povezana s osobnim ratnim iskustvima ispitanika. U nastavku ću pokušati istaći kako stvaranje koncepta“ratnog nasilja” postaje vidljivo kad sugovornici u empirijskom materijalu govore o (1) novom društvenom poretku, (2) ljudskoj patnji, (3 ) seksualnom nasilju i (4) ubijanju ljudi.