Zlata Filipovic was a teenager in Sarajevo - and her diary of life under siege touched the world. Now, 20 years later, she says the lessons of that terror still have not been learnt.
Zlata Filipovic wrote her diary from 1991 to 1993 during the Bosnian war Photo: EDDIE MULHOLLAND
7:07PM BST 07 Apr 2012
Twenty years ago this week, as the bombs began raining down on Sarajevo, Zlata Filipovic wanted to escape. Cowering with her family in the basement of their house, frozen with fear, she dreamed of peace and freedom.
Two decades later, Miss Filipovic, now 31, says those dreams of peace are still the same for her generation of young Bosnians. And, as in the early 1990s, young people again want to escape Sarajevo.
Two decades later, Miss Filipovic, now 31, says those dreams of peace are still the same for her generation of young Bosnians. And, as in the early 1990s, young people again want to escape Sarajevo.
"I really worry that it is going to erupt again," she said. "There is still so much ethnic hatred and resentment.
"The majority of my friends are leaving or have already left. There is no work, no hope, and no future there."
Miss Filipovic is among the most well known of Sarajevo's exiles. In 1991, aged 11, she began keeping a diary. "I wanted it to be funny, like Adrian Mole," she explained.
FOR THE FULL ARTICLE CLICK HERE: Zlata Filipovic, whose journal was Sarajevo's answer to Anne Frank's diary, tells of her fears for Bosnia today - Telegraph
