From Bosnia to Brisbane: what child refugee Jasmina Joldić learned about peace, hate and the fragility of society

The 30th anniversary of the Dayton Accords, which put an end to the war in Bosnia, leads Joldić to reflect on the nature of imperfect peace

Jasmina Joldić was nine when she found out she was born into a religion.

Her mother, Selma, was trying to explain to little Jasmina and her older sister, Amela, why their father had been taken away by armed men.

“I didn’t know who I was, or what I was, until the war started,” Joldić says of the labels that would – she realised in an instant on that day her Tata was taken away – put a violent end to an idyllic childhood.

Until that moment, Enver and Selma Joldić had been shielding their two young daughters from a state and society that was collapsing around them.