During the Bosnian War, armed forces expelled civilians from territories claimed for ethnically homogeneous states. Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs were displaced, although Bosniak civilians suffered the largest organised campaign, including detention, sexual violence and the Srebrenica genocide. Sarajevo endured a prolonged siege as millions fled or became internally displaced.

Bosnian writers such as Semezdin Mehmedinović and Aleksandar Hemon wrote about siege, exile and fragmented identity. Poetry and testimony preserved ordinary life amid destruction and challenged nationalist attempts to erase Bosnia's plural culture.