Siege of Sarajevo

Siege of Sarajevo
	Part of the Bosnian War
	; Bosnian government parliament building burns after being hit by Serbian tank fire
Date	April 5 1992 - February 29 1996
Location	Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Result	Serbs withdrew due to Dayton peace agreement
Belligerents
ARBiH (1992-95); NATO (1995)	JNA (1992); VRS (1992-95)
Commanders and leaders
Jovan Divjak; Mustafa Hajrulahović; Vahid Karavelić; Nedžad Ajnadžić	Stanislav Galić (1992-94); Dragomir Milošević (1994-95);
Strength
40,000 (1992)	30,000-50,000 (1992)
Casualties and losses
	More than 12,000 killed and 50,000 wounded (85% of them civilians)

The Siege of Sarajevo was the longest siege in the history of modern warfare, lasting from April 5 1992 to February 29 1996.

It was fought during the Bosnian War between the forces of the Bosnian government, who had declared independence from Yugoslavia, and the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and Bosnian Serb forces (VRS), who sought to destroy the newly-independent state of Bosnia and Herzegovina and create the Serbian state of Republika Srpska (RS). It is estimated that more than 12,000 people were killed and 50,000 wounded during the siege, 85% of them civilians. Because of killing and forced migration, the population decreased in 1995 to 334,663 (64% of the prewar population).[1]

Warfare

Build-up

From its creation following World War II, the government of Yugoslavia kept a close watch on nationalism among the Yugoslav peoples, as it could have led to chaos and the breakup of the state. With longtime Marshal Tito's death in 1980, this policy took a dramatic reversal. Serbian nationalists, led by Slobodan Milošević pushed for change in state structure and government that would give an advantage to the Serbs. This in turn led to a rise in power among nationalist political groups among the other peoples. As Milošević pushed his agenda, his counterparts responded likewise and tension escalated.

Fearing a Serb-dominated Yugoslavia, Croatia and Slovenia each declared their independence in 1991. Without the two main non-Serb republics in the federation, the possibility of Serb domination in any future "Yugoslavia" was even greater. On March 1, 1992, the Bosnian government held a referendum on independence. The Bosnian Croats and Bosniaks mostly voted in favor of independence, while Bosnian Serbs boycotted the referendum, considering it unconstitutional. 66% of eligible voters went to the polls, and 99% of those voted for independence, leading to the Bosnian parliament declaring the republic's independence on April 5, 1992. The European community agreed to recognize Bosnia as an independent state on April 6. Before they could officially do that however, war began.

Start of the war

The first casualty of war is a point of contention between Serbs and Bosniaks. Serbs contend that the first casualty was Serb Nikola Gardović, a groom's father killed at a Serb wedding procession on the first day of the referendum, March 1, 1992. Bosniaks contend that this was one of a number of politically oriented killings in the first quarter of that year.

On April 5, the day of the declaration of independence, massive peace marches took place in the city, with the largest group of protesters moving towards the parliament building. At that point, Serb gunmen fired upon the crowd from the Serbian Democratic Party headquarters, killing two persons. These persons, Suada Dilberović and Olga Sučić, are considered by Bosniaks to be the first casualties of the war in Bosnia and the siege of Sarajevo. Today, the bridge where they were killed is named in their honor.

On the same day, Serb paramilitaries attacked the Sarajevo police academy, commanding strategic positions in Vraca, high above the city.

The siege

In the months leading up to the war, the JNA forces in the region began to mobilize in the hills surrounding the city. Artillery and various other equipment that would prove key in the future besieging of the city was implemented at this time. In April of 1992, the Bosnian government demanded that the government of Yugoslavia remove these forces. Milošević's government agreed to withdraw those forces who were not of Bosnian nationality, an insignificant number. Those Bosnian Serb forces in the army were transferred to the VRS, which had declared independence from Bosnia a few days after Bosnia itself seceded from Yugoslavia.

File:May21992.JPG

A map of the initial JNA attack on May 2, 1992

On May 2, 1992, a complete blockade of the city was officially established by the Bosnian Serb forces. Major roads leading into the city were blocked, as were shipments of food and medicine. Utilities such as water, electricity, and heating were cut off. The number of Serbian forces around Sarajevo, although better armed, was greatly inferior in number to the Bosnian defenders within the city. Hence, after the failure of initial attempts to take over the city by the attacks of JNA's armored columns, the besieging forces continuously bombarded and weakened the city from the mountains, fortified into at least two hundred reinforced positions and bunkers.

The Bosnian government forces were only lightly armed and many had no weapons at all. By April 1995 there were only 20 artillery pieces and five tanks in the defence of the city (three WWII-era tanks and two T-55's), and the heaviest artillery pieces it had were just eight 120 mm and four 105 mm guns. The strength of the First Corps lay in its considerable supplies of rocket-propelled grenade launchers and anti-aircraft missile launchers with some anti-tank missiles of the Red Star type, but they could not really be used in the offensive actions needed to break out of Sarajevo.[2]

Norwegian UN soldier at Sarajevo airport in a photo by Mikhail Evstafiev

To counterbalance the siege, the Sarajevo Airport was opened to United Nations (UN) airlifts in late June of 1992. Sarajevo's survival became strongly dependent on them.

Vedran Smailović playing the cello in the partially destroyed National Library in 1992 in Sarajevo. Photo by Mikhail Evstafiev

The second half of 1992 and first half of 1993 were the height of the Siege of Sarajevo. Various atrocities were committed during heavy fighting. Serbian forces from outside the city continuously shelled the government defenders. Meanwhile, some Serbs from inside the city had joined the besiegers' cause. Most of the major military positions and arms supplies within the city were in Serbian control. Snipers roamed the city all over as Pazite, Snajper! ("Beware, Sniper!") became a common sign. Some streets were so dangerous to cross or use that they became known as "sniper alleys". Some neighborhoods of the city were taken over by the Serbs, especially in Novo Sarajevo, as Serbian offensives into parts of the city were met with success.

The city defenders had inferior weaponry to the besiegers, but the raids and captures on Serb held positions within the city greatly helped the cause. Some Bosnian black market criminals who had joined the army at the outset of the war illegally smuggled arms into the city through Serb lines.

Civilian funeral. Photo by Mikhail Evstafiev

Reports indicate an average of approximately 329 shell impacts per day during the course of the siege, with a high of 3,777 shell impacts on July 22 1993. The shellfire caused extensive damage to the city's structures, including civilian and cultural property. By September 1993, reports concluded that virtually all buildings in Sarajevo had suffered some degree of damage, and 35,000 were completely destroyed. Among these buildings targeted and destroyed were hospitals and medical complexes, media and communication centers, industrial targets, government buildings, and military and UN facilities. Some of the more significant of these were the building of the presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the National Library, which burned to the ground along with thousands of irreplaceable texts.

Evacuation of a wounded civilian. Photo by Mikhail Evstafiev

File:Siege-de-sarajevo-soldats-bosniaques.jpg

Bosnian sniper hunter armed with Zastava M76 sniper rifle

The shelling of the city took a tremendous toll on lives. Mass killings due primarily to mortar shell impacts made headline news in the West. On June 1 1993, 15 people were killed and 80 injured during a soccer game. On July 12 of the same year, 12 people were killed while in line for water. The biggest of these however was the Markale marketplace massacre, in which Bosniaks alleged that Serb militants killed 68 civilians and wounded 200 others. The Serbs claimed that the Bosniaks carried out the attack themselves in order to blame it on the Serbs and convince the West to interfere militarily on their behalf. A number of investigations were conducted to determine who was responsible. The investigations contradicted each other, sometimes placing the blame on the Serbs, sometimes on the Bosniaks, and other times being inconclusive. The investigation by the UN was inconclusive [3] although an ICTY judge convicted a Serbian commander for several war crimes including the Markale massacre based on another study.

UN peacekeepers in Sarajevo. Photo by Mikhail Evstafiev

In response to the Markale Market massacre, the UN issued an ultimatum to Serb forces to withdraw heavy weaponry beyond a certain point in a given amount of time or face air strikes. Near the end of the given time, Serb forces complied. City shelling drastically decreased at that point, which could perhaps be seen as the beginning of the end.

Rays of hope began to arise. The Sarajevo Tunnel was completed in mid 1993, which allowed supplies to come into the city, and people to get out. The tunnel was one of the major ways of bypassing the international arms embargo and providing the city defenders with weaponry. In effect, it is said the tunnel saved Sarajevo. The Bosnian forces also used this tunnel to move captured Serbian soldiers into military prisons.

In 1995, international forces firmly turned against the besiegers. Serb forces raided a UN-monitored weapons collection site, which prompted NATO jets to attack Serb ammunition depots. Fighting continued, as the Serbs slowly lost more and more ground. Heating, electricity, and water would eventually come back to the city as well.

A cease fire was reached in October 1995, and the Dayton Agreement was reached later that year bringing peace to the country. A period of stabilization and return to normalcy followed, with the Bosnian government not officially declaring the siege of Sarajevo over until February 29, 1996.

Aftermath

File:Bloodpave.jpg

Scars remain across the city, serving as poignant reminders of the destruction

Sarajevo was heavily damaged during those four years. The siege of Sarajevo was undoubtedly the worst and most catastrophic period in the city's history since World War I. Prior to the siege, the city was experiencing tremendous growth and development. The 1984 Winter Olympics had brought back some of the glory Sarajevo hadn't seen since the late 17th century. The warfare put a stop to all of this, taking the city back to a desolated state of destruction.

The city used to be a model for inter-ethnic relations, but the siege of Sarajevo inspired dramatic population shifts. Aside from the thousands of refugees who left the city, an immense number of Sarajevo Serbs left for the Republika Srpska as well. The percentage of Serbs in Sarajevo decreased from more than 30% in 1991 to slightly over 10% in 2002. Regions of Novo Sarajevo that are now part of the Republika Srpska have formed East Sarajevo (Serbian Sarajevo), where a good deal of the pre-war Serbian population lives today. Some Serbs that remained in Sarajevo were treated harshly by refugees returning to their homes, significantly so in Ilidža.

Since the gloomy desolate years of the early 1990s, Sarajevo has made tremendous progress, and is well on its way to recovery as a modern European capital^{[citation needed]}. By 2004 most of the damage done to buildings during the siege was fixed. New construction projects have made Sarajevo perhaps the fastest growing city in the former Yugoslavia. Sarajevo's metro-area population in 2002 was around 401,000, which was 20,000 less than the population of the city itself in 1991. With its current growth and reconstruction, Sarajevo may one day in the not so distant future return to its late 1980s form and is clearly on the fast track to recovery, but the scars of the siege of Sarajevo on its history may never fully disappear.

Ethnic cleansing

The Serb forces carried out a vicious campaign of ethnic cleansing in the parts of the city occupied by them during the siege. The non-nationalist Serb were also targets of violence. In The Bridge Betrayed: Religion and Genocide in Bosnia, Michael A. Sells wrote:

Serbs who refused to participate in the persecution of Muslims were killed. In a Serb-army occupied area of Sarajevo, Serb militants killed a Serb officer who objected to atrocities against civilians; they left his body on the street for over a week as an object lesson. During one of the 'selections' carried out by Serb militants in Sarajevo, an old Serb named Ljubo objected to being separated out from his Muslim friends and neighbors; they beat him to death on the spot.

After several years in the 1990s characterised by denial of the widely held view of the Serb role in the Yugoslav wars, a trend has developed in the 2000s where Serb nationalists have attempted to draw Bosniak and Croat parallels to such infamous examples of atrocities as Srebrenica. Regarding Sarajevo, the typical claim is that between 1992 and 1995, 150,000 Serbs were ethnically cleansed from Sarajevo, with several thousand killed. The allegations were brought to the media forefront in early 2005 when the Prime Minister of RS, Pero Bukejlović, claimed that genocide was committed against Serbs during the siege of Sarajevo that exceeded that of the Srebrenica massacre.

Today, Sarajevo citizens of all nationalities generally take accusations of ethnic cleansing by the government forces in Sarajevo during the war as a highly offensive insult. In response to premier Bukejlović's statement, many have demanded a public apology to all Sarajevo citizens. The president of the Serb Citizens Council, Mirko Pejanović, stated:

Nobody, not even Bukejlović, can change or cover up the truth for the sake of current political needs. In Sarajevo, during the four year siege carried out by Karadžić's military forces and the SDS, there were deaths of Sarayevians of all ethnicities. The people were both suffering and dying from hunger, cold, they were being killed by mortar shells... among the 12,000 killed Sarayevians recorded in the war, at least one fourth were members of the Serb nation or had Serb ethnic ancestry. Thus, we can not talk of an extermination or genocide of Serbs, but of a responsibility of the SDS and Karadžić's military forces for the overall extermination of Sarajevo and Sarayevians, and within that of the Serb people.

Siege of Sarajevo in documentaries and art

The former building of Sarajevo newspaper *Oslobođenje*. For years after the siege it remained as a memorial

Đavo u Sarajevu (Devil in Sarajevo), a book by Nenad Veličković
Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24, a song by Savatage and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Dead Winter Dead, a rock-opera by Savatage, 1995
Fax From Sarajevo, a comic-art by Joe Kubert [4]
Fools Rush In: A True Story of Love, War, and Redemption, by Bill Carter [5]
Miss Sarajevo, a song by U2 under the pseudonym "Passengers"
My Childhood Under Fire: A Sarajevo Diary by Nadja Halilbegovich
Natasha's Story, a book by Michael Nicholson
Pretty Birds, by Scott Simon, 2005
Savršeni krug (The Perfect Circle), a film by Ademir Kenović
Sarajevo Tango, a comic-art by Hermann Huppen
Shot through the heart, a TV film by David Attwood
Regarding The Pain Of Others, by Susan Sontag
Remember Sarajevo, a book by Roger Richards [6]
Romeo and Juliet in Sarajevo, a PBS Frontline documentary
The Question of Bruno, stories by Aleksandar Hemon
Welcome To Sarajevo, a war movie by Michael Winterbottom
Witness from Sarajevo, by Boris Jug [7]
Zlata's Diary, a book by Zlata Filipovic

Notes

^ April 5, 1992 was the date of the first attack on Sarajevo by the JNA and Serb paramilitaries and is as such considered the beginning of the siege. However as early as March 1, 1992 barricades and and armed gunmen started appearing on the streets of Sarajevo.
^ February 29, 1996 was the official end to the siege as declared by the Bosnian government. The war ended with the signing of the Dayton Accords on November 21, 1995 and the Paris Protocol on December 14, 1995. The reason that the siege was not declared as over was because the Serbs had not yet implemented the Dayton deal which required them to withdraw from areas north and west of Sarajevo as well as other parts of the city. The Serbs also violated the Dayton peace by firing a rocket propelled grenade at a Sarajevo tram on January 9, 1996 killing 1 and wounding 19.

External links

Final report of the United Nations Commission of Experts on the Siege of Sarajevo
An incomplete list of persons killed during the siege.
Survival Map of Sarajevo
Photos of Siege of Sarajevo
Radovan Karadzicc $5 million Reward - The U.S. Government is offering $5 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Radovan Karadzic
Ratko Mladic $5 million Reward - The U.S. Government is offering $5 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Ratko Mladic

[1] April 5, 1992 was the date of the first attack on Sarajevo by the JNA and Serb paramilitaries and is as such considered the beginning of the siege. However as early as March 1, 1992 barricades and and armed gunmen started appearing on the streets of Sarajevo.

[2] February 29, 1996 was the official end to the siege as declared by the Bosnian government. The war ended with the signing of the Dayton Accords on November 21, 1995 and the Paris Protocol on December 14, 1995. The reason that the siege was not declared as over was because the Serbs had not yet implemented the Dayton deal which required them to withdraw from areas north and west of Sarajevo as well as other parts of the city. The Serbs also violated the Dayton peace by firing a rocket propelled grenade at a Sarajevo tram on January 9, 1996 killing 1 and wounding 19.

[1]

[2]