Siege of Sarajevo - The Siege of Sarajevo

The Siege of Sarajevo

The second half of 1992 and the first half of 1993 were the height of the siege of Sarajevo, and atrocities were committed during heavy fighting. Serb forces outside the city continuously shelled the government defenders. Inside the city, the Serbs controlled most of the major military positions and the supply of arms. With snipers taking up positions in the city, signs reading Pazite, Snajper! ("Beware, Sniper!") became commonplace and certain particularly dangerous streets, most notably Ulica Zmaja od Bosne, the main street which eventually leads to the airport, were known as "sniper alleys". The sniper killings of Admira Ismić and Boško Brkić, a couple who tried to cross the lines, became a symbol of the suffering in the city.

Bosnian Serb offensives were mounted to take over some neighborhoods, especially in Novo Sarajevo. To counterbalance the siege, on 30 May 1992 the Security Council demanded Sarajevo Airport be included in a Sarajevo security zone, which was opened to UN airlifts in late June; Sarajevo's survival became strongly dependent on them.

Compared with the siege force, the Bosnian government forces were very poorly armed. Bosnian black market criminals who joined the army at the outset of the war illegally smuggled arms into the city through Serb lines, and raids on Serb-held positions within the city yielded more. The Sarajevo Tunnel, completed in mid-1993, was a major asset in bypassing the international arms embargo (applied to all parties to the Bosnian conflict, including the defenders of Sarajevo). It helped supplies and weaponry reach the city's defenders, and enabled some inhabitants to leave. The tunnel was said to have saved Sarajevo.

Reports indicated an average of approximately 329 shell impacts per day during the course of the siege, with a maximum of 3,777 on 22 July 1993. This urbicide by shellfire extensively damaged the city's structures, both residential and cultural. By September 1993 it was estimated that virtually all the buildings in Sarajevo had suffered some degree of damage, and 35,000 were completely destroyed. Among buildings targeted and destroyed were hospitals and medical complexes, media and communication centers, industrial complexes, government buildings and military and UN facilities. Other significant buildings damaged or destroyed included the presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the National Library, which was set on fire and burned to the ground, destroying thousands of irreplaceable texts.

The shelling took a heavy toll on residents. Mass killings of civilians, primarily by mortar attacks, made headline news in the West. On 1 June 1993, 11 people were killed and 133 were wounded in an attack on a football game. On 12 July, 12 people were killed while waiting in line for water.

The biggest single loss of life was the first Markale marketplace massacre on 5 February 1994, in which 68 civilians were killed and 200 were wounded. Medical facilities were overwhelmed by the scale of the civilian casualties, and only a small number of the wounded benefited from medical evacuation programmes like 1993's Operation Irma.