The early 1990s were, to say the least, a turbulent time for the people groups in the old Yugoslavia. The causes for Yugoslavia descending into civil war are complex and have their roots hundreds of years ago, but the three main causes are generally given as:
- the death in 1980 of Josip Tito, the Yugoslav dictator, who held the various ethnic groups in the country together partially due to the force of his personality, and partially due to terror, and which created a vacuum for ethnic aspirations to be pursued
- the economy of the socialist country tanking, causing a gradual slide into financial hardship with unemployment rates close to 70% in many parts of the country
- historical enmity between the catholic Croats, the orthodox Serbs, and the muslim Bosnians going back to Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian times, but more particularly to the winners and losers from the first and second world wars coming to dominate the other groups
By June 1991 Slovenia had had enough of propping up the country, and declared independence. They were recognised quickly by the international community, and only fought a 10 day war against the predominantly Serb forces of Yugoslavia.
Emboldened by this, Croatia also declared independence in June 1991, and received international recognition in January 1992, although Croatia had to fight an on-going war with Serbia until August 1995, coinciding with the end of the Bosnian War.
That left the Bosnians as the only large non-Serbian group left in the remains of Yugoslavia, and on 15 October 1991 Bosnia and Herzegovina declared their sovereignty, following it with a referendum on the 1st March 1992 which received overwhelming support. Bosnia and Herzegovina received international recognition on 6 April 1992, but Serbia couldn’t stomach losing it’s last and least powerful territory, and believing that they had a realistic chance of stopping it, surrounded and besieged the capital, Sarajevo.
So began the Siege of Sarajevo, the longest of a capital city in the history of modern warfare – 1425 days – until 29 February 1996, three times longer than the Battle of Stalingrad.
The Serbs encircled Sarajevo with a siege force of 13,000 stationed in the surrounding hills. From there they assaulted the city with artillery, tanks and small arms, averaging over 300 shells per day. From 2 May 1992, the Serbs blockaded the city. The Bosnian government defence forces inside the city numbered some 70,000 troops, but were poorly equipped and unable to break the siege.
A total of 13,952 people were killed during the siege, including 5,434 civilians.
The blockade meant that civilians, forces personnel, weapons, ammunition, food, oil and other supplies could not enter the city for almost 4 years, and many people starved or froze to death.
Eventually, in June 1993, after the siege had been going a year, a single, small tunnel was dug under the airport, connecting the city with a UN held area on the other side of the airport. Only 340 metres long, around 1.8 metres high and less than 1 metre wide, it probably saved the city. When it wasn’t full of water, it was used to ferry supplies and injured personnel in and out of the city – around 300 tonnes a day.
The US and NATO were physically and politically exhausted from fighting the first Gulf War, and of course Russia decided to support and arm the Serbs, threatening to escalate the conflict if the US became involved. So, with UN vetoes flying around, the small number of UN forces in the city were only permitted to provide humanitarian assistance without intervening, and the killing continued.
The biggest single loss of life was on 5 February 1994, in which 68 civilians were killed and 200 were wounded by Serbian shells that fell on the city marketplace.
Finally, the day after the marketplace massacre, UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali formally requested NATO conduct air strikes against artillery and mortar positions in and around Sarajevo that were responsible for attacks against civilian targets.
Throughout 1994 and 1995 as the international community became more involved, and their own forces started being killed, NATO and UN responses were stepped up, and the Serbs lost the initiative. However, in many ways the worst incidents occurred as their influence waned and they gradually withdrew, doing as much damage as they could in the process.
Worst was probably the Srebrenica massacre in July 1995, when Serbian forces massacred more than 8,000 Bosnians, mainly men and boys, in and around the enclave of Srebrenica.
Finally, with all of the atrocities, it became pretty much the Serbs vs the rest of the world. From July 1995, the Serbs were slowly driven back in Sarajevo and elsewhere, which eventually allowed the city’s heating, electricity and water supplies to be restored. A ceasefire was reached in October 1995, and on 14 December, the Dayton Agreement brought peace to the country and led to stabilisation.
Today we visited many of the sights within the city, including the marketplace, and viewed something rather unique to the city – Sarajevo Roses – where the concrete scar caused by a mortar shell’s explosion was later filled with red resin. Our guide on the ‘Scars and Smiles’ tour was a child during the siege, and suffered from post traumatic stress syndrome.
Will the scars ever heal? Could it descend into that kind of madness again? I guess it could, but while the economic conditions continue to be favourable for each of the new countries, and while tourists and foreign investors continue to come, the conditions needed to find and punish a scapegoat may not return. Over a generation or two, tolerance may be restored and become more robust. However, the roots of the conflict go back hundreds of years, and the more recent events have only added to the bad blood between neighbours. We can only hope for the best.
Sarajevo Rose
Meme at the Childrens Fountain
Sarajevo Brewery