Today marks the 34th anniversary of the beginning of the siege of Sarajevo, which lasted 1,425 days. It was one of the longest sieges in the history of modern warfare and the longest siege of a single capital ever. The siege of Sarajevo began on April 5, 1992, and ended on February 29, 1996, and lasted almost four years.
About 350,000 inhabitants of Sarajevo were exposed to daily fire from members of the former Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) and paramilitary formations, and later members of the then Army of the Republika Srpska, from almost all types of weapons, from positions located on the surrounding hills. They did not succeed in capturing the city only thanks to the great will, desire and efforts of the defenders, the majority of citizens who responded to the call for defense, and at first, almost bare-handed, in sneakers and jeans, with minimal weapons, stood up to the defenders of the city.
On average, 329 missiles were fired at Sarajevo per day. About 50,000 tons of artillery shells were fired at the city.
During the siege, 11,541 citizens of Sarajevo died, including 1,601 children. According to post-war research, most of the inhabitants, almost four fifths of the total number of dead, died in the first two years of the war.
Suada Dilberović and Olga Sučić, Sarajevo heroines
The first civilian victims of the siege of Sarajevo were Suada Dilberović and Olga Sučić, who were killed on April 5 on the Vrbanja bridge, not far from the building of the then Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in front of which the demonstrations of citizens demanding the preservation of peace took place and were opened fire on. This bridge is now named after them – Suada and Olga Bridge.
The last victim of the siege of Sarajevo was Mirsada Durić, who was killed in an attack on a tram on January 9, 1996, near the building of the National Museum. The perpetrators of the attack, which took place on the first day of the tram launch after the signing of the Peace Agreement for Bosnia and Herzegovina, have never been discovered.
During the siege of Sarajevo, cultural, religious, educational and residential buildings, as well as markets, and queues for bread and water were shelled daily.
The National and University Library, better known as the Town Hall building, the main Post Office, the Zetra Olympic Hall, the Olympic Museum, the Oriental Institute, the building of the daily newspaper “Oslobođenje”, the city maternity hospital “Zehra Muidović” were completely destroyed and burned.
The market and the closed market of Markale were shelled on two occasions. For the first time, since the explosion of a grenade at the Markale market on February 5, 1994, 68 civilians were killed and 144 were wounded. In the massacre at the very end of the war, on August 28, 1995, near the Markale City Market, 43 civilians were killed and 84 were wounded.
Artillery projectiles also killed citizens in the bread lines. The point, to which bread from Velepekara was brought, was located in Vase Miskina Street (today’s Ferhadija), across the street from the City Market. In that massacre, 22 civilians were killed and 144 were wounded.
Some buildings, such as the building of the Radiotelevision of Bosnia and Herzegovina, were targeted by the so-called with modified aerial bombs weighing up to 250 kilograms, about which there are testimonies and reports of ballistic experts from the trial for crimes committed in the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
Throughout the siege, there were rare periods when there was electricity in Sarajevo. There was almost no water.
The citizens of Sarajevo went through special horrors during the winter when, along with all the suffering and the lack of food, electricity and water, there was also a lack of firewood. All of this was the reason that many trees were cut down in Sarajevo during the war, while many families were left without furniture, clothes and books that were used for some kind of warming.
Many citizens of Sarajevo were killed or wounded by sniper shots, in their homes or while crossing city intersections.
Indictments and verdicts
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia sentenced Stanislav Galić, the former commander of the Sarajevo-Romanian Corps of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS), to life imprisonment for terrorizing the citizens of Sarajevo.
Dragomir Milošević, Galić’s successor at the head of the Sarajevo-Romania Corps of the VRS, was sentenced to 29 years in prison.
For terrorizing civilians in Sarajevo with sniper and artillery attacks, among other things, the former president of Republika Srpska and military leader of the VRS Radovan Karadžić was sentenced to life imprisonment.
VRS commander Ratko Mladić was sentenced to the same prison sentence in the first instance before the Hague Tribunal, among other things, for terrorizing civilians in Sarajevo with sniper and artillery attacks.
In the judgments of the ICTY, it was established that units of the Sarajevo-Romanian VRS Corps deliberately targeted civilians, conducting a campaign of terror aimed at putting pressure on the authorities in Sarajevo.
