On this day 33 years ago, Sarajevo was defended. Dramatic photographs and footage of burning trams on Skenderija and the explosion of a grenade on the corner of Dalmatinska and Titova Streets, across from the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina building, went around the world.
It will forever be remembered that on May 2, 1992, units of the former Yugoslav People’s Army, together with Serbian paramilitary formations, attacked the city in order to seize the state Presidency building and destroy the leadership of the independent and sovereign Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The fighting culminated in Skenderija at 1:00 p.m., where units of the then Territorial Defense and the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the help of numerous patriots, managed to stop the aggressor’s tanks and armored personnel carriers with superhuman efforts, repelled the attack and thus prevented the capture of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
At that time, citizens did not really know what was happening. The intensity of the shooting and explosions made it clear that this was not the usual gunfire and sporadic shelling of Sarajevo. The Main Post Office in Sarajevo was also set on fire, and 45,600 telephone lines were out of service. A significant number of citizens in the municipalities of Stari Grad and Centar were left without contact with their loved ones in other parts of the city, as well as without telephone connections to the rest of the world.
On the same day, members of the former JNA captured the then President of the Presidency of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Alija Izetbegović, and his delegation at Sarajevo Airport, who were returning from negotiations in Lisbon. They were then taken to Lukavica, from where, during the fiercest fighting, connections were established with Radio Television Sarajevo.
In fact, it was only in the newscast of the then Sarajevo Television, hosted by Senad Hadžifejzović, that the citizens and the world public learned that the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina had been attacked, that the JNA Command in Sarajevo was surrounded, that the president of the state was in captivity, that the city was being destroyed by all artillery weapons, and that negotiations were being held through the media on a ceasefire and an exchange of prisoners.
On May 2, 1992, the Main Post Office building on the Coast was set on fire with grenades and incendiary ammunition from the hills around Sarajevo, which completely burned down, disabling telephone communication in the city. 45,600 telephone connections were out of service.
All of this was a prelude to what would happen the following day, May 3, when the JNA began withdrawing units from the barracks in the old part of the city, on Bistrik, and after arduous negotiations, Alija Izetbegović was exchanged for the commander of the 2nd Military District of the JNA, Milutin Kukanjac.
The capture of the Presidency building was prevented, but the siege of the Bosnian capital, in full view of the entire world, lasted for more than 1,400 days, during which the citizens of Sarajevo were killed by mortar shells, sniper shots, anti-aircraft weapons, starved, tortured by interruptions in the supply of water, electricity and natural gas, and starved.
However, the persistence to defend the city and the desire to survive won out and Sarajevo never fell into the hands of the aggressors.
The enemy, who was constantly on the surrounding hills, constantly keeping the population under sniper fire and shelling both civilians and buildings, did not manage to penetrate the city until the end of the war.
During the siege, 11,541 citizens of Sarajevo died, including 1,601 children. According to post-war research, the largest number of residents, almost four-fifths of the total number of deaths, died in the first two years of the war.
In history and the culture of remembrance, May 2, 1992, will forever remain inscribed as one of the key dates for the survival of the independent and sovereign state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is also a message and a legacy to future generations – to preserve what the Bosnian patriots preserved with so much heart, faith and strength, while at the same time preserving the tradition of neighborhood and openness that Sarajevo, as the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, inherited even after the brutal aggression, Federalna writes.
