Today marks the 33rd 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 capital city ever.
The Siege of Sarajevo began on April 5, 1992, and ended on February 29, 1996. It lasted almost four years.
Around 350,000 residents 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 Republika Srpska, with almost all types of weapons, from positions located on the surrounding hills. They were unable to take the city only thanks to the enormous will, desire and efforts of the defenders, mostly citizens who responded to the call to defend, and at first almost bare-handed, in sneakers and jeans, with minimal weapons, stood on the city’s ramparts.
On average, 329 shells were fired at Sarajevo daily. A total of 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, the largest number of residents, almost four-fifths of the total number of deaths, died in the first two years of the war.
First civilian casualties
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 demonstrations of citizens demanding the preservation of peace were taking place and who were fired upon. This bridge is now named after them – the Bridge of Suada and Olga.
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 National Museum. The perpetrators of the attack, which occurred on the first day of the tram service after the signing of the Peace Agreement for Bosnia and Herzegovina, were never discovered.
During the siege, cultural, religious, educational, residential buildings, as well as markets, bread and water lines, were shelled daily.
The National and University Library, better known as the City Hall building, the main Post Office, the Zetra Olympic Hall, the Olympic Museum, the Oriental Institute, the building of the daily newspaper “Oslobođenje” in Nedžarići, and the city maternity hospital “Zehra Muidović” in the Jezero settlement were completely destroyed and burned.
The Markale market and closed market were shelled twice. The first time, when a grenade exploded at the Markale market on February 5, 1994, 68 civilians were killed and 144 wounded. In the massacre at the very end of the war, on August 28, 1995, at the Markale City Market, 43 civilians were killed and 84 were wounded.
Artillery shells also killed citizens in the bread queues. The point to which bread was delivered from the Velepekara was located on Vase Miskina Street (today’s Ferhadija), across from the City Market. In that massacre, 22 civilians were killed and 144 were wounded.
Some objects, such as the building of the Radio and Television of Bosnia and Herzegovina, were targeted with so-called modified air bombs weighing up to 250 kilograms, as testimonies and reports of ballistics experts from the trials for crimes committed in the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia show.
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, in addition to all the suffering and the lack of food, electricity and water, there was also a lack of firewood. All 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 any heating.
Many citizens were killed or wounded by sniper shots, crossing city intersections or in their homes.
Indictments and verdicts
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has sentenced Stanislav Galić, former commander of the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS), to life imprisonment for terrorizing the citizens of Sarajevo. Galić’s successor as head of the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps, Dragomir Milošević, was sentenced to 29 years in prison.
Former President of Republika Srpska and military leader of the VRS, Radovan Karadžić, was sentenced to life imprisonment for terrorizing civilians in Sarajevo with, among other things, sniper and artillery attacks.
VRS commander Ratko Mladić was sentenced to the same prison term in the first instance before the Hague Tribunal for terrorizing civilians in Sarajevo with, among other things, sniper and artillery attacks.
The ICTY verdicts established that units of the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps of the VRS deliberately targeted civilians in a campaign of terror aimed at putting pressure on the authorities in Sarajevo.
