Sarajevo, a wounded city.

The seige of Sarajevo

Source: DFA House Magazine

The South African miracle, involving a diverse society similar to that of Yugoslavia, was effectively utilised during all discussions as an example to Yugoslavia. 

In the absence of "legal" flights to Belgrade, we flew from Athens to Sofia and then travelled by car to Belgrade. En route to Belgrade (from Bulgarian border) we observed the reconstruction of two severely bombed bridges and severe damage to the highway at one point. Petrol is being sold (black-market) next to the ighway in plastic bottles, sometimes by young children, and as we neared Belgrade, police in uniform (mostly on foot) were posted next to the road every few kilometres. The agriculture seems to be in excellent condition (confirmed during later discussions) and good crops are expected.

In Belgrade the severe damage to the Ministry of the Interior and the Military Bosnia and Herzegovina Headquaters (opposite the Foreign Ministry) has not 'been attended to yet. Work is however being carried out at the Foreign Ministry, which has suffered (less severe) collateral damage. From our hotel we could still see the severely damaged headquarters of the party of Milosevic.

All discussion partners alluded to these effects of the bombing with much bitterness. The man on the street seems to be despondent and "simply tired" after 10 years of war and sanctions. This partially explains the lack of enthusiasm for street protests against Milosevic. We passed the venue of daily protests against Milosevic in central Belgrade twice and it was very poorly attended. Young people want to leave the country and those who are able to, do so - the country is experiencing a massive "brain-drain".

The treatment of foreign journalists is also disconcerting: foreign journalists must now apply for renewal of visas every 7 days (previously every 10 days) and must provide motivation for contents of reports (if questioned or disputed by the government) within 24 hours.

This visit only a few months after the war and during a period of a high degree of isolation of Belgrade, provided us with a special opportunity to gain first hand experience of this traumatised country. The insights gained, from human and professional perspectives, made a profound impact.

Sarajevo, a wounded city

Anell van ZyL Athens, Greece, accompanied Ambassador Jacobs to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and this journey made a deep impression on her.
'We thought much about writing something about the visit by Ambassador Dawie Jacobs and myself to Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina during November 1999. I wanted to write something light, something amusing but how do you do that about a city or country so recently devastated by war?

Sarajevo - that war-torn city we saw on our TV screens, heard about on the radio and read about in the newspapers, the city of the XIV Winter Olympic Games in 1984. Sarajevo, a city only an hour's flight from the centre of Europe, was singing its swan song while the whole world watched in horror, you and I included, but it was so far removed, we purportedly cared ... but did nothing ...

In this city, from the beginning of the outbreak of the war, there was no blood for transfusions, no food and water, no telephone lines, no telephone lines, no TV signals, no public transport - everything came to a halt - the airport closed, there was no way out. I can't begin to imagine the destruction, the devastation, the fear, and the despair.

Greek tragedies were the real life in Sarajevo. There were just guns, armies, ammunition, snipers - and the dead ... The people were divided: between those who would survive and those who would not ... the only peaceful places in the city were the cemeteries. In the Sarajevo newspapers there was no obituary section. The whole city was an obituary ...

Miroslav Prstojevic, a journalist who kept a diary through 1992, i.a. wrote the following in his book "Sarajevo, The Wounded City":
"By the end of 1992 there had been 8 037 killed and 47 116 wounded in Sarajevo. The figures do not include those killed or injured in Grbavica. NedzaricL Vogosca and other parts of the city forcibly cut off  from the rest of it. According to Ministry of the Interior information, more than 800 000 shells of various types were fired at Sarajevo from the surrounding hills.

The weight of iron, steel. and explosives fired into the town was about 20 million kilograms. If the shells were linked into a chain (the average length of a shell is 50 CM). it would be 400 kilometres long, which is exactly the distance between Zagreb and Belgrade. About 30 kilograms of explosives were fired at each Sarajevan ....

Sarajevo was surrounded by 14 rocket launchers with 32 tubes, 59 howitzers, 101 heavy guns, 50 recoilless guns, 113 83-mm and 90 12D-mm mortars, 51 armoured personnel carriers, 51 tanks and a huge number of anti- aircraft guns, anti-aircraft machine-guns, hand-held rocket launchers, machine- gun nests (according to a statement by the chief of the General Staff of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Armed Forces on July 25). The official army magazine stated at the end of the year that more than 2 100 barrels were pointing at Sarajevo along a 6O-km long front line, meaning that there were 35 weapons for each kilo metre of the front.

Military records show that during the battle for Berlin there was a record number of 25 weapons per kilometre of front line. The same source mentions that Sarajevo had been attacked by 5 600 artillery weapons, 110 tanks and 180 personnel carriers and that half of these had been destroyed.

At the end of 1993, according to official data, 9 662 people were killed and over 56 000 wounded in Sarajevo .... On the last day of January 1994, the number of those killed was already 9 842. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, in those parts where data was available,
the number of dead reached 142 165 and wounded 161 142 .... The number of shells of various calibres fired at the city exceeded two million. There were different estimates as to their weight. No coal or wood entered the town in 1993. The town went on starvinq. Every ten days another round of humanitarian aid was distributed. which was all one had to live on.

There was no other food, nor could anything else enter the town. So, before Christmas 1993. each Sarajevan received one kilo of flour, 400 grams of beans, 3,3 dcl of oil. and a 125-gram can of herrings.

Twenty days later, in January 1994, a person received half a kilo of flour, 3,3 dcl of oil and 800 grams of beans. The crumbs on the empty dining tables of Sarajevo were even less. The aid was not enough for survival. There was generally no electricity for days, for weeks, for months. almost throughout the whole of 1993. The city was forced to get used to darkness and deprivation. Because of the damage to electrical installations, and because of the deliberate cutting off of electricity supplies, the city was without any electricity whatsoever for 140 days in 1993, the longest period being from June 21 until August 13, or 53 days."

After reading about the war and seeing the heritage of devastation, there's no amusement or lightness of heart left. One can only imagine the echoing of the barrages, the falling of the shells when seeing the black, hole-filled remains of what once was an apartment- building, the skeleton of a life that once housed happy families.