Siege of Sarajevo
Siege of Sarajevo- a 3.5-year siege of the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, first by Yugoslav and then by local Serbian armed forces. The siege began on April 5, 1992 and ended with the lifting of the siege on February 29, 1996, according to the Dayton Accords.
The reason for the siege
Before the outbreak of hostilities in BiH, Serbs made up almost a third of the population of Sarajevo, living compactly in a number of its districts. At the end of February - beginning of March, a referedum on self-determination was held in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was boycotted by the Serbs. The majority was in favor. On March 1, Serbian Nikola Gardovic was killed during a wedding procession. He is considered the first to die according to the Serbian side. On April 5, during a demonstration, units of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) opened fire on the demonstrators. Two Bosnians were killed, the first to be killed by the Bosnian side. On April 6, the European Union recognized Bosnia and Herzegovina as independent, after which an armed conflict began.
In February 1992, the Bosnian War began. Detachments of Bosnian Serbs managed to bring a number of territories of Bosnia under control and oust the Bosnians from Zvornik and other cities. In March, attacks on JNA targets began in the city. In early May, the federal army announced a complete blockade of Sarajevo both from the ground and from the air. However, already in June, Sarajevo airport was open for humanitarian supplies to the city. The capital of Bosnia was constantly exposed to artillery fire, but no significant attempts were made to capture the city.
In the second half of 1992, the JNA was disbanded, and the siege was carried out by Republika Srpska troops, who entrenched themselves in the Serbian areas of the city and on the surrounding heights. However, all attempts to storm and capture the city failed and were weak. Serbian volunteers succeeded in several attempts to break through the defense of Sarajevo, but the army was unable to develop its success. Until 1994, heavy artillery was used during the siege of the city, but after the incident at the Markale market, the West gave the Serbs an ultimatum to remove heavy artillery from Sarajevo, which greatly eased the fate of the besieged. The West accused the Republika Srpska Army of the Markale incident and a deliberate attack civilians. However, UN experts have not identified the culprit of the incident; some researchers believe that the mine explosion was organized by Muslims.
In August 1995, after the second terrorist attack on Markale and the capture of Dutch peacekeepers by the Serbs, NATO launched Operation Deliberate Force. Many Serbian positions near Sarajevo were hit by alliance airstrikes. This eased the siege of the city. A truce was reached in October 1995, and in February 1996, Serbian troops withdrew from Sarajevo.
After the end of the siege of Sarajevo, the entire Serbian population left the city and its surroundings.
Statistics
· As a result of the siege, the population of Sarajevo dropped by 35% to 334,000 people.
· 12,000 people were killed and 50,000 were wounded, among them 85% were civilians.
· The siege lasted 1395 days (http://sa92.ba/v1/index.php?showimage=259&lang=en), this is one of the longest sieges in modern times military history
· In two terrorist attacks on the Marcale market, 105 people were killed and 234 injured.
April 6 marked 20 years since the beginning of the siege of the city of Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
On the sad anniversary, an action was organized in the city - 11,541 red chairs were placed on the main street of the city - one for each person who died then. The red row stretched across the entire city.
How and why did this happen?
It started with a banal thing - Bosnian Muslims, who made up the majority of residents in Sarajevo, wanted to secede from Yugoslavia. But the Serbs, who considered themselves the support of the allied Yugoslavia, did not want to let them go. They laid siege to the city and began to fire at it with everything they had at hand, without discerning who they were shooting at. The siege and blockade of the city lasted 1,395 days - longer than the siege of Leningrad. As a result of the siege, Sarajevo's population dropped by 35% to 334,000 people.
The Serbs who surrounded the city claimed that they were blocking the delivery of weapons to Bosnian militants, but in fact they completely cut off the supply big city including water and electricity supply. They claimed that they were shelling militant bases - but in fact they were shooting at everything that moved, and mostly civilians were moving - in search of water, food and fuel.
The Bosnian parliament is on fire:
A woman tries to quickly run through an open area under fire from snipers:
Cemetery in Sarajevo. It is characteristic that the year of death on all graves is the same - 1992
People were buried every day...
Lucky ones - they survived:
And here are those who are less fortunate:
(This makeshift cemetery was created on the site of a football field)
Not only Muslims, but also Serbs died in the city:
They say that the professions of undertaker and grave digger are the most in demand in the city...
And all this lasted almost 4 years.
How was this story resolved? By 1995, after long and fruitless negotiations, the international community, and primarily European countries and the United States, had run out of patience. NATO carried out a military operation, Operation Deliberate Force, during which Bosnian Serb positions were attacked and they were forced to retreat from the city. After this, the Dayton ceasefire agreement was signed by the leaders of the Croats, Bosnian Muslims and the Serbian government. The Bosnian Serbs refused to sign this agreement.
The leaders of the Bosnian Serbs - Biljana Plavsic, Radovan Karadzic, Ratko Mladic - appeared before the Hague Tribunal. Biljana Plavšić was sentenced to 11 years and was released in 2009. Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic were caught only recently, and they have yet to hear their sentence, which, apparently, will be very harsh. Apparently, none of them will ever be released.
Justice has triumphed, but this will not help the thousands of victims of this senseless cruelty.
Photos used in this post by Roger Richards and Reuters
Siege of Sarajevo
Siege of Sarajevo- a 3.5-year siege of the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, first by Yugoslav and then by local Serbian armed forces. The siege began on April 5, 1992 and ended with the lifting of the siege on February 29, 1996, according to the Dayton Accords. The reason for the siege
Before the outbreak of hostilities in BiH, Serbs made up almost a third of the population of Sarajevo, living compactly in a number of its districts. At the end of February - beginning of March, a referedum on self-determination was held in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was boycotted by the Serbs. The majority was in favor. On March 1, Serbian Nikola Gardovic was killed during a wedding procession. He is considered the first to die according to the Serbian side. On April 5, during a demonstration, units of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) opened fire on the demonstrators. Two Bosnians were killed, the first to be killed by the Bosnian side. On April 6, the European Union recognized Bosnia and Herzegovina as independent, after which an armed conflict began. Siege
In February 1992, the Bosnian War began. Detachments of Bosnian Serbs managed to bring a number of territories of Bosnia under control and oust the Bosnians from Zvornik and other cities. In March, attacks on JNA targets began in the city. In early May, the federal army announced a complete blockade of Sarajevo both from the ground and from the air. However, already in June, Sarajevo airport was open for humanitarian supplies to the city. The capital of Bosnia was constantly exposed to artillery fire, but no significant attempts were made to take the city. In the second half of 1992, the JNA was disbanded, and the siege was carried out by Republika Srpska troops, who entrenched themselves in the Serbian areas of the city and on the surrounding heights. However, all attempts to storm and capture the city failed and were weak. Serbian volunteers succeeded in several attempts to break through the defense of Sarajevo, but the army was unable to develop its success. Until 1994, heavy artillery was used during the siege of the city, but after the incident at the Markale market, the West gave the Serbs an ultimatum to remove heavy artillery from Sarajevo, which greatly eased the fate of the besieged. The West accused the Republika Srpska Army of the Markale incident and the deliberate attack on civilians. However, UN experts have not identified the culprit of the incident; some researchers believe that the mine explosion was organized by Muslims. In August 1995, after the second terrorist attack on Markale and the capture of Dutch peacekeepers by the Serbs, NATO launched Operation Deliberate Force. Many Serbian positions near Sarajevo were hit by alliance airstrikes. This eased the siege of the city. In October 1995, a truce was reached, and in February 1996, Serbian troops withdrew from Sarajevo. After the end of the siege of Sarajevo, the entire Serbian population left the city and its surroundings. Statistics
- As a result of the siege, Sarajevo's population dropped by 35% to 334,000 people. 12,000 people were killed and 50,000 wounded, among them 85% were civilians. The siege lasted 1,395 days (http://sa92.ba/v1/index.php?showimage=259&lang=en), one of the longest sieges in modern military history. In two terrorist attacks on the Marcale market, 105 people were killed and 234 were injured.
Siege of Sarajevo
Siege of Sarajevo- a 3.5-year siege of the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, first by Yugoslav and then by local Serbian armed forces. The siege began on April 5, 1992 and ended with the lifting of the siege on February 29, 1996, according to the Dayton Accords.
The reason for the siege
Before the outbreak of hostilities in BiH, Serbs made up almost a third of the population of Sarajevo, living compactly in a number of its districts. At the end of February - beginning of March, a referedum on self-determination was held in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was boycotted by the Serbs. The majority was in favor. On March 1, Serbian Nikola Gardovic was killed during a wedding procession. He is considered the first to die according to the Serbian side. On April 5, during a demonstration, units of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) opened fire on the demonstrators. Two Bosnians were killed, the first to be killed by the Bosnian side. On April 6, the European Union recognized Bosnia and Herzegovina as independent, after which an armed conflict began.
In February 1992, the Bosnian War began. Detachments of Bosnian Serbs managed to bring a number of territories of Bosnia under control and oust the Bosnians from Zvornik and other cities. In March, attacks on JNA targets began in the city. In early May, the federal army announced a complete blockade of Sarajevo both from the ground and from the air. However, already in June, Sarajevo airport was open for humanitarian supplies to the city. The capital of Bosnia was constantly exposed to artillery fire, but no significant attempts were made to capture the city.
In the second half of 1992, the JNA was disbanded, and the siege was carried out by Republika Srpska troops, who entrenched themselves in the Serbian areas of the city and on the surrounding heights. However, all attempts to storm and capture the city failed and were weak. Serbian volunteers succeeded in several attempts to break through the defense of Sarajevo, but the army was unable to develop its success. Until 1994, heavy artillery was used during the siege of the city, but after the incident at the Markale market, the West gave the Serbs an ultimatum to remove heavy artillery from Sarajevo, which greatly eased the fate of the besieged. The West accused the Republika Srpska Army of the Markale incident and the deliberate attack on civilians. However, UN experts have not identified the culprit of the incident; some researchers believe that the mine explosion was organized by Muslims.
In August 1995, after the second terrorist attack on Markale and the capture of Dutch peacekeepers by the Serbs, NATO launched Operation Deliberate Force. Many Serbian positions near Sarajevo were hit by alliance airstrikes. This eased the siege of the city. A truce was reached in October 1995, and in February 1996, Serbian troops withdrew from Sarajevo.
After the end of the siege of Sarajevo, the entire Serbian population left the city and its surroundings.
Statistics
· As a result of the siege, the population of Sarajevo dropped by 35% to 334,000 people.
· 12,000 people were killed and 50,000 were wounded, among them 85% were civilians.
· The siege lasted 1395 days (http://sa92.ba/v1/index.php?showimage=259&lang=en), this is one of the longest sieges in modern military history
· In two terrorist attacks on the Marcale market, 105 people were killed and 234 injured.
