City under the siege

During the siege, the average daily number of grenades fired on Sarajevo was 329. The record of 3,777 grenades was made on july, 22 1993. They did a massive damage to the city, most of all to the civil, cultural and religious buildings.

On April 5, 1992 Sarajevo, the capital of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was attacked. The city, which lies in the valley of the Miljacka River, is surrounded by mountains on which there were placed 260 tanks, 120 mortars and many weapons of smaller caliber. The Yugoslav National Army aided by the Serbs loyal to Serbian Democrat Party (SDS) encircled the city and started to tighten the circle around 500,000 citizens.

On May 2, 1992 the city was completely blockaded. A part of the city was occupied and the part which could not be conquered was exposed to a barrage of shelling and artillery fire. Every day the city was hit by some 4,000 shells and among the targets there were hospitals, libraries, museums, and the places where the citizens stood in lines for bread and water. The aggressor destroyed the Post Office and the city was left without telephones, and its water, gas and electricity supplies were cut. The food supply was disappearing quickly. The cemeteries were expanding.

On February 26, 1996 by opening the northwest passage, i.e. by liberating the Vogošća and Ilijas districts, Sarajevo was proclaimed an open city. After the Dayton Agreement and the coming of the IFOR, the aggressor started to leave the occupied territory around the city. They plundered, burnt and destroyed everything.

On March 19, 1996 the aggressor left the occupied district of the city - Grbavica - which was the last part of the city to be returned to the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina under the Dayton Agreement. 10,615 persons, out of whom 1,601 were children, were killed in Sarajevo. More than 50,000 persons were wounded, a great number of whom remain invalids. The siege of the city lasted from May 2, 1992 to February 26, 1996 or 1,395 days, which is the longest siege in the modern history of mankind.

Chronology of the siege

1992

  1. March 2, 1992.Barricades went up in the city; the approaches to the city were blocked.
  2. April 3, 1992.JNA forces took the Mojmilo reservoir.
  3. March 2, 1992.A peaceful demonstration of citizens (between two and three thousand) in front of the Assembly building; the first victims fell on the Vrbanja Bridge, Suada Dilberović and Olga Sučić. The Police Academy at Vraca was attacked.
  4. April 10, 1992.About 300 citizens left Sarajevo with help from the Jewish community; the JNA and Serb volunteers patrolled Grbavica.
  5. April 11, 1992.All parliamentary parties, including the SDS, signed the Declaration on a United Sarajevo.
  6. April 13, 1992.The Territorial Defence set up a counter-barricade at the entrance to the Lapišnica tunnel; Vehbija Karić left the JNA; JNA soldiers fired from the Marshal Tito Barracks; Samir Mešetović was killed on the playground opposite the barracks; shots also came from the Viktor Bubanj Barracks.
  7. April 30, 1992.Dobrinja was completely blockaded; no one could leave it, and no one could enter. The JNA was declared an occupying army.
  8. May 2, 1992.Fighting between the JNA and the Territorial Defence at Skenderija. The Main Post Office on the Obala was set on fire. Returning from talks in Lisbon, Alija Izetbegović, Zlatko Lagumdžija, and Sabina Berberović were arrested at Sarajevo Airport and taken to Lukavica.
  9. May 17, 1992.Serb forces and the JNA tried to split Sarajevo in two along the line Pofalići, Marshal Tito Barracks, Brotherhood and Unity Bridge, Grbavica; a fifth column aided the JNA.
  10. May 18–19, 1992.Telephone links with the rest of the world were cut.
  11. May 19, 1992.A convoy of 500 women and children was stopped at Ilidža.
  12. May 20, 1992.The Zetra sports hall was set on fire.
  13. May 22, 1992.113 patients had to leave Jagomir hospital.
  14. May 26, 1992.The Zehra Muidović maternity hospital was shelled.
  15. May 27, 1992.Massacre in Vase Miskina Street: three shells fired from the direction of Borije killed 19 people and wounded 157.
  16. June 1, 1992.The JNA left the Marshal Tito Barracks.
  17. June 2, 1992.A state of war danger and general mobilization were declared.
  18. June 28, 1992.François Mitterrand visited Sarajevo. He was welcomed with lilies. The humanitarian airlift opened. Oslobođenje was shelled. Water from the Bačevo waterworks stopped.
  19. July 17, 1992.The Airport Settlement was attacked. Trams were shelled.
  20. July 28, 1992.The UNIS factory was destroyed and looted, damage of 700 million marks.
  21. August 1, 1992.A convoy of babies from the Ljubica Ivezić home for children without care was attacked. Vedrana Glavaš (two years old) and Roki Sulejmanović (16 months) were killed. The Hotel Evropa was set on fire.
  22. August 3, 1992.Five children and two women were killed on Kobilja Glava while trying to pick cherries. Two people were wounded. Europe sent Sarajevans tons of anti-malaria medicine.
  23. September 13–14, 1992.Attacks on the Stup settlement; the line was held by the HVO, the HOS, and the Army of BiH.
  24. August 18, 1992.The Hotel Evropa was shelled; five citizens were killed and eight wounded.
  25. August 25/26, 1992.The National Library, Vijećnica, was set on fire.
  26. October 9, 1992.The gas supply to the city was cut. Thirty litres of water sold for ten marks.

1993

  1. January 7, 1993.In Sarajevo, Serbs, Muslims, Jews, and Croats celebrated Orthodox Christmas together at the Old Orthodox Church in Baščaršija.
  2. January 8, 1993.Deputy Prime Minister Hakija Turajlić was killed in a UNPROFOR armoured vehicle.
  3. January 15, 1993.Eight people were killed and 20 wounded in a water line at the Sarajevo Brewery.
  4. February 15, 1993.Civil Defence placed containers in front of the City Hospital to protect citizens from snipers. Bianca Jagger visited Sarajevo.
  5. March 1, 1993.An initiative was launched to extradite Radovan Karadžić to the judicial authorities of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
  6. April 1993.The old cemeteries, Lav, Sveti Josip, and Sveti Marko, were opened for the burial of the dead, and the auxiliary stadium at the Koševo sports complex was turned into a new cemetery.
  7. June 1, 1993.On the football field in Dobrinja III, two mortar shells killed nine people, mostly children, and wounded 104.
  8. June 15, 1993.Twelve people were killed at a funeral at the Budakovići cemetery.
  9. June 16, 1993.The whole city lost electricity. That state lasted a full 53 days.
  10. July 8, 1993.Eleven members of the Sarajevo City Assembly went on hunger strike to protest the failure to send humanitarian aid to starving Goražde. All of Sarajevo, where every citizen had already lost an average of 10 to 15 kg, boycotted humanitarian aid until it was also sent to Goražde.
  11. July 12, 1993.On Dobrinja, 13 civilians were killed and 15 wounded in a water line.
  12. August 15, 1993.After long negotiations, the badly wounded girl Irma Hadžimuratović was evacuated from Sarajevo.
  13. September 19, 1993.An international fire brigade was formed in Sarajevo.
  14. November 4, 1993.UNPROFOR took control of the Bačevo and Butile waterworks.
  15. November 9, 1993.At the Prvi maj elementary school in Alipašino Polje, the teacher Fatima Gunić and three of her pupils were killed. Not far from the school, five more people were killed the same day and 42 were wounded.
  16. November 11, 1993.Lessons in all schools were shortened by 15 minutes.
  17. November 28, 1993.Five people were killed and four wounded on the Drvenija bridge.
  18. December 3, 1993.The children’s play Žaljubljeni žmaj was premiered in a shelter in Alipašino Polje.
  19. December 14, 1993.Eight people were killed and thirty-two wounded on Drvenija.

1994

  1. January 3, 1994.20 civilians were killed in Sarajevo and more than 40 wounded. A shell killed six members of the Tatarević-Dragnić family in their apartment in the city centre, among them two children.
  2. January 22, 1994.Six children were killed and three wounded in Alipašino Polje.
  3. February 1, 1994.General Michael Rose said: “I want to identify with the citizens of Sarajevo.”
  4. February 4, 1994.12 Sarajevans were killed and more than 40 wounded.
  5. February 5, 1994.A 120-millimetre shell fell on the Markale market. The toll: 66 dead and 197 wounded. Rose said nothing.
  6. February 12, 1994.For the first time since the siege began, Sarajevo had no dead or wounded.
  7. March 8, 1994.After 670 days, a tram ran again.
  8. March 23, 1994.The Brotherhood and Unity Bridge was opened for civilians to cross. On the first day 25 people crossed to Grbavica and 15 came into the free part of the city.
  9. April 5, 1994.Street lighting was switched on in Ferhadija, Marshal Tito Street, and Liberation Square. Sarajevans protested in front of General Rose’s residence over the Serb attack on Goražde.
  10. April 13, 1994.Crossings over the Brotherhood and Unity Bridge were stopped.
  11. May 1, 1994.Labour Day was marked with a celebration in Sarajevo, and Easter with a liturgy attended by Dr Haris Silajdžić.
  12. May 23, 1994.The first petrol station in Sarajevo began work.
  13. June 19, 1994.Mozart’s Requiem was performed in Vijećnica, conducted by Zubin Mehta.
  14. July 4, 1994.The United States Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina opened.
  15. July 16, 1994.The Serbs again closed every road out of Sarajevo and into it.
  16. August 14, 1994.An anti-sniping agreement was signed at the airport.
  17. August 15, 1994.In a single day the ceasefire in Sarajevo was broken 742 times.
  18. September 1, 1994.Pope John Paul II confirmed a visit to Sarajevo.
  19. September 6, 1994.The visit of Pope John Paul II was postponed.
  20. September 28, 1994.A UNPROFOR truck ran over a boy. The driver was in “psychological shock”.
  21. October 4, 1994.In 24 hours the ceasefire in Sarajevo was broken 2,000 times.
  22. October 8, 1994.A tram was fired on at Marindvor: the driver was killed and 12 passengers were wounded.
  23. October 25, 1994.A UN vehicle killed a five-year-old boy.
  24. November 8, 1994.Six civilians were killed in Sarajevo, four of them children, and 10 were wounded.
  25. November 17, 1994.The building of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina was shelled.
  26. November 30, 1994.UN Secretary-General Boutros Ghali visited Sarajevo. He was met with whistles.
  27. December 1, 1994.The airport was closed; the gas ran out; the power to Velepekara was cut over unpaid bills, and Sarajevo was left without bread.

1995

  1. January 20, 1995.A guest was killed at the Roma Ball in Sarajevo.
  2. January 26, 1995.1,000 days of the siege of Sarajevo.
  3. February 2, 1995.Roads across the airport were opened.
  4. March 4, 1995.One sniper bullet wounded three people.
  5. March 15, 1995.The airport road was closed and prices in Sarajevo tripled.
  6. April 13, 1995.At the railway station in Sarajevo a shell wounded seven pupils.
  7. May 16, 1995.Shelling of the city killed five people and wounded 16.
  8. May 24, 1995.UNPROFOR in Sarajevo recorded 2,758 detonations.
  9. June 16, 1995.A modified aircraft bomb fell in Dositejeva Street.
  10. June 18, 1995.A water line in Dobrinja was shelled: seven killed and 12 wounded.
  11. June 21, 1995.Another massacre in a water line, on Dobrinja: six dead and 15 wounded.
  12. June 25, 1995.Two children were killed and eight wounded.
  13. June 28, 1995.An aircraft bomb hit the RTV BiH building.
  14. June 30, 1995.Four people were killed and 20 wounded. Two shells fell on the UNPROFOR headquarters.
  15. July 1, 1995.Every part of Sarajevo was shelled: 12 civilians were killed and 67 wounded.
  16. July 6, 1995.Six people were killed in Sarajevo and 11 wounded.
  17. July 12, 1995.Six dead and 12 wounded in Sarajevo.
  18. July 18, 1995.Six Sarajevans dead and six wounded.
  19. August 10, 1995.Sniper fire killed four Sarajevans.
  20. August 22, 1995.Six dead and 33 wounded in Sarajevo. Two modified bombs fell on Novo Sarajevo.
  21. August 28, 1995.Massacre at Markale: 35 people killed, 90 wounded.
  22. September 4, 1995.After the air strikes, the Serbs began to withdraw their guns from around Sarajevo.
  23. September 8, 1995.Shelling of Sarajevo wounded 10 people.
  24. September 15, 1995.After more than five months, Sarajevo Airport was opened.
  25. October 24, 1995.The Sarajevo–Kiseljak road, via Ilidža, was opened for humanitarian convoys.
  26. November 11, 1995.Sarajevo got electricity.
  27. November 21, 1995.A Laibach concert at the National Theatre.
  28. December 22, 1995.The state of war was lifted.

About

As the opening words say, this page is dedicated to those who, caused by war, are no longer with us. Also, it's a window of remembering to those who survived the horrors of early 90's in Sarajevo. Collecting all the works and photos, I wasn't able to track down and get in touch with all the authors. If you have additional information’s about some photos, authors or copyright violations, please click on CONTACT, so that the critical photos can be removed. This page is non-profitable, anti-ideologist, and the most important of all – made with love.

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