Sarajevo

I think this post will be hard to write. Most Americans, when thinking of Sarajevo, have a few stock images that come to mind, and I was no different 12 hours ago. We think of the 1984 Winter Olympics in a place we could barely pronounce. Or, if we paid attention in history class, we think of the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand by the teenaged assassin, Gavrilo Princip, on June 28, 1914, the act that set the match to the powder kegs of Europe and became WWI. (Incidentally it was also the birthdate of my mother, who always more or less took responsibility --or credit-- for the whole war, but that is another set of stories.

Those of us who read newspapers in the 1990's remember Sarajevo as the setting for horrors of warfare that we didn't understand and certainly didn't take personally. We weren't sure who was fighting against whom, or why. Every time it seemed to make sense, the story pixilated itself and disappeared. It was easier not to worry about it.

If I could use an overblown metaphor for Sarajevo after today, it would be of a man with a gaping chest wound erupting in raucous laughter as he tried to tell the world what happened. Let me see if I can give a condensed version. Our guide today kept referring to the "black humor" of Bosnia.... and gave us frequent examples. He is a man in early 40's or late 30's, perhaps, a tour guide and journalist who writes for several regional news magazines and is on the editorial staff of one of them. His English was totally fluent and he was willing to talk about anything. His name is Amir and he is Muslim, blue eyed, just a shade darker than blond hair, and built like a high school basketball coach.

First the facts (well, sort of).... when Bosnians speak of "the last war" they are referring to the years from 1992 to 1995, when Sarajevo came under siege for 3 1/2 years. Amir told us a local radio station took notice of the fact at one point that the siege had now lasted longer than the 2 year siege of Leningrad and began playing "We Are the Champions" by Queen and then the other still functioning radio stations began doing the same thing.

There have been lots of wars of course. The Ottomans came in the 15th century and there has been warfare in these rugged mountains much of the time...and also periods of grace, with multi ethnic populations, religious toleration, great architecture and art and poetry. But the nationalism of the 19th and 20th centuries left marks that are hard to eradicate. After the death of Tito, whose magnetism held much together, and after the fall of communism, our guide tells us there were pathological dictators and opportunistic dictators and both did untold damage.

When 1992 rolled round, the mountains that close in 90 percent of the periphery of Sarajevo were heavy with artillery. It is almost impossible to go anywhere in town and not see evidence of shelling, artillery fire, incendiary rounds, and so on A no man's land existed where many died; and in addition to those who died of the actual military attacks, many more died because of lack of food and water, lack of heat in the bitter winters, lack of shelter, lack of medicine, fear, and just plain evil.

Who? That's the hard part and we need definitions for it. Serbs refers to all the Orthodox Christians in the Balkans, wherever they live. Croatians are Catholics. Bosnians are Muslims and a newish term, Bosniacs, is also used to refer to them. There was also a bit of a Jewish community. The people on the mountains with the artillery were hard core Serbian nationalists/terrorists. Their victims were also Serbs, plus Muslim Bosnians, plus... and it goes on. The people under attack helped each other, no matter what their religious conviction or identification, but the shells kept raining down.

For three and one half years. Our guide very matter of factly told us that he was lucky. He ONLY lost his father, his grandmother and his cousin. ONLY. He himself served as a soldier, though he said a very ill prepared one. He learned to improvise molotov cocktails to fight back, but he said it was a long difficult time.

One of the great and intentional destructions of the time was a building that once had been a city center and now was the national library of Bosnia, holding 2 million rare books, documents, and files. It was hit with incendiary rounds and almost everything was destroyed. Today it is under reconstruction and will perhaps one day be an opera/music hall and public space. The books, manuscripts, magazines, and documents are not replaceable, a kind of cultural genocide.

We went there today and there was an exhibition of photographs taken by someone accompanying the forensic scientists who are exhuming those being found in mass graves. Numbers are staggering...more than 4000 mass graves have been found so far; in that time almost 30,000 people were listed as missing. So far the remains of about 20,000 have been found. About 85% were Muslim Boniacs. Sbrenica, a town about 75 miles from here, was established as a "safe zone" by the UN in July 1995, and about 8,373 local residents were listed there as missing during that time. 6000 of those remains have been found, at least in part. The work continues.


It is staggering in its horror. Genocide is a word that was not applied for a long time, but it fits the details now. There were so many atrocities that it is easy to become numb. Three of us wimpy ones were particularly affected by the horrors that we saw and were consoling each other in a dark alcove.. an older man who was manning the exhibit walked over, offered us these words, "This is our reality." He then offered us paper towels to wipe our eyes, told us he'd lost his brother, his father, and his son.

There's not a lot to say. There's maybe a lot to do to assure it won't happen again, but we know it has and will.

Then our guide brought us back with humor... told us that is what keeps them alive.. they sit in the coffee houses, Serbs and Croats and Bosniacs and Jews together and tell stories on each other, insult each other, and drink together. Then they tell stories about Albanians (why are Albanians the most unfortunate people in the world? Because they have Muslims and no oil!)

And he told one more Bosnian proverb.... "We have so much history we can't stand it."

Obviously what is written here is just an overview.. I need to come home and read some more and learn some more. But what is evident is that there is no simple story in the Balkans.