Sarajevo, Part II

In past posts, I have attempted to describe the history and current dynamics in the former Yugoslavic republics. Now that I have ventured further into Bosnia and Herzegovina and learned more about Sarajevo's history, I'll shell shock you with more recent history.

Sarajevo is just a fascinating city. From the start of WWI, to the Serbian "aggression" of 1992-1995, this city just has been very turbulent. But it is filled with the warmest people I have ever met. They can be tough, as I had heard stories and did actually witness once, but their sincerity is overwhelming. You can be at a restaurant, and your neighbor will enter your conversation because they overheard something they can help with. Or they will walk you to your destination. In most big cities, women can be bitches to other women. But here, they have this sincerity that was totally unexpected, after the bipolar hospitality in Croatia.

So the situations in 1992-1995. First, Bosnia calls it an "aggression" by Serbia. Serbia calls it "civil war" and everyone else on the outside just called it "war." There was ethnic cleansing, genocide and the culmination was Serb forces (including some, but not all, Bosnian Serbs fully surrounding the capital city of Sarajevo. It was a city under siege from Apr 5, 1992 — Feb 29, 1996. /that is something like over 1400 days (I am on holiday...too lazy to do the math.) The longest siege in world history. Because the Serbs were mainly on hills, they were able to hold the city pretty much on lock down and attack from above whenever they felt like it. This definitely wasnt a civilized war - Serb forces attacked civilians, children, schools, markets, even the maternity hospital. Over 11,000 people were killed, 1400 of whom were children, and over 15,000 children wounded.

Sarajevo was left without water, electricity, fuel, food, weapons. Then the tunnel was dug.

It really all began with elections to break away from Yugoslavia (following Slovenia and Croatia) and the first two real victims of this "aggression" were shot from Serb snipes while protesting in Sarajevo. Thus because the siege.

The remnants of the mortar (excuse me, I dont really know the right words for war weapons and stuff) that hit the ground have been filled in with red paint or rubber all around the city and are known as Sarajevo Roses. Look at this one, just feet from the Catholic church.

There is so much fascinating history in Sarajevo, too much to type out and expect my blog readers to pay attention to on a Monday at work, when everyone is in costume and eating snack sized Snickers. So I will leave you with this funny sign I saw outside of a Mosque, that apparently is not drag-queen friendly. NO TRANNIES IN THE MOSQUE!