Sarajevo, a city of sorrow and hope

view of Sarajevo

It’s hard to know where to begin with Sarajevo—it’s nearly 5 centuries as part of the Ottoman Empire, its time in the Austro-Hungarian empire, its much more recent and horrific 44 month siege during the Bosnian-Serbian War of 1991 to 1995.  And it’s all so complicated that an overview just isn’t possible.  But, I’ll give a sample.

door to the main mosque

During the Ottoman period, Sarajevo was home to large numbers of Orthodox Christians, Jews and Muslims, all living together.  Their houses of worship were all mixed up in the city because the Ottomans tolerated all monotheistic religions, though Muslims received preferential treatment.  The Bosnian War undermined the centuries of living together in peace.  So today, religion continues to drive fear, resentment and nationalism.

Serbian Orthodox church

The Christians and Muslims were, and still are, Southern Slavs, while the Jews were mostly Sephardic Jews driven out of Portugal and Spain during the Inquisition.  Only about 1000 Jews live in Sarajevo today, having been decimated by the Holocaust.  Muslims were converts from Orthodox Christianity, embracing Islam because of the high taxes imposed on them by the Muslim Ottoman Empire if they remained Christian.  

Today, 54% of Bosnians are Muslims.  Most of the rest are Serbian Orthodox Christians and a small percentage are Roman Catholic.  This is important because religion played a big role in the war and is a key factor in the uneasiness in the country today.

baroque style City Hall, rebuilt after the war

During the siege of Sarajevo, minimal supplies initially got into the city, mostly packaged meals the UN received from the US military, but not nearly enough to meet the needs of the population.  In 1993, over a 4 month period, volunteers dug a tunnel under the airport runways, which were under the control of the UN, providing first, a way for the Bosnian Army to get out of Sarajevo and defend one of the key hills above the city, and second, a way to bring supplies into the city, which continued until the war was over.

tunnel under airport

Meanwhile, the Yugoslav Army, mostly Serbs, surrounded Sarajevo and besieged the city, lobbing an average of 370 mortars per day into Sarajevo.  Nearly 12,000 people died from these incessant attacks, including 1601 children.  Citizens painted the "Sarajevo rose" wherever a mortar killed at least 3 people--these are all over the city.  

Sarajevo rose

Snipers took shots at anyone who ventured into “sniper alley”, a nearly 3 mile stretch of the main road, from high buildings on the edge of the city.  As you walk around the city today, cemeteries are everywhere—on former parks, playgrounds, soccer fields, anywhere with a little space for a burial.

Outside the city, Serbs were implementing their “ethnic cleansing” plan to remove Bosnian Muslims from Bosnia, by forced removal and outright slaughter.  Finally, when the massacres of 8000 men and boys at Srebrenica and further genocide occurred elsewhere in Bosnia, the U.S. and NATO began bombing Serbian army positions around Sarajevo.  

Talk to Serbs, and they don’t dispute the Serbs’ slaughter of Muslims, but they point out that the Bosnian army massacred Serbs as well, though in much smaller numbers.  They greatly resent the NATO bombing of Serbs and the “unfairness of the Hague” that prosecuted many times more Serbs than Bosnians and Croats.

cemetery for all religions--unusual

The terrible war came to an end in Dayton, Ohio, when the Dayton Accords were signed by the presidents of Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia.  But, the political structure of the agreement, which continues today, is chaotic, involving 14 Parliaments, 5 presidents, nearly 150 ministers and huge bureaucracies in this tiny country.

Today, Sarajevo looks like any modern city of more than 400,000 inhabitants, full of people, office towers, apartment buildings and small businesses.  There are churches and mosques, but only 1 working synagogue.  Most of the city has been rebuilt, including the Turkish bazaar and elegant pedestrian shopping streets.  But, you see graffiti saying, essentially, that only Serbs can take care of Serbs, a clear reference to Serbian nationalism.  Bosnians don’t want the Serbian parts of Bosnia-Herzegovina to become fully independent or to join with Serbia.  Most Serbs support independence of their section of Bosnia, Republika Srpska.  There is potential for another war percolating just beneath the surface of life here.

We took a tour called “The Fall of Sarajevo”, which was a fascinating trip around the city, including the mountains overlooking Sarajevo where the Serbian Army besieged the city, the secret tunnel that enabled citizens to resupply the city, and, of course, the famous bobsled run from the 1984 Olympics, now a graffiti artist’s concrete canvas.

main square in the old city

The city is beautiful.  It has buildings of Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian and, unfortunately because they're so ugly, Communist design.  Today was perfectly clear, so the city and its surrounding mountains gleamed from the rains and clear air.  We had a wonderful guided walk around the old part of the city, where a row of bricks in one street proclaims “where east meets west”, delineating the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian parts of the city.  The old bazaar is alive with souvenir shops, craftsmen and restaurants, as well as people eating and shopping and praying at the many mosques.  The European part of the city has gracious baroque buildings in the midst of skyscrapers and the ever-present Communist concrete blocks.

bobsled art

Citizens of all ethnicities and religions walk the streets and drink coffee in the cafes.  Women in headscarves and long coats, Muslim women wearing whatever they want, Christian women in elegant shoes and dresses, men of unknown religion (all Slavs) eating sandwiches and smoking in restaurants—right now, people of all beliefs share their city with one another, and tourists from all over the world.