Sarajevo: The Besieged City (Part Two)

"When the war happened, I was a child. During that period my mother had to travel 10 kilometers one way on foot to get water for our whole family. That was the only way we could get water and the line was ridiculously long all the time - because it was also the only way how other families got their water. One day my mother stood in line for about 6 hours. When she was about to return home, she heard the sound of one lone rifle shot. While everyone else quickly headed for cover, my mother was the only one who didn't - she realized that she was the one who got hit. She looked around, but couldn't find where the bullet hit her. Then she lifted the water jug on her right hand and found out that the water she waited 6 hours for flew out through a bullet hole on the jug. She immediately knew that it was a message from THEM: We can kill you anytime we want,but we don't want to. We want to torture you and make you think that you are better off dead rather than resisting us alive."

- A Sarajevan who is the same age as me

In March 1992, Bosnia and Herzegovina held a referendum on whether to remain as part of Yugoslavia or to become an independent country like all other Yugoslavian Republics except Montenegro.  The result, according to official statistics, was that over 99% of the votes were for the independence. 

There was one problem with this number: the vast majority of, if not all Bosnian Serbs, boycotted this referendum.  

Highrise residential apartments in Sarajevo were once used by snipers to assault innocent civilians

All of sudden Bosnia and Herzegovina became a divided country. It was no longer under the "Brotherhood and Unity" Tito himself authored. It became a battlefield where brothers in the brotherhood fought each other for the control of their home: the territories of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

War is essentially a cruel game played by those with ambitions aiming to take control of power. In most cases, it was the people who suffered the most in any given war. Therefore I'm not going to focus on exactly on which date what agreements were signed between whatever governments. Instead, I'm going to focus on experiences of and stories about the people of Sarajevo which took place during the cruel some siege.

This Catholic Cathedral situated at the edge of Austro-Hungarian Sarajevo also marked the notorious "sniper alley" during the Siege of Sarajevo.

The most talked about story in Sarajevo was a tunnel built right underneath Sarajevo Airport. During the siege of Sarajevo, the tunnel was the only connection where residents of Sarajevo could obtain necessary supplies. Because the airport was controlled by the United Nations, it became a safe zone where was not subjected to frequent mortar attacks (although occasional incidents still happened). The tunnel was roughly 800 meters long and on the other end of the tunnel, there was the "Free Bosnian Territory": territories controlled by the Muslim-Croat Federation where supplies were relatively easy to get.  Many Sarajevans risked their lives to travel through the tunnel in order to obtain every day commodities - as the entrance to the tunnel was situated merely 500 meters away each side from the end of the Airport safe zone. However, some of the supplies traveled through the tunnel into Sarajevo ended up on the black market for people to purchase - at an exorbitant price.  This showed that despite the horrible condition in Sarajevo, not everyone was on the same page - there were people who took advantage of the misfortune of others, simply for profits. 

The original house where the entrance of the tunnel was hidden underneath

Plaque embedded on the house. The bullet holes around it are still a powerful reminder of the tragedy not even that long ago

Inside the tunnel that saved the lives of thousands

For the entire course of the war, the tunnel was crucial to the survival inside the sieged city of Sarajevo. The interesting thing was that the opposite force knew about the existence of the tunnel, but they chose not to completely destroy it. Around 19 people died from mortar attacks near the entrance to the tunnel - the basement of a house that belonged to a local Muslim Bosniak family. The family willingly gave up their own security - as their house was just outside the sieged area in order to bring hope to thousands of families inside the sieged city. Many Sarajevans agreed that without the tunnel, they wouldn't likely to survive. 

"Sarajevo Rose", flowers, and bullet holes just outside of the Sarajevo tunnel

A "Sarajevo Rose" in the city center of Sarajevo

Across the city, you could find splashes of red paints over pitted road surface. These were called "Sarajevo Roses" - spots where mortars landed and killed innocent civilians.  An average of 300 mortars landed in Sarajevo everyday during the three year siege."Sarajevo Roses" serve as a creative reminder of the pain Sarajevans suffered during these dark years. 

A Sarajevo Rose

To many tourists, this hideout might be an inspiration. To those who experienced it all, this was nothing but painful memories

Many have heard about Sarajevo's notorious "Sniper Alley" . The term referred to the main boulevard in the new part of the city where many of the high rise residential blocks were located. During the Siege of Sarajevo, snipers hid among the buildings to assassinate innocent civilians. 

This wide boulevard was once known as the "Sniper Alley"

In this valley full of horrors, many iconic footages which  were able to immediately drag us into Bosnian War telling the ugly, sad truth of people getting killed not because of their own faults, but simply being at the wrong place and at the wrong time, were captured right there inside the rooms of a hotel once known as the Holiday Inn.  During the course of the war, there was absolutely nothing holidayish you could ever associate with the Holiday Inn - it was the place where foreign journalists stayed and observed the development of already bad crap evolving into even worse crap. If these journalists wanted to see heart-pumping thrillers, all they needed to do was to look outside of their windows. 

Sarajevo Holiday Inn, now known as Hotel Holiday (no longer associated with the Holiday Inn), was where foreign journalists stayed during the war

Then there came Arrow.

To some, Arrow was a hero. To many, Arrow was a legend. To all of us, Arrow was "that girl who was different". Arrow was a code name of a Serb girl who sided with Muslim Bosniaks fighting back Serb snipers one at a time.  She killed so many snipers that she actually lost the count of number of times she pulled the trigger. I'm not saying that we should give Arrow credits for killing other people, regardless of whether these folks she killed had what level of malicious intent on their minds. Even Arrow herself admitted after the war that she was a little bit lost........

Sniper Alley

Oh yeah, did I mention that the vehicles Sarajevans used to dodge bullets in the Sniper Alley belonged to the UN?

The role UN peacekeeping forces, according to many Sarajevans, was "I don't know what the heck were they doing there".  Those who survived the Bosnian War would tell you all the "conspiracy theories" about NATO and the United Nations. They would likely to argue that "there was really no difference whether the UN forces were there or not". In the eyes of many Bosnians, The United Nations didn't do anything. 

During the war, many youth fell into the trap of extremism. For example, some Serb youth adopted Nazi ideologies and did tremendous harm to Sarajevo's Jewish community. Meanwhile,many Serbs living in Croatia became victims of hate crimes committed by some Croat neo- Nazis.

Bullet holes on a Jewish tombstone

"Srebrenica was declared a safe zone by the UN. They did it anyways."

A public art in Sarajevo depicting one tragedy in Srebrenica: A Muslim Bosniak father calling his son to surrender and come home. He told his son that if the son was willing to give up the fight, the enemy would forgive him. After the genocide in a UN-declared safe zone, the father and the son's bodies were found in a mass grave.

UN insisted that they were only there to ensure the delivery of Humanitarian Aids, not to interfere the actual process of war - including protecting human lives. Then, a mortar landed into a historic market hall built during the Austro-Hungarian era, killed hundreds of people, and changed the whole game. 

In the subsequent weeks, the NATO interfered and did a whole lotta bombing. Bosnian War ended, in less than 30 days after someone from the outside actually did something.From the first shot of the war, which we still have no idea who fired it, until the peace deal brokered by a bunch of foreign politicians, over 13,000 people in Sarajevo died, let's also not forget the 200,000 others in the rest of Bosnia. Millions were forced to relocate from the land where they and their forefathers once called home. All of the numbers above included all ethnic groups of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Muslim Bosniaks, Serbs, Croats, and many others.....

Inside an abandoned building in Sarajevo

Inside an abandoned building in Sarajevo

I suddenly remembered something oddly familiar. In British Columbia's high school Social Studies curriculum, the textbook told how Canadians maintained peace in Bosnia like it was a national pride: it felt good to be Canadian, because we made the world a better place. Indeed, I was hoping to hear from Sarajevans about how "thankful" they were to Canada and the West in maintaining "peace" during that tragic period.  

Instead, I learned that it was all "fake news". UN forces were there to protect foreign interests and properties, instead of people. It was the first time in my life that I learned from the citizens of Sarajevo, that Humanitarian Aids were more valuable than human lives. 

In the end, I never got the honour to accept the heart-felt appreciations from survivors of the war on behalf of all Canadians. I found out that a fair amount of praises went to Marshal Tito- Yugoslavia's former leader instead. People were thankful for the unity and peace under his rule, long after him and his union were gone.......

Who said that there is no propaganda in Western schools again?

(Click here to see The Atlantic's coverage and photos on the Bosnian War)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                                                                         Chapter 4


A crowd quickly gathered in front of the train station, not because of the train that was about to leave, but rather because of the bodies of partisans who participated in the mission the night before: they were hung along the corridor leading to the main hall of the station. It was a bold message from the German occupiers: if you resist us, you will end up like this.

Meanwhile, two men in SS uniform walked passed by the crowd and the dead bodies like neither of them was present. Upon seeing the two men entering the station master's office, the station master and a soldier in there stood up and saluted them.

"I'm SS Lieutenant Schatz from the central command." One of the men spoke. "Corporal, what the hell were you doing the night before while the partisans were busily sabotaging our railway bridge?"

"I was told by my superiors to do nothing, lieutenant."

"Have you interrogated any of the employees at the railway station yet?" The lieutenant asked.

"No. Sir. Neither was I told to do so nor was it my duty." Replied the corporal.

"You know what corporal, I will do the interrogation myself right away. Could you please leave the room and make sure no one will interrupt me? This is very important!"

"I totally understand the importance of this, Mr. Lieutenant!" The corporal quickly got out of the office as fast as he could. He was hoping that the lieutenant wouldn't blame him for not doing anything either to prevent the incident of last night or helping in the investigation of the incident. Despite the fact that he received  no orders in doing anything, he knew that  his superiors could find any excuses to make lower ranking soldiers like him scapegoats for their mistakes.  All he could do now was to cooperate with them.

The lieutenant signaled the man who came along to leave the office as well. The man shut the door, and guarded the door with the corporal to make sure that the interrogation task would not be interrupted.

The lieutenant turned to the station master and offered him a cigarette. No one knew all the employees better than the station master himself. 

"This is good stuff." The station master complimented the cigarette." Pilot, where did you get them?"

"Well", the man who claimed that he was SS Lieutenant Schatz laughed, now no longer speaking German. "You can say that I borrowed them."

"So you borrowed them together with your uniform?"

"Right." Replied Pilot, with a huge smile on his face.

The station master frowned upon Pilot, whom he knew very well. "So who is the young man with you outside of the office?"

"That's Suri."

"Suri?" The station master had a startle on his face. "I've heard there is someone with the same name, who is a very close associated of Walter."

"So have I heard it too." Said Pilot.

"Do you think Walter will join you two as well?" The station master asked Pilot.

"I'm not sure, maybe."

"I need to talk to Walter now, Pilot. He made a huge mistake." The station master shook his head.

"What's going on?" Pilot seemed to be very concerned.

"Haven't you heard what happened last night? I want to talk to him about what I think about this stupid mission of his."

"Maybe you can tell me. I'll pass the message to Suri, and maybe he can let Walter know."

"That railway bridge he and his men exploded last night had no real significance!" The station master appeared to be very angry. "That bridge! That piece of junk has not been in use for a long time now! Why would he give the order to explode a useless bridge!? Twenty of our dear comrades were executed by the German bastards because of that stupid bridge! They sacrificed their young lives for absolutely nothing! You understand!?"

"Calm down. I don't think it was Walter who planned that mission!" Pilot said to the station master.

"If not him, then who planned it!? Tell me! Pilot!"

"To be honest, that's the reason why I'm here today. Now tell me, what do you personally know about the incident last night?"

"Nothing." Replied the station master. "Unfortunately it I wasn't on duty last night." The station master began to check the paperworks. "Let me see..." 

Then he stopped.

"It was Obran, one of the switchmen and one of us. He is working at a different station today. Would you like to speak to him?"

"Yes of course." Said Pilot. "Please dial his number for me please."

The station master grabbed the phone and dialed the number. Moments later, the line went through.

"Obran, is that you?"

"Yes. It's me." Answered a faint voice on the other side of the phone.

"Do you have any apples?" The station master asked Obran for the password they used for communicating between member's of the partisan movement.

"No. I don't. We are all sold out. Listen carefully, we are all sold out"

Station master kept asking "Do you have any apples? I want five kilograms of them."

"I have already told you, we are all sold out. Sorry. We are all sold out."

The station master hung up the phone, and turned to Pilot:" Obran didn't answer the password correctly. That's weird."

"What did he tell you instead?" Pilot asked.

"He repeated and emphasized 'We are all sold out' several times, like he was trying to tell me something."

Being a very experienced partisan, Pilot realized that Obran was trying to hint that someone had betrayed the partisan movement and leaked all the information to the German occupiers about last night's mission. It was not the apples that they sold out. It was them who was sold out. 

"I think Obran is in danger right now. Suri and I will proceed to Obran's station immediately". Pilot opened the door and left with Suri in a hurry.