The Siege

Today dawned gray and rainy... only fitting for the 21st anniversary of the start of the siege of Sarajevo.    Where were you 21 years ago today?  What were your concerns?  I was most likely at Duran Jr. High School in Pell City, AL, worrying about my troublesome hair and if I would ever have a boyfriend.  21 years ago, the residents of Sarajevo began to fear for the lives every single day for 44 months.  That's longer than Liam has been alive!  44 months of terror.  I cannot begin to imagine.  But I can empathize.  One of my traits is that I am a VERY empathetic person.  My bleeding heart aches over every sad news story, I cry during all those abused pet commercials, and I cannot watch replays of injuries during sports events because it makes me hurt too.  This empathy is why I have been unable to write about the war until now.  I was simply unable to do so without collapsing into despair.

It is almost incomprehensible that this siege happened in my lifetime.  And while other events have too--the Gulf War, and now our fights in Afghanistan and Iraq...those seem different to me.  An innocent party was attacked, and there were/are two armed sides battling each other.  I can understand those military ventures.  The siege falls into its own category.  An army surrounded a city and laid siege to innocent, mainly unarmed CIVILIANS.  Everyday, average, normal people...NOT ANOTHER ARMY.  I simply cannot understand.  11,541 citizens of Sarajevo died, including over 1,500 children. 1,500 kids died at the hands of a sniper or during a mortar attack.  I cry now thinking of those sweet young things.  There is no sense in such acts.

"Luckily" for Sarajevo, NATO and the UN began to get involved in 1994, and the siege ended almost 2 years later, at the end of February in 1996.  I know it can be politically messy to intervene in civil wars, but I am appalled at some of the stories I've heard....the expired rations the UN sent to the citizens in their time of need (the dogs wouldn't even eat the canned meat), the massacre at Srebenica which was a UN PROTECTED ZONE, the rape camps in Grbavica (the neighborhood we live above and where I now do my marketing)...what took so long?  ESPECIALLY when this war was all over the news!  I remember the images of the people running between buildings trying to avoid the snipers, some of whom were probably camped out on the very hill my house now sits upon.  How could the rest of us just let this happen?  I will never know and probably never stop being upset by the inaction of the world and the merciless random violence of the siege.

I may not be able to rid myself of my anger and sadness, but what I can do is tell the story.  I can write about the siege so people can learn about and remember what happened.  I can photograph the still present evidence so people can see.  I can honor the victims in this way so that they are never forgotten.  Please pray for those 11, 541 souls, and pray for Sarajevo and Bosnia i Herzegovina.  There is still a lot of healing to be done.

 Can you see the three cemeteries in this one photo from the bottom of our driveway?

People couldn't even bury their dead in peace.  

Parks became graveyards, and funerals were held at dawn or dusk
so that snipers would have a harder time visually.

 Bullet holes

 Bombed out house right next to a nicely rebuilt home

 The memorial to the first two victims of the siege--Suada and Olga--
2 women who were attending a PEACE RALLY when snipers opened fire.
Geoff walks across this bridge to work.
(There is almost always a bouquet of flowers placed here.)

 More bullet holes

A mortar impact

This video is under three minutes in length.  I love the juxtaposition in this piece.
There are only one or two graphic images, but watch at your own discretion.