The Institute for Research of Genocide of Canada {IRGC} would like to commemorate the Siege of Sarajevo

The Institute for Research of Genocide of Canada  {IRGC} would like to commemorate the Siege of Sarajevo

The longest siege of a city in the history

One of the objectives of the aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina was to capture Sarajevo. To capture Sarajevo in those circumstances meant the capitulation of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The siege of the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina commenced on 1 March 1992, when the Command of the Second Military Area of the Yugoslav Peoples Army in cooperation with the Serb Democratic Party placed the barricades in and around Sarajevo, that is, after the Referendum on Independence, and it ended on 19 March 1996 with the reintegration of the last parts of the occupied City.

The siege of Sarajevo lasted 1,479 days and it was the longest siege in the history of modern warfare. During the siege, about 329 shells a day were fired against the city, and the record was 3,777 shells of various calibers fired on 22 July 1993.

In the period 1992 – 1996, the residents of Sarajevo were exposed to numerous forms of crimes against humanity and international law of various characters, natures, and features. In addition to the crimes against civilians, many crimes were committed against civilian facilities under special protection of international law.

Pursuing the forbidden form of siege and warfare in Sarajevo, the coordinated long-lasting, widespread, and systematic campaign (military strategy) of shelling civilian areas, facilities, and civilians was conducted with the use of artillery, mortars, and infantry weapons. Shelling and the sniper fire against the city resulted in the murder or injuring of thousands of civilians, of both genders and different age, including children and the elderly. In this way, the civilian population was terrorized, and exposed to physical and mental suffering, due to which a large number of population lived in conditions that lead to its destruction, many of which died as well.

The civilians were intentionally shelled while they were dealing with their everyday lives or were in the civilian areas. They were shelled during the funerals, in ambulances, hospitals, trams and buses, in private vehicles, or on bicycles, at home, in gardens, in bread queues, queues for water, while collecting fire-woods, and in many other occasions. Even the children in schools were shelled, or while they were playing.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia {ICTY}, in the case Milošević (IT-02-54) assessed the number of victims of the siege of Sarajevo. In reference with this, ICTY evaluated that “the total number of those who died in the territory of Sarajevo /parts of the six Sarajevo municipalities: Centar, Ilidža, Novi Grad, Novo Sarajevo, Stari Grad, and VogošÄ‡a – remark by Meldijana Arnaut/ in the period April 1992 to December 1995 was 18,889. That number included four categories of the dead: civilians who died in relation to the war (4,954), soldiers who died in relation to the war (4,548), civilians who died of a natural cause, and we believe that their deaths are not related to war (8,285) and a number of dead civilians whose death cannot be categorized as related to the war (1,102)”. Of 18,889 of “the total number of those who died” in the territory of the six aforementioned Sarajevo municipalities during the siege, ICTY evaluated “that there was a total of 9,502 direct victims of the siege (civilians and soldiers: 4,954 and 4,584)”, and it was emphasized that the number “was incomplete”.

In 2003 ICTY convicted the first commander of the Republika Srpska para-military force and former Yugoslav People's Army Sarajevo-Romanija Corps, Stanislav Galic, for the crimes against humanity committed during the Siege of Sarajevo. In 2007, Dragomir Milosevic, the Serb general who replaced Galic as commander, was found guilty by ICTY as well.

The residents of the capital city of Sarajevo have historically lived in tolerance and diversity; in a city where Christianity, Islam and Judaism flourished side by side for centuries. Unfortunately, Sarajevo was the object of aggressor's siege whose goal was to destroy its multiethnic fabric and eliminate any semblance of religious and cultural cohabitation.

In order to prevent genocide in the future and in solidarity with the April Genocide Prevention Month, IRGC  is remembering victims of genocide and honoring the survivors. The struggle to seek justice for the victims of genocide must continue.