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Ten years after
Author: Bosnia Action Coalition
Uploaded: Thursday, 25 April, 2002
In commemoration of 'the tenth anniversary of the 'official' start of the siege of Sarajevo, the longest siege in the history of modern war', in order 'to remember the more than 10,000 who were killed in that dark time, as well as the strength and courage of those who survived the horrors there', Bosnia Action Coalition reprinted 'Voices from Sarajevo', first published in April 1995
What is it like to be trapped under siege for more than three years, surrounded by heavily-armed extremists who launch artillery shells and grenades at your home, and shoot at you as you walk in the street? What is it like to live in a city where nationalists cut off your food, water, heat, electricity, and medical supplies while the world watches on TV?
Those of us ‘outside' will never know. Even foreigners who visit the city -- courageous people who voluntarily risk their lives to deliver aid or send news reports of the war -- will never know. Because while outsiders may share the terror of Serb snipers and artillery attacks, they know they can leave again, and rejoin the outside world. They are not trapped in what one song calls the city's ‘eternal nightmare.'
This collection of comments from Sarajevans themselves was compiled from various sources over the past three years, including news reports and the Internet. Some quotes are not attributed because they come from private correspondence.
Compiled by Sharon Machlis Gartenberg of the Bosnia Action Coalition
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VOICES FROM SARAJEVO
‘Sometimes I just have the feeling the sniper is watching me from the hill and can shoot me whenever he likes. My forehead begins to itch at the place where I expect the bullet.'
‘We think we are normal. People outside would think we are mad. We shut our ears to the gunfire. We spend hours fetching water, looking for food. We live for today and can only hang on to dreams about the future.
‘But I still love Sarajevo.'
--Lejla Krilic, 20
‘It's a miracle that we're still alive. It's amazing, really.'
--Comment on the 3rd anniversary of the siege
‘We knew the Americans would come one day [to Auschwitz], that they would win in the end. We didn't know how long it would be, but we knew liberation would come. Now, we don't know anything.'
‘This is the third year, and we don't see anyone with us, and we don't know what the world will do. Never in my life did I live like this....'
‘I don't write to my son anymore. What would I tell him? That we have water today? That we are promised electricity tomorrow? These are the themes of our lives now. Once again, we have been diminished.'
--Holocaust survivor Greta Ferusic, 70
‘Many of my friends gave their lives for the beauty of this town. I can't simply ignore that fact because then they would have died for nothing. That is why can't leave this town. I only wish to see the seaside once again in my life.'
--Haris Hadziavdagic, 20
‘I don't care about politics because politics is a whore. I hate politics. If you ask me how I feel today, I feel like an animal.'
--Mirsad Sukalo, 19
‘Now I like the stumps more than the trees. I feel good having it so empty and bare. It matches something inside me.'
--20-year-old surgeon's assistant, in a park where all the trees were cut down for firewood
‘I stop breathing for two stations. I'm used to being afraid. I'm used to running across every intersection in the city. What's the difference? It is quicker and more comfortable in a tram.'
--Kaira Kovac, 32, on why she rides the trams, a favorite sniper target
‘If I have to face another winter without electricity, water and heating, I'm going to take a rope and hang myself. They won't have to kill me.'
--Dina Gacic, a 22-year-old hairdresser
‘I don't have a normal life and I don't see a future for me here. .... Every day I lose my friends and soon I'll be alone. You can't study, you can't work, you can't make money, you can't make love (condoms are very expensive). So, I want to go somewhere, but where? Sarajevo isn't the place for me, but where is the place for me?'
--Redina Ljumanovic
‘Every day when I wake up in the morning, I am so happy because I am alive. Many of my friends are dead and so you can see why I am so happy, because in Sarajevo to be alive is a luxury that many people cannot afford. Right now, I am not afraid but if the shellings start again, I would go out of my mind. Those things are the worst experiences in my whole life-- besides seeing my best friend's brain blown away.'
--Alma Duran
‘As far as my ham radio goes, I'm doing this to live through the times, and to show those cretins that I'm still alive and better than they are. I don't miss participating in any important (radio) contests, and from spite I put up good antennas with my friends so that 'T9' [the prefix for Bosnia- Hercegovina] can be heard everywhere.'
--Sarajevo amateur-radio operator
‘We feel pride, a sense of victory that we are still standing after all those blows. We show it in going to the cafes, shopping, strolling. Those who survived are proud to be Sarajevans.'
--Nedzad Niksic, 50, jeweler in Sarajevo's Old Town
‘Everyday life in Sarajevo is awful. We do not have enough electricity, gas, water or heating. Sometimes we do not have it at all. Right now it is snowing heavily and the gas and heating systems are out of order so when I go back home I will be freezing to death....'
‘I should be traveling and having fun, making new friends, seeing other cities and countries. But instead of that I have to bring water to my flat and carry it in my hands for two or three miles. You see, during heavy shellings we did not have any water in our homes. We had to go to the few natural sources of water, fill the plastic gallons with water and carry it to home. That is very exhausting.....'
‘But although death is all around us, we girls still try to look good. Our way of fighting is to look beautiful and to show to those beasts that are killing us that youth and life will triumph over death.'
--Alma Duran
‘I don't know how to describe the life of people here, because there is no life. Here exists only something as animal natural impulse to survive.'
--Letter, 1993
‘It's as if my past was a sweet and peaceful dream, and I was roused at the best part of it. And as if I every evening try to continue my dream, desiring to find out what further happened, but I haven't found it yet....'
--University student
‘Policy, negotiations. Again and again. When I hear that, I want to throw up.'
‘They want to persuade me there is still some chance for peace. But I see what is coming. It is enough to listen to the sounds of the night -- the crackle of machine guns and the thuds of explosions.'
--Adnan Muhamedovic
‘There is not a single place in Sarajevo on which a grenade has not fallen in the past three years. So how can anyone feel safe in Sarajevo? We breathe unsafety with our air, we drink unsafety with our water, we eat unsafety with our bread. We are people who feel: not alive - but alive for now.'
--Writer Marko Vesovic, 50
‘Look at these children. Can you say which one of them is Muslim, which one of them is Croat, which one of them is Serb, and the other nationalities? Please, look at them. You don't know. I don't want to know, so please don't ask me that question.'
--School principal Vjekoslav Brezar, to an American radio reporter
‘We had about 10 direct hits. My head nurse was killed right here.
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