It’s 26 years since the start of the Siege of Sarajevo
It’s now 26 years since the Siege of Sarajevo began. This is the name given to the blockade of the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo in 1992. We went to Sarajevo as part of a Balkan holiday 8 years ago, so I thought I’d look out our photos and remember Sarajevo.
How the siege started
The break-up of Yugoslavia caused many problems and there is no way that I could describe the ins and outs of the conflict but I will try to explain some of the history.
The area of Bosnia and Herzegovina had been under Ottoman and then Austro-Hungarian rule. In 1918 it became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, Which was renamed Yugoslavia in 1929. Following World War II in Yugoslavia, it became part of the second Yugoslavia in 1945 as the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
War scars, Sarajevo
With the collapse of Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Herzegovina declared themselves independent but Bosnian Serbs wanted to create the Republika Srpska (meaning “Serb Republic”), an area outwith the Serbian border but not under Bosnian rule, which would include the newly independent capital, Sarajevo.
The Bosnian War, which lasted from April 1992 – February 1996 and ended with the creation of Republika Srpska and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
What is a Sarajevo rose?
A Sarajevo rose is the scar caused by a mortar shell’s explosion. After the Bosnian War, these explosion marks were filled with red resin.
It is said that the patterns made by the exploding shells look like flowers.
These spots mark where one or more people have died during the attack.
No one knows who started these memorials and some feel that the tourists looking at them hinder the healing process. Whatever your thought on them, they are disappearing. Sarajevo re-construction and developments meaning new infrastructure and no roses.
The rose above is located at Sacred Heart Cathedral
Here are some more images from our trip to Sarajevo.
