THOUSAND DAYS OF THE SIEGE OF SARAJEVO

Sarajevo Feb 5, 1995

SARAJEVO WARNS

AIM, SARAJEVO, January 29, 1995 With the help of people who are once again claiming that "they did not know", history has in the worst possible way played a game with dates - commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of closing down of the gates of Auschwitz coincides with the sad remembrance of thousand days of the siege of Sarajevo. On the occasion of his Christmas visit to Sarajevo in 1993, Paris Archbishop, Cardinal Lustiger, a child of Auschwitz, said: "What struck me as most tragic here in Sarajevo, results from memories of Auschwitz. We hoped there, we waited for someone to come and see the truth and tell the world about it. It would be the end of suffering. Here, there are hundreds of journalists from all over the world, everybody knows, and nothing is happening. Here, in the streets, is the army we in Auschwitz waited for, they are riding around in white tanks and armored vehicles, and yet, noone opens the gates of your camp..."

That is exactly what is happening. The gates of Sarajevo have not been opened for one thousand days. In this city under siege, where thousands of shells have claimed 10 thousand lives, a thousand and five hundred children's lives, and mutilated over 60 thousand people, alongside with the military siege of Karadzic's Serbs, an internal siege continues, intentionally imposed by the domestic power-holders. Citizens of Sarajevo - a specific human species which perseveres most frequently without food, water, electricity, gas - on this sad and shameful for us all occasion, were visited by many important persons from the cultural, political and social life in general from our, but the European space, too. European parliamentarians, publicists, philosephers, politicians, directors, mayors, humanitarians or artists, landed for a couple of days in Sarajevo, which tried to present itself to them in this short time, as it really is, but also as the war has made it.

On the first day, the mayor of Sarajevo, Tarik Kupusovic, addressed the suite, saying among other that "for us, your arrival to this city which is one thousand days under siege is more than a meeting, because it convinces us that there are those who will not allow this city to remain an isolated island of pain and suffering, far from the eyes and the heart of the world", and that the distinguished guests "fill us with new strength and self-confidence to persevere in defense of universal principles of modern civilization". Then those present were given a lecture by the Sarajevo mayor about the beauty of living together, or more precisely about something that many of them could not even see in the environments where they came from: "This city has been for half a millenium a true meetingplace of nations, religions, cultures and customs. But, the specific beauty lies in the fact that it is not a mere sum of differences. Differences are merged here into something universal which does not lose the smell of particularities. You will come across more beautiful mosques and more glorious cathedrals, and more dazzling Orthodox churches, and more magnificent Jewish synagogues, but nowhere in the world, and in no city on this planet of ours, will you find all four places of worship just a few hundred metres apart." On the second day, the guests of Sarajevo toured the city: Kosevo hospital which is heated every other day; new city cemeteries opened for lack of space in the original ones in parks and the subsidiary stadium "Kosevo"; settlement Sokolje at the first demarcation line where shooting from the trenches have become part of the everyday life of the citizens of that part of Sarajevo; and then they attended simultaneous prayers for peace in all four Sarajevo places of worship. A final presentation of a project about free and united Sarajevo was then held for them at the "Holiday Inn", and they were acquainted with a material titled "Declaration on the United and Undivided City" with signatures of 401,805 persons, out of which 220,500 are citizens from 52 countries of Europe and the world. Former mayor of Sarajevo, Salko Selimovic, told them that the entire "material, bound in 50 volumes, will be presented to B.B. Ghali, B. Clinton, members of the Contact Group, the EC and the Council of Europe, in order to let them know once again what we wish and how we wish to live". Absence of their foreign colleagues was commented on by domestic journalists with the following words: "For them, good news from Sarajevo, is just

  • bad news, and had by any chance data that citizens of Sarajevo do NOT WISH to live together been presented here, the city would have been full of them." The program of observance of the 1,000 days under siege, also included a colloquy with the title "Life to Sarajevo - for the future of the world", with the intention to stimulate the entire international public to take a decisive stance about Sarajevo, but not only for the sake of this, but all other cities which base their future on multi-culture. Predrag Matvejevic emphasized at the colloquy:

  • Having landed in a military plane at the airport, and having seen the tortured faces of my friends from this city, I cried and did not hide my tears. Those who wish to speak here and say everything they consider important, expressing support for those who are suffering under the longest siege in this century, must remove their words from a trap we who speak tend to fall in. Our speech is trapped between insult and treason. Each critical word referring to one's own nation, one of the nations which live here, is treason. Simply because it is critical. Each critical word uttered about another nation is an insult. That manner of speech is what prevents saying the real truth about everything to blame for this war and everybody who is guilty for it. Unfortunately, projects of war have appeared in national cultures hidden behind the inviolable right to national culture. There are segments of national culture which turn into ideology of a nation. And within that ideology of a nation, projects of conquests, victory appeared. And the only victory worth winning is the victory of those who are defending themselves. Sarajevo has won this moral victory and that is the only basis further coexistence can be built upon.

Other guests of the three-day Sarajevo observance of this joint thousand-day tragedy also spoke.

  • Kemal Baysak, the mayor of Ismir: " Although I have read in the papers and watched on TV pictures from Bosnia, I could not believe that it is like this. A man should see and exprience this to realize what has happened. No TV can ever convey it. There isn't a single window in this city which is whole. I have not believed it is like this! This Sarajevo is not the Sarajevo I remember!"

  • Slavko Linic, tha mayor of Rijeka: " My encounter with Sarajevo was more of a shock than a pleasant encounter. Even at the airport, and then when I saw the city... I often stayed in Sarajevo before. It is really one of the beautiful cities which a man always remembers and gladly revisits. Now, I can see nothing whole, and all the time a man keeps hoping it is not that tragic. In Sarajevo, again, we can meet people from all sides, all continents. As much as I was grieved by everything else, the people made me feel enthusiastic. I think there are no limitations to man, man can overcome anything."

  • Sergio Gambini, city Chancellor of Rimini: "Sarajevo is a problem of entire Europe. Coexistence of all nations, all religions could be seen in it before the war. The siege of Sarajevo is the siege of that way of life. It is the siege of the idea which is crucial for the future of Europe. I came here to be able to tell the people in Rimini what it is like over here. Europe is doing nothing. I would like the people in Rimini to realize in what way they can help Sarajevo. Because by helping people in Sarajevo, we are helping ourselves."

  • Semi Bora, the mayor of Lefcosis, Northern Cyprus: "We had a difficult period during the war in 1963, so we understand perfectly everything citizens of Sarajevo are experiencing. I know that it is not a pleasant feeling to be in a war, but you must protect your identity, your existence on earth."

  • Pascual Mirgal Mira, the mayor of Barcellona: "Sarajevo is the symbol for all of us, for all the cities in Europe and the world. If Sarajevo loses its battle, we shall all lose. If we cannot help any more, we can at least come and say - this is our city!"

  • Franco Milietti, the mayor of Colegno, the first city which became the fraternal city with Sarajevo: "Children from Colegno are writing letters to the children of Sarajevo, these contacts never stop. We showed the letters at the seat of the European Parliament, and the children of Colegno went to Geneva to beg Presidents Milosevic, Tudjman and Izetbegovic for peace".

Participants of this parade had the opportunity to see an exhibition of improvised aids for survival, such as stoves made of all kinds of buckets, old boilers or cookers, sledges for hauling water, carts for pulling wooden and plastic crates for bread, lamps and candles made of cans and wax... They were, of course, offered all "war specialties" from rice, macaroni, lentil, powdered milk or tea made of grass picked at rare green areas in Sarajevo. But, a bitter taste lingered in their mouths because of the awareness about a silent boycott of the almost entire state leadership of B&H. During the remembrance of the 1,000 days of Sarajevo under siege, Alija Izetbegovic started on a tour of the liberated territories, where (in Zenica) he will be celebrating the second anniversary of the 7th Muslim Brigade, and lining up young men with national and religious insignia on their uniforms who will be exclaiming "Allah egber". Of course, he is that same statesman who is speaking in favour of a united, multi-cultural and multi-ethnic B&H on the international scene. It appears, however, that between remembrance of the thousand days of the siege and struggle for a mutli-ethnic Sarajevo on one, and the visit to the Party of Democratic Action of Tuzla-Podrinje canton on the other side, Izetbegovic assessed that the latter was far more significant for him.

MIRSADA BOSNO