The Killing of Sarajevo

On Wednesday, May 27, at 10.15 a.m., Vase Miskina Street, a pedestrian zone in the very center of Sarajevo, was crowded with people. Another cease-fire had come into effect that morning, it was a lovely sunny day, and there was some bread to buy (the only food in the city). The street illustrates perfectly the way Sarajevo citizens feel about their aggressors: as soon as the bombing stops, the place fills with people. They put their best clothes on, go out for a walk and have a drink - if there is any - in one of the remaining cafes. It is hard for an outsider to understand this kind of behavior amidst the chaos of war, but those who remained in the town and those who fled - and, especially, those who have been shelling it from the hills - know perfectly well what it is all about. It is to do with spite: going for a stroll on the corso in the Vase Miskina street is a clear message to the attackers that Sarajevo will never be theirs, even if they raze it to the ground and then conquer it.

This is probably why they are razing it to the ground...

The message has, apparently, been received and understood.

At 10.15 a man living in Vase Miskina Street saw from his window something fall to the ground, tearing a shop canopy ; a moment later there was an explosion, and another one a little farther away. The street became a river of blood, with fragments of human bodies everywhere, and it was filled with groans of the wounded. Twelve people were killed on the spot - men, women and children. Having in mind the situation in Sarajevo hospitals, many more dead can be expected (on the same night another nine people succumbed to their wounds). The few cars available nearby were immediately loaded with the wounded. A van could not start up, people who gave it a push-start barely managed to do so because the pavement was slippery with blood. Amidst the rescuing, snipers fired a few shots. Radio Sarajevo broadcasted an appeal to blood donors; a while after that they asked citizens to stop coming because more blood had been donated than could be processed.

Sarajevo TV was on location within a few minutes: the images of the massacre were broadcasted all over the world on the same day. The limit of tolerance was breached: the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina is no longer what it used to be, a religious slaughtering somewhere in the Balkan back-of-beyond and a trifle problem in the EC's backyard.

And what killed all these innocent people? According to witnesses, survivors and wounded, and the report of the Sarajevo Public Security Center, Vasa Miskin Street was hit by two 120mm mortar shells. Some two hundred meters away from the scene of the massacre another shell fell, which luckily, due to poor control, did not explode. It was another 120mm shell.

In the pitiful and pathetic attempts to avoid political responsibility, different people used different excuses. Firstly, the famous Major-General Milan Gvero appeared with the following statement: "Today, on May 27, the Serbian Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina's (SRB-H) army units have not opened fire... Concerning the broadcasted images (...) we are confident that it is a case of a perfidious propaganda trick, counting on domestic and international effects at this precise moment, and this trick is even more perfidious than the alleged bombing of Banski Dvori (Zagreb), Dubrovnik and the like."

General Gvero did not mention Dubrovnik for no reason: as the Federal Defense Ministry's Spokesman, he entered history by saying that "not a speck of dust had fallen on Dubrovnik".

In the evening of May 27, General Mladic, Commander-in-Chief of SRB-H army, also gave a statement on the massacre. It was obvious that he felt uneasy and that, unlike his assistant Gvero, he is not able to lie so bluntly to the world. He said it appeared to him that, judging from the victims' injuries, infantry contact mines had been laid in the pedestrian zone and activated by the legal authorities. Then he said that it still remains to be seen of which nationality the victims were, so that it does not turn out that they were all Serbs.

Mr. Velibor Ostojic of the SRB-H Government immediately grasped the idea of the mines in his statement to SRNA (the Serbian News Agency). As usual, the Agency promptly accused certain individuals on the grounds of "reliable information" and without any proof. Mr. Vojislav Seselj stuck to the second part of the statement and said that "most of the victims were Serbs". Only Mr. Momcilo Krajisnik, the speaker of the SRB-H Parliament, was decent enough to express his condolences to the victims' families, although he also - right away and without checking - said: "I responsibly claim that the Serbian Army did not fire a single shell at Sarajevo today..." The last straw was Mr. Karadzic's cold statement given in Lisbon on the same day that Muslims had killed their own people in order to interrupt the Conference on B&H under way in the Portuguese capital. Thus he definitely became the most discredited figure in the B&H crisis, but also the number one candidate for scapegoat once the crisis begins to be resolved. Apart from his generals and bootlickers, only Branko Kostic is on his side. Mr. Kostic wrote to Mr. Koziryev, the Russian Foreign Minister, failing to fully grasp Russia's political options, that the massacre was caused "by the very same people who enjoy the undivided support of the EC and the USA, with a single aim of starting an avalanche of anger and condemnation against Serbia and Yugoslavia and using the incident as a pretext for interrupting the Lisbon Conference".

The entire new-YU and Serbian establishment hastily attempted to dissociate itself, as strongly as possible, from the Sarajevo massacre. The only one missing was the Serbian President himself: in his entire interview to Serbian TV, Mr. Milosevic did not deem it necessary to express any feelings concerning the issue. It must be that this issue is too trifling from the standpoint of the Great Serbian Leader. But Mr. Bozovic, the Prime Minister, called the Sarajevo incident a "crime", and the casualties "victims of madness", with a significant additional comment "regardless of who caused it". The "regardless" appears in almost all reactions of the Serbo-Yugoslav side (Serbian Academy of Science, the "SFRY Presidency", the Yugoslav Army General Staff...). Mr. Vladislav Jovanovic, Serbian Foreign Minister, as a good diplomat, was highly conscious of the political effect of the dismembered corpses in Sarajevo on world opinion and his condemnation of the massacre was resolute.

The incident also exposed the ever fiercer conflict between the Yugoslav Army (YA) and Karadzic's team: Miss Biljana Plavsic, a SRB-H Presidency member, cannot possibly forgive Major-General Boskovic, the authorized negotiator with the B&H Government in the issues concerning the withdrawal of the rest of his army from Sarajevo, the fact that he immediately reacted in a genuinely humane and politically appropriate way ("I simply cannot conceive that there is such a monster able to shoot at people who came out of cellars and shelters to buy some bread in order to survive"). It has been known for weeks that the unhindered pull-out of the YA troops from Sarajevo does not suit Karadzic's people, for it would clarify the political situation and transfer all responsibility for future actions to Mr. Karadzic. The people from Sarajevo (ordinary people of all nationalities) keep saying that Karadzic's troops have on several occasions shelled the YA held barracks, trying to provoke the well-known "fierce response" and thus involve the Army even deeper in their own war. The General Staff sided with Boskovic and called Miss Plavsic "irresponsible". That, however, does not solve the crucial drama of Karadzic's state: what will happen after we're left on our own?

And it is evident that Mr. Karadzic will be left alone in the whole wide world. A official of the new state has described the political climate in Belgrade as follows: "Our only interest at this moment is to pull out the 1,500 soldiers from Sarajevo. After that, B&H will cease to exist for us."

At this moment it is unclear who is in charge of the remaining 1,500 men: General Mladic or General Panic (the YA Chief-of-Staff). General Mladic, allegedly, ordered that no-one can enter the barracks without his order. The real problem, however, lies in the deal by which the YA should return some 10,000 rifles to the B&H Territorial Defense (TD). Karadzic's men would hate to see these weapons in the hands of the B&H TD and are obviously prepared to do anything to prevent the realization of this deal. General Boskovic praised the B&H Government for its good will and cooperation in the troops' withdrawal, and this is not surprising: if anyone wants the army out of Sarajevo, it is Mr. Izetbegovic (for the same reasons Karadzic does not want it to).

It is obvious that the problem lies with the "left-over part of the JNA in Bosnia". According to the latest information (Reuters, Friday, 12.30 p.m.) the Army is shelling Dubrovnik again, although it began withdrawing troops from the area two days ago. On the night between Thursday and Friday the troops holding the hills around Sarajevo have started shelling the city again. The frightening novelty is that multiple missile launchers are being used. According to reports from the spot (Pale, Sokolac), the local extremists offered their whole estates in exchange for a chance to fire a salvo from a multiple missile launcher at Sarajevo. Apparently, someone granted their wish.

All in all, it seems that the effect the massacre has had on the world has incited Mr. Karadzic and his team to desperately adopt a double or quits strategy. The taking of Sarajevo is now imposed as an imperative, at any cost. At this moment (Friday afternoon), some forty fires are burning in the city. Shells and missiles are pouring from the skies, snipers are killing indiscriminately: Muslims, Serbs, Croats, Jews and others. ("It don't matter whom we kill as long as the fuss is bigga'", said a sniper marksman exchanged for a bus full of children).

Who can put an end to this crime against humanity? General Mladic, who has been threatening to "burn Sarajevo down like Vukovar"? The FRY, which is not interested in B&H anymore? Mr. Milosevic, who probably wishes he never met Mr. Karadzic? The UNPROFOR, which withdrew from Sarajevo with its tail between its legs? Europe and America, formerly torn by internal disputes and latterly busy with electoral campaigns? The YA, whose previous incarnation (JNA) armed Karadzic's paramilitary formations with mortars, a poor man's weapon for mass destruction? Belgrade peacemakers with their candles? The world's terror? God only knows.