Shelling and sniper fire already established dangerous zones in the city right at the beginning of the siege of Sarajevo. Streets, squares, markets, schoolyards, residential buildings, administrative and cultural institutions, sports facilities, centres where citizens came to get water and bread - all these localities were exposed to this type of terror. The intention of the "invisible enemy" was to make it impossible for the citizens of Sarajevo to move, thereby reducing any chance of survival even more. Every day, Sarajevo was hit with about 4,000 shells. During the multi-year siege, a total of four million shells were fired at the city, and it was not possible to find any place within 50 meters that was not exposed to sniper fire.

Marshall Tito Barracks - lethal point

„Not just anybody could drive past the Marshall Tito Barracks. Only those who had the guts. That reminds me of one particular example which I can tell you about. There was this Golf that was going 100 kilometres an hour. It got hit in the tire by a sniper bullet and started to roll like crazy. I was only a couple of meters behind him. It was really hard to drive through there. I’m telling you, you only passed through that journey if you were a real daredevil. Whoever had the guts just zipped through there as fast as possible, hoping not to get hit by something, with a 99% chance of getting through alive, and a 1% chance of biting it.“ - Borislav Kanlić, Driver

Destruction

During the siege of Sarajevo, several mass massacres were committed, which remained etched in the city's memory for all time. The massacres took place in places where citizens gathered, waited in line for bread or water, on the streets, in the squares. Here are just a few: The first of two massacres at the Markale market in the centre of Sarajevo took place on February 5, 1994. A grenade fell on the crowded market, killing 68 people and injuring 142 others. The second occurred on August 28, 1995, killing 43 people and wounding 84. There were several massacres of civilians in Dobrinja. The first massacre took place in 1993 in the settlement of Dobrinja III, when 15 civilians were killed and 80 were wounded. The second massacre in Dobrinja took place in 1993 at 37 Hakije Turajlića Street, when 13 civilians were killed and 15 wounded by a mortar shell in the water line. Massacres also took place in Alipašino Polje. The first took place on August 30, 1992, at Trg solidarnosti no. 14 (market) where 11 civilians were killed there. The second happened on January 22, 1994. Six children were killed while sledding.

Massacre in the market place

„The crews went to do some work, and we waited for someone to bring a camera in working order. At that time, we heard that shells hit the Cathedral near the market. And since my whole family and all my relatives lived at Baščaršija, by the Cathedral, I immediately called home; my wife answered the phone. She was crying, she was not able to speak. I wanted to know whether the children were all right. She said that they were fine, she said dead people were being taken away by trucks because a shell hit Markale. I took a camera, the one that was there, a battery, a tape and I left because I wanted to shoot some scenes. Since the market was far away and I had to walk for a long time to get there, and I did not want to arrive too late, I tried to stop a car. People did not want to stop, so I stood in the middle of the street and made one car stop. The driver took me to the Eternal Flame. He did not feel like driving any further. He was afraid that another shell might fall, so I got out of the car and started shooting my film. There were many cars with foreign plates. There was much confusion. I turned on my camera. I was running. At first, I was not paying due attention, and I did not notice the dead bodies lying all around me. I was only paying attention to the camera and I did not want to make a mistake. I knew that a second shell follows the first. And then I decided to keep on shooting, no matter what. I was only concerned about the red light of the camera. I saw those terrible things. And from that moment, I was not aware of what I was filming. I just wanted to register what was in front of me. I recognized my neighbour’s two sons. And later on, I recognized some other neighbours. All of them were people from the Old Town. Later I found out that the families had gotten some cigarettes. And they came to the market to exchange them for food. Usually, mothers and fathers and wounded soldiers would come to exchange those cigarettes. But they stayed there. They got killed.“- Hakija Topić, Cameraman at TVBiH

Mapping of the Siege of Sarajevo

The “Marshal Tito” Army Barracks - The Yugoslav National Army barracks were in the city centre, surrounded by streets which led from the centre to the new parts of the city. The average speed of a car passing the barracks was 120 kilometres per hour (nearly 80 mph) in order to avoid the bullets. While driving one also had to avoid the steel “hedgehogs” placed along the street to prevent tanks from exiting. The barracks building was partially set on fire and destroyed. Some parts were used to build the 'Bosnian House 1992' in real size (FAMA production, architect Ognjenka Finci), as part of an artistic project and a way of resisting terror. That project later became the Museum of the Art of Survival, temporarily installed in front of the National Theatre in 1994.

Adaptation

Already in 1992, the citizens of Sarajevo realized that the entire territory of the city had in fact become a "danger zone". Those who had to move through the streets every day knew from which positions on the surrounding hills the "invisible enemy" was targeting the city. Signs "Watch out, sniper", different types of visual and physical protection were placed. Citizens hid behind moving UNPROFOR transporters. During the siege, the citizens of Sarajevo constantly listened around and tried to recognize the matrix of shelling or sniper shots.

Police warn citizens not to gather in public places

„On the 20th of August 1992 the police gave an order banning any gatherings of citizens at all public places, mainly because we expected that by doing this we could prevent the aggressor from using its artillery to hit people in front of stores, waiting in line for water. This order was extremely difficult to carry out, which is understandable. People at this time were hungry and thirsty, but it was successful to a point. However, the massacres that occurred after that date, and I'm referring to the ones that took place at Markale, the Sarajevo Brewery, and elsewhere, just went to show that an order of that kind was very difficult to realize at that time.“ - Željko Varunek, Member of the Ministry of Internal Affairs staff

Race under the sniper fire

„I went to work, I worked in the Head Office of the BH Railroad Company and every day leaving for work and coming back I had to cross an avenue. It wasn’t a street, but an avenue, I don’t know how many meters wide. A sniper was always shooting at that avenue, killing people, injuring them, and I thought how to cross. I stayed in between the houses. One quick glance to my watch. When the first bullet was shot I counted the seconds to the next bullet. Some 15 to 20 seconds. And so I was ready when the shot was fired to run across the avenue and I had to do it in 15 seconds. At such times the fear a person feels is incredible. The legs were dead, the muscles don’t work and there’s no air in the lungs. And when I arrived to the other side then I stayed there awhile to catch my breath and rest a little and the people who were hiding there and watching were happy that somebody managed to cross that fateful avenue near the Second Gymnasium.“ - Mima Kerken, Citizen

Advice for survival

„So I started off for work, taking the Miljacka riverbed, and they would shoot at me sometimes, but what could I do? My husband was wounded and had to be fed, and my mother-in-law was bed-ridden. And many times I went even though I knew that maybe I would come back alive, maybe wounded, and maybe I wouldn’t come back at all, but I had to. I had two sick people in the house. But it wasn’t just me - we all lived that way. Whoever was able to find some nettles somewhere, or if they received some as a gift, would make that, what did we call it, ‘uljevak’-pie. That was a bonus. One time, a woman gave me a packet of I-don’t-know-what, and an onion and a potato. I remember that I made something that looked like bread. I called the woman next door. She said she would never forget that. Where did we bake? Some people would do it on that screen from an electric range; others would bake in pots. Since we had no wood, we would burn whatever we had around: shoes, sandals, whatever would burn. I don’t know how many books I burned in order to make something to eat for my child, so that he wouldn’t cry and beg me, ‘Mama, give me a piece of bread’. It was the same for everyone; I wasn’t the only one. And many times we all went down to the basement when the shooting started. I would say that this would have to stop once and for all. One time they all left, I stayed and didn’t let my son go, I told him to stay here with me. He started crying and said, ‘Mama, I can’t stand this any longer. Cover my ears with something.’ Because that day and that night it was really raining artillery shells, and when the sniper stops shooting, that’s when a person is the most afraid. Once I went out to get some bread. And so we were waiting, and a sniper was shooting. To this day I am not even sure where he was shooting. These are the conditions under which we lived. It was a struggle for life; we had to struggle in order to survive. That’s how it was on the square, and whoever wasn’t there then cannot even imagine it. More people died from sniper bullets than from artillery shells. Because wherever we moved, the snipers followed us. Even in our apartments. I remember that one time; a woman was bedridden and was left in her apartment while everyone else went down into the shelter. The sniper hit her and she died right there in her bed. There was nowhere that we could go to avoid sniper bullets. They stalked us like animals. I remember one time when I was coming home from work, and I went to cross the bridge, and there were quite a few people standing by the tobacco shop. I asked why they weren’t crossing, and they said they weren’t allowed to. Well, I pretended to be brave and said, ‘I’m allowed to.’ I was carrying a loaf of bread. I started running across, and he started shooting at me, and I threw the bread. I figured, ‘to Hell with food. I’d rather save my head.’ So I went back to where they were all standing and I waited, and waited, until the sniper bullets stopped, and then we ran across. And besides at the bridge, it seems that they were waiting for us everywhere, none of the streets were safe.“ - Zejneba Aganović, Citizen

Adaptability is the simple secret of survival.

- Jessica Hagedorn

Recycling

The citizens of Sarajevo realised that they themselves had to create an alternative way of living in order to survive. One of the important methods of this new way of living was changing the purpose of objects. Improvisation, invention and recycling become survival tools. In order to be able to move around dangerous zones, the citizens of Sarajevo found different solutions to protect themselves from grenades and sniper fire. Transport containers, trams, wrecks of old cars, trucks, and buses are placed at major intersections, thoroughfares, and squares. Large canvases were placed between the buildings as a protection for passers-by. It is important to note here that all the solutions represented mostly visual protection, and did not guarantee safe movement on the streets.

How to mount curtains under sniper fire

„The fitting itself wasn’t even complicated. We had some problems. First we put a rope that broke. Then we put a cable, a four-core one, instead of the rope. Then the cable was the problem because it got stuck in the canvas. Because it wasn’t really canvas, but wool or synthetic fibre, so that it coiled itself up. The biggest problem was how to pull it tight. It wasn’t hard to pull it up, but to pull it tight on the building. Because it coiled. The more it got down, the more it coiled.“ - Dejan Savković, Citizen

The new normal

The siege of Sarajevo showed that a person can survive a disaster and remain a human being. Citizens moved through the streets under shellfire and sniper fire to carry out their daily tasks of survival. The new normal meant moving around the city, going to get water, to work, to school, to college, usually on foot, because there was no fuel, or by bicycle. With the constant risk of being hit by a grenade or a sniper. Clothing and footwear were adapted to the new situation, considering that running through the streets and avenues was one way to avoid being shot by a sniper.

How did you get around the city?

I walked to work under shells, we hid from snipers behind containers and behind buildings. And we also went to get food.

year of birth: 1954
profession: Factory Worker
gender: Female
city district: Pofalići

Perception

The need to establish some kind of balance in the midst of chaos arose spontaneously. In order to maintain mental health, every citizen of the besieged Sarajevo tried to keep himself in balance by bringing his old way of life to the now changed conditions.

Then...

Ship containers are used again for the anti-sniper protection

„September 17, 1994 was, I tell you, those containers, and every 15 days we moved them to different positions, depending on where the snipers were shooting. As they found holes in the protection of some part of the city, so we put those containers. September 17, 1994 it was at The Marijin Dvor crossing was the most difficult crossing to protect from snipers. Why? Because the Marijin Dvor crossing was very elongated and hundreds of containers would have been needed to accomplish something. And the people who lived there, in Istarska Street and behind the Faculty of Philosophy simply couldn’t go anywhere. To get the basic foodstuffs. The food was distributed in Albanska Street, in the community hall. It means that somebody from Istarska Street had to cross that awful, wide, huge Marijin Dvor crossing to get food in order to survive. That’s why we asked the UNPROFOR to position those containers there. Unfortunately, I think it was that September, a French soldier was killed. It was that young man, 19 years old, who drove that forklift. And he was killed when a sniper waited for him to lower the container and shot him in the head. I think this was filmed. Actually it was televised live, an example of a real murder. On top of all those murders when our people got killed, now we had that foreigner who was killed.“ - Fuad Babić, Commander of the Civil Defense

Now...

People continued to die, and they were dying in large numbers

"Anti-sniper protection, de facto visual protection, was initiated by UNPROFOR and some other institutions in the city of Sarajevo. To put it mildly, I can say that this visual anti-sniper protection did not really help us much.People continued to die, and they were dying in large numbers. So I can't say for sure, maybe she saved someone. It probably is. But people, I repeat, still died. This visual anti-sniper protection was reflected in the installation of curtains, foils that covered the intersections in the city of Sarajevo, where the people passed the most, and which were within the sniper's range. When we talk about localities that were covered by sniper activity, it is, for example, Maksima Gorkog Street, Marijin Dvor, Nedžarići and Dobrinja. De facto, the entire city was covered by sniper activity and people were dying in large numbers." - Fuad Babić, civil engineer and retired expert of the Sarajevo Canton Construction Institute, wartime commander of the Civil Defense of the city of Sarajevo