Chronology → Video Oral History

The Siege of Sarajevo 1992–1996

This Interactive FAMA Project integrates the documented chronology of the Siege of Sarajevo with first-hand testimonies within a single interface.

The material can be explored month by month by selecting any point between March 1992 and March 1996. For each chosen month, the user can review the corresponding textual chronology alongside video oral history interviews from the same period. By aligning the chronology of events with personal experiences, the platform enables a more layered, contextual exploration of how the siege unfolded over time.

The Siege of Sarajevo: Chronology 1992-1996

Compiled shortly after the war, this comprehensive chronology of the Sarajevo siege covers the period from March 1992 to March 1996. Structured by month and year, it draws on articles from the “Oslobođenje” newspaper, UN archives, reports from foreign correspondents, and citizen testimonies to document key social, political, military, cultural, and personal events of that time. By recording major developments and everyday survival, the chronology remains a vital reference for understanding how the siege unfolded and transformed every aspect of city life.

Oral History: The Siege of Sarajevo 1992-1996, video

Structured chronologically and thematically, this is the first and largest video oral history of the Sarajevo siege in the world, featuring nearly 1,000 interviews with over 450 citizens from diverse backgrounds. Produced soon after the war, it presents personal testimonies covering all aspects of life in the besieged city. This 30-hour collection serves as both an educational resource and a historical record, offering future generations an unparalleled insight into first-hand accounts of the longest urban siege in modern history.

Chronology

The Geneva negotiations move to New York.
Sarajevo is surrounded by five rings :
1. The Bosnian Serb Army 2.The UN 3. The HVO 4. The black market 5. The current government
The Bosnian Serbs shell mourning processions, funerals and hospitals in Sarajevo.
Vinko Puljic, head of the Catholic church in BiH, meets with the Pope. From Sarajevo he conveys the Pope’s message to the world: “Stop the savagery, let humanity prevail!”
Lord Robert Owen comes out against the USA, who had rejected a plan that favored the Bosnian Serbs.
SUBNOR, an association of soldiers from the Second World War, makes an appeal to its members to fight against facism, genocide and ethnic cleansing, and for communal life.
Advice to patients: If you go to the clinic, bring a log, because the heating situation is critical.
The city is struck by wartime hyperinflation .
The International Center for Peace receives representatives from the Helsinki Citizens Forum from France who need to monitor the situation in Sarajevo, and then report to the European and world public whether civil society exists in Sarajevo.
The UNHCR suspends flights.
High schools begin to operate at neighborhood council centers, business premises, apartments.
Radio “Studio 99” reports news on the division of the city. Panicked listeners contact the program. Vance-Owen mediators are in the city; this information originates from them.
Killed and wounded lay on the airport runway. During the run across the tarmac UNPROFOR reflect lights on it, giving Bosnian Serbs the chance to aim at the moving target. Afterward UN procedures are followed – those caught are placed in UN vehicles and the blue-helmets take them back to wherever they came from.
The best sportsmen are announced for BiH in '92: chess players Vesna Basagic and Ivan Sokolov.
The City Assembly decides that Sarajevans, in a gesture of solidarity with the citizens of Eastern Bosnia, will not accept humanitarian aid until a humanitarian convoy reaches Eastern Bosnia.
The first wartime cinema opens, “Obala”. Screenings are held in Sarajevo basements.
Because of the city government’s refusal to accept humanitarian aid, supplies are left lying on the airport runway. Pilots refuse to land because of the piles of undelivered food.
“Oslobodjenje” is visited by Bianca Jagger.
The UNHCR decides in Geneva: Government officials cannot be transported on UN planes. The previous month, Geneva had approved local reporters’ use of UN planes from the besieged city.
The Civil Defense requests two containers from the city authorities to protect Sarajevans from snipers at intersections. The Civil Defense is unable to tow them because they have no fuel.
Sadako Ogata, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), halts humanitarian aid to BiH, while the executive council sticks to its decision to refuse humanitarian aid out of solidarity with the citizens of Eastern Bosnia. Once this decision is reversed the air bridge is reestablished.
New York, February 20, 1993. The UN Security Council unanimously adopts a new resolution extending the mandate of the 13,000 blue-helmets in Croatia. This resolution provides for the temporary extension of the UN mandate through March 31st. Resolution 807 urges the UN Secretary General to provide additional arms in order to enhance defense capabilities and allows the use of arms in the event of an attack on the peacekeepers, under paragraph 7 of the UN Charter. In addition, the temporary extension of the mandate includes the same tasks as the previous two terms, meaning the neutralization of heavy arms and the corresponding withdrawal of warring sides.
“Oslobodjenje” proclaimed the world’s newspaper of the year.
The information blockade of TVBiH is broken – the programming includes Studio Zenica live during the TV news.
At gatherings across the world, amid protests against the impotence of the EC and UN to halt the bloody aggression in Bosnia, posters appear: “In Bosnia, Europe dies”.
New York, February 22, 1993. The UN Security Council adopts a new resolution on the formation of an international court for war crimes within the territory of the former Yugoslavia. According to the text of the resolution, all war crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia from the first of January 1991 will be reviewed. All those charged with war crimes, mass killings and rapes, ethnic cleansing and other crimes against humanity will be brought before this court.
The executive council of the city halts the boycott of humanitarian aid.
The “Alsace shipment” arrives in Sarajevo. It is at the time the largest humanitarian convoy to arrive in Sarajevo.