In the most dangerous areas of the city citizens were shielded from snipers by shipping containers, destroyed cars, trucks, buses, cement blocks and the famous UN transporters. In 1994, during a cease-fire, it was decided to remove the protection. Al that time the cement block in Kulovića street on which a Sarajevan had written ‘Pink Floyd’ was removed. When the sniper fire resumed the beloved cement block was not put back but its replacement appeared - the blue cloth which had been used in the “Zetra” during the 1984 Olympic Games was strung between two buildings to make the passers-by invisible.
© FAMA Collection Visual Archives
“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.”
- Fuad Babić, Commander of the Civil Defense
“But then suddenly they started to shoot with those silencers. And they really got us; we didn’t know what to do any more.”
- Fuad Babić, Civil Defense
“There were a lot of rainy days. Foggy days. And that fabric we were putting up was collecting a lot of moist, and rain and because of its weight it would often fall down, as the car would pass by.”
- Salko Muratović, Citizen
Video Oral History: The Siege of Sarajevo 1992-96 (© FAMA Collection, 1997-99.)