Public DomainThe destroyed neighborhood of Grbavica in March 1996, just after the Siege of Sarajevo came to an end.For four years in the 1990s, the residents of Sarajevo lived under the constant threat of bombardment or sniper fire. The Bosnian Serb army had surrounded the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and they killed soldiers and civilians with equal ruthlessness. By the time the military blockade came to an end 1,425 days after it began, the Siege of Sarajevo had become the longest siege of a capital city in modern history.The conflict sprang from the collapse of Yugoslavia. Bosnia and Herzegovina had declared independence, but the Bosnian Serbs wanted their own territory. Their aim was to establish a new Bosnian Serb state called the Republika Srpska that was ethnically homogenous. To achieve this goal, they encircled Sarajevo with a force of 13,000. The subsequent loss of life was unimaginable.The Siege of Sarajevo lasted from April 1992 until February 1996, and at least 14,000 people were killed, including more than 5,400 civilians. Merely crossing the street could mean certain death. Sarajevo had become a hellscape and the defining symbol of the Bosnian War.This is the shocking true story of the Siege of Sarajevo, the 500,000 bombs that were dropped, and all the horror that ensued.How The Siege Of Sarajevo BeganBefore the Bosnian War started on April 6, 1992, Sarajevo was among the most multicultural capital cities in Europe. It had hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics just eight years earlier. Regional unity crumbled when Yugoslavia did, however, sparking the untold violence of the Yugoslav Wars.Public DomainSarajevo residents established a graveyard in what was once a sports complex built for the 1984 Winter Olympics. June 1995.These conflicts began when Slovenia and Croatia declared independence in June 1991. Bosnia and Herzegovina followed suit in 1992, but remaining factions of communist Yugoslavia Bosnian Serbs, backed by Serbian nationalist leadership and the Yugoslav Peoples Army flat-out rejected the independence referendum.The Yugoslav Wars were essentially fueled by nationalism, division among the various ethnic groups in the region, and unbridled ambition from dejected militants. Before the wars, Muslims, Serbs, Croats, and Jews lived together in Sarajevo. When Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence, however, the city was ominously encircled. The strategic advantage on the side of Bosnian Serbs was overwhelming: Sarajevo was surrounded by hills and mountains that the Serbs quickly occupied, stationing tanks, snipers, and artillery cannons on the high ground overlooking the city. There, they could observe the movements of every innocent civilian below.Christian Marchal/Wikimedia CommonsResidents of Sarajevo collect firewood from tree branches for warmth during the winter of 1992.The Siege of Sarajevo officially began on April 5, 1992. What followed was not conventional warfare between two armies, but a campaign of terror. The Serbs didnt have enough manpower to storm the city outright, so they opted for relentless bombardment and sniper warfare in hopes of slaughtering civilians into submission.The Brutality Of The Military BlockadeThe Siege of Sarajevo saw Bosnian Serbs launch an average of 300 artillery shells every single day, according to a United Nations report. Targets included public transportation hubs, town squares, markets, homes, hospitals, and schools. Civilians were trapped with nowhere to go.Christian Marchal/Wikimedia CommonsYoung children play in a damaged car on the streets of Sarajevo.People were targeted at random by snipers stationed on the surrounding hills and abandoned high-rise buildings. Sniper Alley became infamous as images and reports about the war began to emerge across the rest of the world. These exposed boulevards were deadly for anyone who had to cross them.Their struggle was made worse by the fact that international arms embargoes left people in Sarajevo with a dangerously low supply of weapons. Those trapped in the city would soon face even harsher conditions, as former mainstays of everyday life electricity, water, and food began to disappear.Locals were forced to collect rainwater and burn their furniture for heat. Untold thousands regularly hid in their darkened basements as artillery shells destroyed their homes above. These blasts left countless buildings without windows.While this type of siege would cause many people to give up hope, the people of Sarajevo never did.Mikhail Evstafiev/Wikimedia CommonsThe people of Sarajevo line up for water during the siege. They continued operating schools underground. Artists performed plays or sang songs in the safety of basements, with candlelight replacing electricity. Journalists never stopped documenting what they saw. Even soccer matches were held, exhibiting nearly impossible courage in the face of death.But as the Siege of Sarajevo went on, it became clear that residents werent going to survive without outside assistance.A Tunnel Of Hope And Mounting DeathsIn 1993, hundreds of volunteers and soldiers of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina built the Sarajevo Tunnel also known as the Tunnel of Hope beneath the United Nations-held airport to link the besieged city to Bosnian-controlled territory outside of the blockade. A literal lifeline, it allowed food, medicine, fuel, and weapons to be smuggled in. It was designed by Bosnian civil engineer Nedad Brankovi, with construction supervised by General Raid Zorlak. The Kolar family in the war-torn Butmir neighborhood allowed their house to serve as the secret entry point. Athena Lao/Wikimedia CommonsA reconstructed portion of the Tunnel of Hope.Still, even with the construction of the tunnel, the death toll from the Siege of Sarajevo continued to rise. Among the casualties were Boko Brki and Admira Ismi, a couple of mixed ethnicity known as the Romeo and Juliet of Sarajevo. They were killed by sniper fire in 1993 while trying to flee the city.Their bodies were left lying in the street for days, as attempting to move them would have been deadly.The Markale marketplace, meanwhile, became the site of two of the most brutal massacres of the entire war. Dozens of civilians were blown apart by a mortar attack on Feb. 5, 1994, prompting outrage from an international community that had yet to intervene on behalf of Sarajevo. Another shelling followed 18 months later. At least 111 people were killed during the bombings, and more than 200 others were injured.One of the victims of the second attack was 16-year-old Amerisa Ahmetovic, who spoke to the Sarajevo Times about the incident in 2023.Mikhail Evstafiev/Wikimedia CommonsWomen mourn the grave of a loved one killed during the siege. 1992.I looked at my hands, Ahmetovic recalled, I saw there was no damage. Everything was black from the gunpowder. I look down, and I move my skirt to see. One leg is where it is supposed to be, but a piece of meat is hanging from the other, my leg is gone A man was lying without legs, without a head, just a torso.This second shelling spurred NATO to finally intervene in the Siege of Sarajevo. The End Of The Siege Of SarajevoOperation Deliberate Force, carried out by NATO in August 1995, was an extensive bombing campaign against the Bosnian Serbs in their most strategic positions. With the enemy forces increasingly under siege themselves and international pressure mounting, peace negotiations began, and the Siege of Sarajevo came to an end shortly after.Mikhail Evstafiev/Wikimedia CommonsVedran Smailovi plays the cello in the ruins of Sarajevos National Library. 1992.The process formally began with the Dayton Peace Accords of 1995. Signed in November, they officially ended the Bosnian War. By February 1996, the Bosnian Serbs had vacated their positions, and the devastating Siege of Sarajevo concluded. The development naturally sparked joy and relief but this was tinged by an unimaginable loss of life and trauma.More than 14,000 people had been killed during the years-long siege, which was nearly twice the length of the 872-day siege of Leningrad by the Nazis during World War II. As reported by the Andolu Agency, 1,601 of these deaths were children. In addition, tens of thousands of people were wounded, and nearly every building in the city was damaged.Hedwig Klawuttke/Wikimedia CommonsMuch of the city of Sarajevo was destroyed during the four-year siege.The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia later concluded that the Bosnian Serbs had committed war crimes. Among them were military leaders Ratko Mladi and Radovan Karadi, who were convicted of crimes against humanity and genocide.Before the Siege of Sarajevo, the capital city had a population of roughly 400,000. By the end, at least 100,000 people had died, fled, or been displaced. Today, Sarajevo still bears the scars of its past both physically and figuratively. So-called Sarajevo Roses, or red resin that fills the damage from mortar blasts in the pavement, commemorate the lives lost during the siege. The bobsled track used during the 1984 Winter Olympics and as an artillery position by the Bosnian Serbs now stands covered in bullet holes.Superikonoskop/Wikimedia CommonsRed resin fills in damaged pavement from the Feb. 5, 1994 shelling at the Markale marketplace.Perhaps most ominously of all, modern-day investigations have probed claims that wealthy foreigners took part in sniper safaris during the siege as an opportunity to hunt people. These tourists allegedly paid Bosnian Serb forces to shoot civilians for sport. In a way, the Siege of Sarajevo never truly came to an end for those who survived it. Their memories are still held captive by the horrors they witnessed and the loved ones they lost. After learning about the Siege of Sarajevo, go inside the story of the legendary Siege of Troy and fabled Trojan Horse. Then, read about Kathryn Bolkovac, the woman who uncovered a pedophile ring among international peacekeepers following the Bosnian War.The post The Siege Of Sarajevo, The Military Blockade That Lasted Four Years And Left Thousands Of Civilians Dead appeared first on All That's Interesting.