SAFE AREA GORAZDE THE WAR IN EASTERN BOSNIA 1992-95 JOE SACCO FB | FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS www.bosanskehistorije.comThis book is dedicated to the town of Gorazde, where I spent some of my happiest moments. Alot © 200,201 Je Sten pt inns wich © 200,201 Celi ihe an he kenge utd wie © reget ome, Berne U5. Aen by Bac Spgs | "Dea Fle rey Mick Jager anéKeth Retr Skee mis by he Lenton en Pal MC “Hie Clr wien Fan Hele, lr yd Don Ree | Moe Th Can awe JJ Als nd Swery Corts “One wey Bar| Pod Mei ten Jobe agen | Sounds Sree wren Pa Sun Tvt ard Shut wee fy Bat Kal and Pt eer int stor gone Outer 2010 | SNCS SEO 0 | Peed in Cie www .bosanskehistorije.comINTRODUCTION BY CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS In Sarajevo in the summer of 1992, when the journalistic community (who had already annexed the British phrase “the hacks" as their collective noun) met in the bar of the disfigured Holiday Inn — and that phrase itself suggests the surreal nature of things, with a Holiday Inn being disfigured rather than disfiguring — there were all sorts of competitive anecdotes about near-miss, random encounters, and different styles of Bake-jacleet. Every now and then, I noticed, they also spoke of a place chat might be even more frightening than Sarajevo itself. There was apparently this town, once not far off but now, with the Blockade, as unimaginably difficult of access as Dubrovnik on the coast, or distant Zagreb. (Thus was the Balkanization of the mind slowly accomplished by common speech about “areas,” “districts,” and the sill more alien “zones.”) It took me a while to connect the name of this place 10 the spelling on my map, because when they discussed it — infrequent faint radio transmissions, rumors of mayhem and rape, of farsine and even of cannibalism — foreign hacks distribured the emphasis differently each time. Gore-aj-day, Gorr-as-dee. Anyway, the somewhat homely title denoted a location more comprehensively fucked-up and fucked-over than Sara- Jevo, and thus «0 be looked up t0, or looked down upon, according to choice, or mood. Having persisted so long as compromise that Holbronkian stateeraft could contect, the siege of Sarajevo and the obliteration of the civilian “safe havens"at Srebrenica and Zepa have passed into an area of the semi-conscious.In a dim fashion, people apprehended that the mass graves of the latter were the price — and the pressure — for Bosnian signature at Dayton. Yer did this not after all constitute peace? Even a peace “process”? How excellent itis affront to civilization, and having ended so abruptly with the most compromising ny dar just as we are all forgiving our- selves, Joe Sacco steps forward to clear his throat, and our v unfashiorable, inaccessible old Gorazde and not one of the war's more chic or celebrated spots. The frst thing that ‘one must praise isthe combination of eye and eae. personally always fail at physical description on the page, though jon. How excellent itis, too, that he should have hit upon. Tcan sometimes catch the nuance of a voice. And I'm referring only to verbal c pacity. Sacco's combined word-illustration makes me remember that distinctive Bosnian domestic architecture — the gable ends and windows — with a few deft strokes. You know where you ate, in other words, and it's not in some generic hotapot. Then the additional details, such as the unforgettable “bear's paw” scar that a mortar-shell makes, fon a pavement. And more easily replicated but still impressive — the forlorn look of a wood-built house that's been . These, in Bosnia, became as suggestive as church-steeples ince most mosques were deliberately dynamited by Serbian houcite and a brick chimney st reduced by fire to or minarets (more distinctive than the latter, actually chauvinists during periods of “cease-fire”, ‘As to the ear, I havent seen it more candidly admitted that the Bosnian was was in so many ways a carnival of embarrassment.On one side was 2 host of international volunteers, aid-workers,chatity-artsts,and of course hacks, who all desperately wanted to avoid the charge of being voyeuristic of starry-eyed. This sometimes led to a sort of protective cynicism; sometimes to an idealism that did not quite dare to speak its name. Then there were the actual inhabitants, hess to a long tradition of hospitality and gusto, who knew that foreign sympathy was their matin hope but didrit want to become absolute whores for it. Language was a sort of barrier, but it often seemed to be put there only as a test of the local plum brandy: This could lead to unintentional awkwardness and forced bonhomie. (“You are American?”*No.”*French?”*No.""Ah “Where you from?”“England.”E you are German — we like Deutschemarks very much ha ha ha."*No.” lish people very good.”) Joe Sacco was evidently no blissed-out internationalis, still less a farry member of any mujahidin, but nor — ‘though he draws himself into his panels asf he wanted us to forgive him a ttle — was he some affectess, disengaged Zclig, Bosnians are made of human materials and thus make bad subjects for somanticization, yet he found out by dint of punctilious observation, and succeeds in making plain, that they had no aggressive intentions towards their neigh www.bosanskehistorije.combors. Towards their “neighbors,” that is to say, whether as contiguous former Yagoslav republics or as people living next door. Bosnia threatened nobody: Bosnians were defined by theie long and easy-going habit of coexistence. Those who bbutchesed and dispersed ther had to Te and shriek, 26a thug or rapist will psych himself up to do something foul. 1F this isnot she entire story it is still the indispensable element without which no truthful story ean he told. Sacco tells it through the microcosm of Gortede, and we're in his debr. ‘A microcosm needs its context, and again I found myself impressed by his encapsulations. The historical and geo- graphic inserts are objective, and do not omit the moments when Hosnians, and Bosnian Islam, were historically promised (most notably in the Second World War). The Bosnians we meer in these pages are not heroic — though some of them are exemplary — and their greeds and needs are recognizable to any American or European; revogniz~ able to the point of banality: Well then, Sacco seems to be saying, will you tum away fiom the extermination and dispossession of those who are so much like your own unlovely self He at any rate could not do $05 good for him. ‘Where there is hile in these pages — and I could quite frankly have cone with several more pints and quarts of it — itis nor dtecied at “the Serbs.” Even in their extremity, Bosnian vietims referred to Serbo-fasciss as “Chetniks” and thus honorably agreed to loathe them under a political and historical and not an ethnic rubric. No, the contempt is reserved for the temporizing, buck-passing, butt-covering “peacekeepers” who strove to find that swamp of low moral and “middle” ground into which the innocent end up being shoveled by the aguressive. Why was that road From Sarajevo 10 Gorazde so impassable? It had heen wide open through several decades of inefficient state socialism, after all, Why did NATO armies, readied through the same decades to launch a thermonuclear war on a moment's notice, find it incorwenient to face down a flimsy roadblock manned by a rabble of drunken racists? Nobody who witnessed this miserable spectacle will ever forget it; nor will he wonder how some of the worst deeds in human history came to be committed in plain sight, and without shame. It hecame essential for the post-Cold War gatekeepers to define CChetnikes and Bosnian civilians as equivalent — echoing the propaganda of Milosevic, 1999 — because otherwise the shame might become unsupportuble. | now; having disburdened myself, feel rather shy about saying that Mr, Sacco is also funny, and ironic, and self-mocking. We have been told that “it takes a village” and — never mind the implication for now — it probably does. A village or small town like Gorazde can mature for years in history’s cask, ripening away for all its provincialism. The large majority ofits citizens may he content or at any rate reconciled, But the awful and frightening fact about fascism is that it “takes” only a few gestures (a pig’s head in a mosque; a rumor of the kidnap ofa child; an armed provocation ata wedding) to unsettle or even indo the communal and human work of generations. Normally the fascists don't have the guts to try it; they need the reas surance of support from superiors or aid from an outside power and the need co know thar “law,” defined nationally partner in peace” unt or internationally, will be a joke at the expense of their victims. In Bosnia they were granted all three indulgences. But even at the edge of those medieval paintings of breakdown and panic and mania, when people still thought the heavens might aid tem, there was often the oblique figure atthe edge of the scene, who might have hoped co cecord and outlive the carnage and perhaps to sebuild the community. Call him the moral draughtsman, at least for now; and be grateful for small mercies. AUTHOR’S NOTE ABOUT PRONUNCIATION | have opted to leave out the Bosnian-language accents on the names of people and towns; however, my’ modest lay-person’s pronunciation guide for the most prominent places follows: Gorarde sounds more o* less like “yo-RAJH-duh" (the *Z: Visegrad shymes with “FISH-a-gead” Foca rhymes with “GOTeha” Srebrenica is pronounced “sre-bre-KNEE-(0)a” Zepa is pronounced “J HEPP-ah,’ with a soft ssa soft "J" ke the second “g"in “garage” www.bosanskehistorije.comA man whod been Siebing at another] [He said hed lost millions of dawtschenarks at che beginning table invited himself to" ours... of the war, but he didnt mind because he was lwiag in . ‘2 “own of heroes”. He Said that he alone knew the Real Truth about Gorazde.. infact, hed written a book called ‘The Real Truth About This Town’He was putting himself at disposal f could ask him ‘ant lehing I liked, go ahead, he said Tasked him what made him Khink he knew the Real Truth He said hed seen everything... During the worst lof the shelling, he said, while everyone Was in leheir cellars, he was out in the streets. He couldric be couched He couldn't. His dreams cold him - acer And if I were a real journalist, he Said, who Sought the’Real Truth, I would visic hin and look over his man Juscript about Gorazde, and he would lexplain everything He said hed been believing in his dreams since 195... For example, yesterday he had dreamed ned recene letter: and today he received the a Meanuhile, sn dclock came and went and there was no Announcement. None at midnight, not in the morning. nor by early after. noon when "an | announcement had been rescheduled. YY Milosevic, Tudjman, # and [zetbegavic were still behind closed doors in Dayton, Ohio, and be the war was going £0 goon for. ever...ef www.bosanékehi:> je.com “Aww .bosanskehistowww.bosanskefilstorije.comfF} ASSHOLE. ine again? asses Ny fig $ Be Oa, GX G He still vaghad shrap-f, hh | eye ; ewe 5 S Z ( Sy {A paste! ‘A bea Nar Gris rs A fA Crs Que due a. cS namen¢ Z| _ feiss a «Jha dropped FE af by for pizza if Georazde/]come 70, GORAZDE?NL Tite SERBS Too KW BUPEt TRND GOT AS AS THIN? WIL, MictAEL JOROAN A PAY BASKET £ oy! “6 anskehistorijex6oSerb, Croat, and «i gether... Fishing. in of my house were Serbs, across the 5, the Stasinimn ims, on the right Muslims. ‘At one point, Iwas mostly with a Serb friend. He ET spenc alll my life with {my Serb friends] Boban, at my house during the day During the eve- Goran... T was drunk with them 50 many Br wanted me 2b eat, shed [Btimes.. We were together at every partyat every We didn't any distinction.”Mier orca Kingdom of “igo lavia was fashioned reciage of tha sslavia after World War IE by the Communist resistance| Broz, better known as OF the six Yugo- slay republics constituted by Tite, Bosnia was the most ethnically di verse. Ie-con- tained large populations of Croats, Serbs and Muslims Each of these ethmic groups fas a parewcularf history and ‘cultural back round, but chey Bre all South Slavs and speak essentially the same language Their chief distinguishing characteristic i religious. Crat3.are Ro. man Cathales: sare Ortho Jdox, Christians and Muslims 20e generally des- Zended from Hehose Slavs who converted to Islam during a 00-year Octoman occu pation jevo, were partic ularly well mixed. ard Eqjayed a rich aad oteh touted atric of tolerance in Eastern Bos ma, where wil lages and towns were populated predominantly by Muslims and SerbsSARATEVO More than half a. million people lived In Gorazde's administrative percent Muslim, 25.2 percent Serb. (Ti maintained his policy of “brotherhood and unity" in Yugoslavia by 9 nos overt signs oF eehnie nationalism PERIOD AND POLICY the different Yugacaw peoples. (SCORDING TO THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE, WAS A Cems ice PERIOD witcn WONT Be REPEATER IN GENERAL, MOST PEOPLE Se RE EN. OF Tas PER his Yugoslavia Croats, Serbs and Muslim had lived together acefully for half Ses Bra ths after the extra- ordinary blood- letting Between then World War. Tito managed to create something of a wv identity, he did $9 without d3fus xplovted by poli ieeging for power| once Fresidane for-lige Tho was GoneMoce than a million Yugo- slavs diedin the war, mostly at } |the hands of other Yugo slavs The Chetniks were a mmewhat loose alli: ance of gcoups of Serb nationalists and | royalists who 6 Ip SSoughe the eae Mehmet of a Greats Serbia cleansed of - Serbs. The ruthless war against Bo: cand © ry. whom ‘they viewed as Ustasha When the Axis powers ccupied and dismembered lene Kingdom oF Yugoslavia ig 9841 they stalled Croatian fascists, the Ustasha, in their own stake, which was expanded 40 include Bosnia. The Fs the enecidal program of Siviesale Slasgheen forced religious conver: Sion, and Expulsion oF | the Serb population left even the Nazis aghast Ustasha victims Fed the ranks of two competing resistance groups, the 1 Chetniks: {ed by Ti ¢| predominantly Ser} group (Tita himself. Raificesacian, sale fi Slovenian), bur they wel- Samed a grouing number of Muslim ana Croatan recruits a5 disillusion: ment with the Ustasha ime increased and J Chetwk querages & sued. The Partisans fought fensive war aganst Aus fare and waged an aggres- sive Campaign against Hehe Cheenik$, wham they eventually crushed. ~the Germans for a Muslim 3.5. di which out As chaos spread, some Muslims formed auton- Se units for p on against ary and all threats, and in greacer and ms joined the multi-e¢ led fo more Chetnik repr: Hundreds of thousan war, mastly by lims lost a gréatét percentage af cheir popu- lation, mostly in Cheenik attacks And massacres, Of which took place in Eastern Bosnia, oming and whenever Sipe, barriy houses, killing M this area didTre Chet niks | worst things happened in Foca. The village oF my Family, Bucije over the River Drina,the Chetiniks com- pletely blew up. End whomever’ bs they found theyjao™ killed: We've Healking about en “When people heard that ing some c grandfather hid himself with the help swife for nearly one gear under 1e. cows shed inthe ground... Jn that cme, Muslims...escaped from Gorazde Hhey organized themsé groups and ran from oe place ta the other Because oF the e Chetniks and the a. “My grandfather and grandmother sometimes trifd’ca explain to mewhac happened ducing World War i, but I did not listen, or histenéd with one ear.”we seoppee colleague, wit and T ) Vor! Ba ‘ of killed people name on the list w:[fg ow seemed etrangely pre naugtrial, the Gor tide" area once prowdlet 1nd factory obs Buc those workplaces were gone. The out Iing chemical, cement, and heavy machinery ese had been destroyed, for exdmple, and ile factory was a tin housing refugees www.bosarlak bhistorije oomrights were. oF Gack fain and would stumble pack ONS. Biace frome Pignely coftee ae rounds pS aye’ To youre eer ots cing neares Dacek 38g frente He soft \ eesieg by: moss teh deep dark) ei Gece ae of oe ee TS W Buc 6 chap ot Persone lighé 3 ce NY est if the pulsatedANS weren't inning well WE CANT WATCH A VIDEO, NEVER MIND. WE ‘STILL HAVE SOME ELEC- TRICITY,i 14} iof 00 tHe Ny Now ABOUT HA corazde w ‘AMERICA?Benwaile, on the ouner side of she table, Kimeta Bf not. f pekce art ‘Ge mandkerchief and divided the polished stones. an ae sigs of 2 racing ay Fin che spring1 was not warming to the idea of holding the door clased agaitst the Serb soldiers moving around us, the driver, who had infinitel more ta worry about took Our predicamen in steide. iveceh nasi a. truck ahold [Faqpeorow paren sarin raster PonceThe influx of sd hedatRe the office oF the Ingernazional [Committee of the Red Cross, the ye oes censoring letters ba jere bored to tears reading all ‘the outgoing requests. www.bosanskéhistorije.comRe Se A |e www.bosanskéfilstorije.comAnd, of course, there were gifts and personal fressages to pass back and aren betwcen loved nas who hasint Seén each ather in three And A Back in Gorazde, the First order of business was dispensing scribbled noces and packets Rots HERE. EVERYTHING'S. IN GOOD C DITION. THERE'S LOTS OF Snore 208. alt ‘i MI www.bosansk®historije.com[Come soon? Bue ow? Assuming she or could get SO" > Jernméne per mission t2 travel the Blue Road — which seemed highly tualikely — few Muslims were ready in lace "95 to entrust hemselves to Hehe good will of f the Ses |e along the route,HE BLUE ROAD: AN ASIDE ane pee ‘B] The French suspended journalists From their conveys Sand that left me stranded in Sarajevo. And shoulda heard wie, alkemately bagmnouthing the Frage ard snivelling for updakes trom their captains] colonels The public information officer at the UNPROFOR headquarters wanted to be helpful, but — FRY iF THe Feencn A lift with Russian peace- Keepers wonldne bea problem, but they had to check with (Sou, youre peaD ALIN THE WATER www.bosanskelfigtorije comwww.bosanskefistorije.comZB, ON THE! MORNING OF, ‘Some people went downtown to Jask what's up. Peaple wha had gone Heo work retuned quickly..Thegd heard that the Serbs Rad left, : Be Pc had baon vara amar: [Thre night before, “I heard from some women what was up downtown... lot of bullets, snipers, A a na 2o0rdin: shops, people taking food, clothes... looting... L heard different ated move, most of Patories rumors about pope Riled..but noone saw ahy victims ithe Serbs wha re- r mained in Gorazde slipped out of town, Ia Edin's neighborhood, ail thé Serbs disap- peared. They re-"From the closest hill in my region a machine-gun was =| \ne listened to the radio... Serb radio| ing all the time to the otRer"side of the river. Bu Jstations. always propaganda: ‘We didn't shoot here for 15 days Imustnt live together we must kill z ——— something like “I kept watch on empty Sere houses. I thought, if i moody moving—my someone steals something from Serb houses, I Serbs neighbees from three houses jsill be accused, T can have trouble... Nobody took ff broth: lanything. believe me, nobody from this area. 'T whistled to them ..and I thought it was pos- “They brought out brandy and we sat one of them signalled to me sible if “I go over there, outside their house nobody could see foe quiet andcome over, PBtheyll capture me and Plus They said they! come to feed their kill me. I told my father ff pigs. ~ Twas going overdo see themI told them about two people who'd been killed’ downtown, Goon iDEA TO S ~ reed to leave important es for each other in a his house. mess. area they | 4 y ‘But after one day, two days I stopped checking My father told mee wasnt sabe TAY % Ma aS “On May 13, there was a lot oF pedis overnight. -We couldn't sléep. 7 =< i E VI "[ said I would lise to speak to my friend, a chief among my 5 rb aencat YOU CANT SPEAK [ALL COMMANDS: TO HIM. YOU CANT ARE COMING DO ANYTHING. ‘FRort UP. a WAESIGS ‘SOMETHIN, FOOD we wave eee. BUT ITS BEST IF YOU AND YOUR FAMILY GO FROM HERE. Se “We were a shart: ime in town Jand then my 4ather thought it would be safer in Kopaci i i My Father said we must go | Heo the center of town inthis id come when they wanted and kill usPEACEKEEPERS WHEN THEY ERE we PERE TALK Asour SOMETHING But thered been nothing | row for years, 17/7 9 New films, no new fashion, When f braugnt a few Bosnian language mag- nts ne 200, wer peed around aad devoured. The Vora was 59 rateFul £0 fe orishas that ic tagged ‘aiem a5 specially donaged by yours truly The library staff told me theyd lose 15,000 shelling. Besides that — SOLDIERS TAKE Trier 1 FOUND ty FRIEND, STWEM WHEN THERE'S AN ALMEE'S FENDER ATTACK:[Ficko, one of the Centers directors, was stil griev- | [Jn a backroom, Ema and lela Tere running through ing over an artist friend, killed at the front; whose) | script for an upcoming hand-puppec theacer lbody fell into Serb hands and was finally excranged| g r ‘SueH AN lon the day his exhibicion opened. aarti = (( Anacree ir TUeve SE SURUIVAL SUCCEEDED TO SURROUND SUR BODIES, Every Monkow pay Tear 7 TLL EAT BEANS BEANS UNTIL | 4 AGAIN UNTIL 1 CANT STAND ; Fed 5 can't StAND THEM ANT ; THEM ANY MORE. | THEN ELL READ SOrE MORE THEN I WENT TO THE LIBRARY AND i TOOK ONT CHARLES. BAUDELAIRE'S FLOWERS OF EVIL, ‘AND f READ nidorije CcTHE CHETNIKS ARE GUILTY FOR EVERT- THING! Vole ie od a = BoonesThe First Attack 8 PEOPLE WERE | STAYING WITH US ME [ linmediately following the re positioned on an Overlooking hilltop The situation re- mained essentially unchanged until © Hcne motning of May 22,19921 only watched, L couldnt do anything. L as.on “There was fag and rain and Ecouldnt see every ward¥in Kopaci.on the ling, 2000 meters Away, thing, Thay attacked about #0clock, 6°30 Every> 9 AY, 9; a, ¥ iayde a thing was finished about 2pm.” IZET: “Td gone to my own house to start a fire in the loven, I wad outside to ger some water when an automatic gun started firing ay ae son had been wat home with anotherg spending th ‘when the Serbs got as close as SO meters, I recognized fof time with my youngest my neighbors. son, 2 loc of time x my house. doing homework with Fry son.I was armed with a pistol I got back to Ibro andRumsas cellar. but T didnt shoot back. Ie a it gun i,RUMSA: “I was with my youngest Two pregnant women were Iying inthe main road. daughter, a one year olf, and my eldest ff wounded Te wasnt possible ‘to help them. One of them daughter who was 20.. We ran away, ff was still alive dowin toward the river. oes IZET: People were gathered beside a house..Some of them wanted to run across the main road, some of thenPwere afraid to. There was vehicle with an autamatic cannon shoot ing down the road “Thad seen dead women, children and men, and I thought its better to be killed whileIBRO: “The others had left..1 saw Serbs in uniform, Someters behind the house.TZET: "My daughter was 13 years old fh “Te was the first-time in my life Td seen wounded people, so She was cHying Phe whole tind the f Ma'seen people killed tocraul to coulda use| restaurant, | was wounded ia che right arm.” RUMSA: “I was wound-f “Someone tack my one JPIZET: “In front of me was Toros daughter ed in the back..” year old...” careying her small sister...”RUMSA: “My eldest daughter was wounded in the forehead. E tied bandages arsund he head, but Id lost so much blood [ d out, IZET: “My daughter stayed Herendeen 88 8 wy TY po ee Ya) THE pa. (2 ‘Someone carried me tp safety. My eldest daughter was left behind.” IZET: “The river was high, and we got into it town,“T dont like to speak abour this. After 200 meters I got out because Td lost my ~ T found Thro and another man but I didnt want ta 90 on. So my daughter and thE tao men eft me-there EMINA: “We spent ning hours in the river We waited Hill after mdnight... My daughter was without feed or water for 24 Rours, but she never cried.” “My brother was wounded by a shell...and he was from shrapnel. He grabbed my grandmother his shoulders and eeZaped in the dit f ly, all his body, sd ran with her on I changed my mind ing and I couldnt cdatinued to town, I night like that. My BROTHER AND (GRANDMOTHER WERE THERE WHEN THE SERBS gl ATTACKED. WE DIDNT KNOW. WHAT HAPPENED. TO THEM FOR SEVEN OR EGHT Days. WE MERE FIVE OF my RELATIVES WERE MISSING AND SX KILLED.THEY Say A BULLET HIT My WIFE IN THE HEAD JUST IN THE PLACE WHERE T LEFT . Two days after the attack, rom our plot, and I réalized what was happening. 1 watered withimy facher as the Seros burned down our house.” They controled hight ground on the} eke Bank From Jwhere they poured riper and areih PA iecs fre direct | nt Sowneoun’ MY BEST FRIENDS STAYED 10 THE USst TO PROTECT THE PEOPLE. THEY HID THEMSELVES IN| A SHOP "AND THE SERBS CAPTURED THEM Roeoor wrat HAPPENED D Ten,EDIN: “I was in Kopaci curing thar] 2.1 was in a unit keeping positions in a huge old building, a warehouse for corn. 7 gether drinking. [ Spoke to them tr happened in Kakino Selo. At First they diant want to talk. f They said the didnt know what “Then one of those guys told me ex / wid 00308 bum my houter Ye Sad our neigntorg. “bs aos Gey younger than me... And one called YOUR HOME? Miro: We used to play fectball te: ab night, and if we didi t go gut, we used t9 spend thé ever: ings gether dr cur streeeT)n late August and [That Ac a being cut off Though woefully underarmed, Bosnia troops pursued the Serbs toward Vee- grad « the northeast nd Foca in the south. Se west. Meanwhile Edins (ff —S “nie advanced trom Sh Kopaci to take back = (CS WX “I wanted to see if there was anything left from my house, if there was stil ¥ roof We. Aad hidden our TV, 9214, money underground, around the house. Furs, clothes, tool... I wasnt patient... I found a bicycle in a garage and I was che first person wha came “from Kopaci 0 Kalina Sela territory vacated b the Serbs ° “Over the night the Serbs lefe it panic from Kokina Selo because they were Bi) ealized ic in the BY morning... About 20 30 of ds advanced $ef'Soun the main road owars Gorazde, dnt: balieve it. ad whatever wed hidden int even find a nail “He stayed three months with the Seres during Jour house in uniform and armed, he would start Barking very hard“Twas very thirsty, and I went. into some houses lacking far Scmetning 2 drink, Serb pees Tne, were. already Broken inco ‘gees, pope from foun, everyone Was food. They were robbing vodka Ws, The Serbs had bee s from May ti ber for ours. Ie was from Germany, a ip Fold, a Grundig. My facher had paid 2000dm far it. The only one, Lit sud, in Cow Fi ‘After seven ox eight televisions Lrealized it was vee was losing time "osking “or one television... Itaek a wheel- barrow: “T tock vodRa ‘and a wheelbarrow. ; people didnt want tofound my brother at ourhouse He had ‘We found our front: door at the house of a Serb neighbor ce. We ere talking, drinking This man had three cluldren and was very pose My rrotne- = was always bringing them things, always inviting "his wife in for & deine He muse Have liked our Frohe door al ad f skis and fishing cads in the of eke pebpe who burned dour au house Bp tran mine. BA Twente -3 look ich my fasher I didn be- lieve ac that cad My faener FBI cdhidnt eatMoStuy. THATS, iad five bodies inthree houses. fl 3 / so8 Soke. THEY. We We just couldnt believe our neighbors Ad io eomething ike tha, Burnin wn cuir homes, kitting pedple, burn’ 3 IN SOME GARBAGE ing them, IW A STREAM ABOVE, My HOUSE. A WHOLE LIST OF NAMES, NAMES, AND Wha? NB OF WEAPONS THEY CARRIED. MF beStcher, and ied to Find materiale €9 repair che house. |[/* We looked around the whoe area, in peoples homés, in warehouses, and we fourd | Brand new roof: ing tiles and leinber Wwe took whatever we wanted. We found ment and lime in a Serb house. Who knows? May- bbe chney belonge to a Muslim ned the walls completely down to the bricks and put on dlaster. In 40 days we fixed the Toof and made tuo rooms livable” [Nez watil the folowing Mareh did Tzet and Gorarde Yiscover what had happened to his son and some of ithe others captured by the Serbs dur- ing their first atta7s NEIGHBOR TOLD (nie hes fa Foons ‘SOME BODIES, MASSA Caen NEAD TOR Frowts, NTEZone Be ning8 sear Sue wail aT Duving Seri «al Scaais | » \would shuts un, dnd Ein a rer sid warwww.bosanskefiistorije.comHAS wORKeD With THE ARMY,[Ony seven of | Ca seen las were cercified teachers, se said packers had come in with the refuse 225, sne said, Dut.Ws iain aching” EVEN SEEN ‘A COM Meanwhik, for students who had Fmished School during Che WAC the university in SArdjeus maj as well have ben a million miles away EDUCATION « WERE AFRAID WERE,xean Be nn anne Sere CLINTON FOR $700, FOR ALLEGEDLY ViCLATING Bf HER CIVIL RGHTS & MAKING ONWeELCOnE! SEXAL ADVANCES“YOURE FULL OF J} SHITS AM ON THE aime. www.bosanskenistorije.comWww.bosarSkehistorije.comyet a 1 a KDI Te was one Go nc evening, Edin and were telaxing, lagied it wi his pals.(The Drina cigarette is named for the famous river that] [Ie wore him out, visiting refugees, ne along the border with Serbia and. also through. | |seeing how they lived. Hed had his own the Bosnian towns of Visegrad, Gorarde, and Foca. | |probléms he sald, and the whole war Visegrad and Foca had been ethnically cleansed in | |thusfar held avoided theirs 1997 and were now in Serb hands. 2 q ess He ‘|Gorazde was full of refugees from those two towns, dand L asked Edin to translate some of their stories www.bosanskéhisto Ae ETERSThis woman didnt want to tell jis what happened t© her husband in Visegea Reluctantly, asin fom eh only to a point. T HAVENT HroLp you EVERYTHING TVE SEEN. PEOPLE wiTH THEIR NES CUT Our, this woman let tain to describe what she'd seen there, but {\When this woman told us about Soldiers defending Gorazde were paid in Drinas, 30 packs a moncly while I was there (Getting paid at all was a recent development School teachers had jusc started earnin Danas, (20 On pay day they! get thei wages ia a plastic bag and SmoRe some op ia the 5 room 7IN THOSE DAYS I DIONT Shed had no supple, nO gauze or bandages, and during the operations she improvised, the only Pain killer she had to offer was ‘rakyja’— brandy3 ro T ved to ke thatif hs government ‘traded andy Gorazde in 3 peace deal, Donia would have| fo territory left on the Drina and would have to change the name of its cigarette1 Scent, E7 Sx ONS IN GORAZDE BEFORE RETURNING TO fi UZICKI CORPS, AND WE WERE THINKING, ITS OUR ARMY, THEY VE LIBERATED Vick Gap FROrt THE remus, AND THAT's Way We WENT In Apel Muslims had begun to leave. Visegrad, a town made famous by Ivo Andries Nobel Prize-winning. novel, “The Bridge onthe Dy Goraide, which was 39 kilometers upriver and was not yet under attack, “The Unicki Corps left. Visegrad on M: And ‘they pue the toun under siege.” TICE ag i8..and the Serbs started t9 burn villages...t9 kill people around Visegrad, Hi [ Tn the sprog Loy ese: (INA) +p protect | them fram the [Ser> national- | ist militias ‘The Uzicki Corps spent onz month in Visegrad They took the weapons from the Muslims dnd gave Weapons to the Serbs. Guys from the Uzicki Corps WHILE WERE HERE, EVERYTHING T WAS AN EYEWITNES: WHEN SERBS BROUGHT MUSLIMS TO THE BRIDGE ON THE DRINA AND PUSHED THEM INTO THE RIVER AND SHOT THEr!hat by night. The Serks took my neighbors fram fi“ \ until Sune 1 and T even withlouc shoes dco them— ching. My nd Dwatched “Tnoaly three g and tinge“The worst things happened on Lane 8 IF che Cheeniks [Re Yocon thes. Vf ador oreet caught someone, they killed them an the spot. igtinc WeRe | 4 70 Row, Tey | ist Sor, COULD HEL! THEM yess YF ves, us on PRY sur 010 WY ves. WO, Sune 10 I was an eyewitness when the Chetniks TIEOZ@a) NOT WOMEN BB KicL WOMEN fA COURSE. JAM brought two families — Doth families had three kids— ANB CHILD Avo cur and Killed them behind the bridge + ‘a Vy WV. “They cut their throats and pushed them ia the river. ‘Ard Lwas an eyewitness when a Chetiik The“Guso and Sabanovic families, First they killed the Pat off the breast of one of the mothers, who chidren, Zz ying to protect her kids. Ut“I was seared and tuo neighbors and [ spent some On Sune lo three Chetniks came to my house| nights in the forest becaude the worse things were hap- fl People from Visegrad. I knew them all at nigh i 7 ag raion A 3 < s fate. = of Co Mi : They broke 12 of my teeth and my nose. One of them FB They put me ina vehicle. I wanted to es. kook" a picture from the wall and Smashed it over my head [Mi cape but I couldnt walk. I féle a terrible a ea Fa 3. Another 19 Chetniks came to rob things, and they brought three! lother Muslims who'd been beaten anid put thenY with'me,‘A Sect neighbor saw me all bloody and’ came over use of mu leg, but: I 1% ter Maslins brought ther 7 WHEN YOURE FiNiSHED Witt THIS 308, WERE pe /. THANKS To YOUR NEIGH: “He said [ should report to the Red Cross building ae S30 the next morning far evacuation Than the Chetaik commander erdeced me ta his office and my ngighbor helped m2 down. (y “The Chetniks put the other Mus- lms back on the truck and I didet see them in. I Suppose they were wile PP I went home.“Alltogether 1 saw ten people “After Lakic killed his last victim kilied in the same place he left for the othe: Tmade fand Twas v through the blood ‘And when I crossed bridge T saw one of the Chethiks whod beaten me the day before . 9K che opposite cid“He stopped in the middle of the bri and someone heloed him put {1 bodies in the Drina. and one of those bodies had no head “[ waited for the comoy of three buses and three trucks. “Then a woman read names and people got on the buses The woman who was making the lise was 4 Serb frend of my daughter's ‘Theyid gone £9 schoo! “tegether. WT PUT YOUR ‘I didn't know what to do. [thought maybe 1d cross the bridge again out'T saw two more bodids adit. en before, and I changed my mind And T knew that Arcaris troops ile Serbs, 00, chey helped usims 2 SS There were 75 people in this tuck. all women and children except: for me and another man And she put my name on the list. eS ‘She found a place for me on the second truck.T CAME TO GORAZDE FROM THE VILLAGE OF Bosnvan lines and released He was luc Hn previous FY convoys, men had Been rou- lkinely separ- \jaseden route and killed. Far one manth nabady touched us, and then Chetnik soldiers visited us. They took Bll our gold and took two women trom our om ac Samm war, Muslim p&t c yore tragped in Foca after Serb 4 forces took control of the town. GORAZDE ee “One of these women had gwen birth to a dead baby before that and the other was three months pregnanc. The next night they came back and took four women, the 0 from before and another two, who had newborn babies.Je happened every night. The cave SRd C33 ote fac wien all che time I GAVE BigTH 10 MY DAUGHTER AIDA DONT WORRY, MY CHIDREN. WHILE HERE NOTHING ILL HAPPEN 7 ou, Everything el5e was like nerwal ne evi od for the children, A asink r told us the soldiers and we didn't tell the doctors or nurses Anything.” AB Alfezs some monchs, Manica “and the other women were told they would be freed in a prisoner ohange. “And ak that moment, one of THAT WON'T the sokdiers took away A, the HABREN Me woman who had had the Still- rau ‘ ed later, after her fatherinlaw paid the Serbs M000 4m"We spent two more nights in the hospital, fB" We were sent on our own down a read and then we were drivéto the front lines.” pear eee TD SPENT EiGHT I TOL MYSELF, MONTHS IN FOCA. IE 1 DONT FIND and para- militaries fT he Gorazde JReEKBE hice still i -eween Serbia prop- Jor and a large area captured bg Bos- nian Serbs tn the south. As the Serbs Gocazdes Muslims were Under few BH iliusions about theic| likely 7at2 showicl cheit town fallEwes Elna we Seng NAL el YAl tn co ae tae : ier lefe Toes! aai-that's rece jt! Af Pulp! 2"! :trauad yee #44 be beat Around the bebe half anhour., While the vides procession And shriekin, OF dead children ID Parents went On ania melting whae remained Seri¢s pleas. isp0sition |}itl fre tne iow 17 2 tink US Re p RED. www bosanskehistorije.com4 Y is dite Plaster Begovie cut off his first leg with ki He could dull the patients pain only with a Demir, who had liecle morphine and brandy. escaped from n rae Visedrad (where sre-ase Saw her and arrived in Goratde in, September ‘92, Was put to work we DIONT Pay ATTENTION JG TO WHat was 177seemed genuine “ IL wasnt sure what he = Rat peop @ kane Oe die video web NSE picatio gpt uP der im ahe bron : SN (ee WHAT? D Unie atime Pinte ‘OUT ITS NELTRALITY, EVEN NOW. i let the doctor gather his thoughts, and J went Away to dissipate my own. He said hed been an inductee in the goslav Repl BlArmy in (991 when his artillery unit wale Sent to intervene on behalf of Serbs Fighting to remove Heneriselves from newhy independent Croatia.T could sé Only the scars 50 once 2 municipality worker tried € give me Some idea of Ore scale“of Winat ad happeied here Ac one point in the ‘94 offensive, UN. Militars \ JObservers, who were trained to do such things, Te- ported impacts at a race of eight per minute.ONE TIME, THE THe Next Day OUR NEIGH- During one of the cease-fires or shelling pauses, she Said, she finally ventured out to sée afriend in & neighbornood 2 shore walk away. recognize the town” Lshe said. www bosansk@historije.com[Since the beginning of 135, UN 5 had intérmittently evacua-| B |ted scores of the worst wounded land other critical medical cases om GorazdeAt the Prami oemgreannde 112" approached | SAY HIS LEG WAS AMPU- TATED. SoMETaING SOMETIMES 7 BEGIN Bur THe LAE A tuo Bel is wmonc.1 vse WD Tane wy comes DOETERS HERE YEAR OLD, My wyseue_ 1 co Strat corree wars. fl Ea pont want © ene masetr_ i ge TE TUROW PY DAGaH MEDIAS Me 38a TER TO THE GROUND. eons Wasco THE BLUE atl Be eeeTATKE east Tote Se aa x mn 6 OPN at xhe poopie gome alist aha e ayes from ng Beg with wn She, Koc ByTwas giving dicections to a Eagrapher once ata SBS apprsicncd us fe a dma ok ce www.bosanskéfistorije.comPeople found food in Serb homes. 1 took some, maybe l00kg of cona, and from that com we could mak? flour But iaokg doesnt last. when that's the main thing your have A MISTAKE We WERE LOOK- ig FOR CEMENT, LIME, CONSTRUCTION] MATERIALS 19 ReraR te f House Ng FOR FOOD. We had planted iat potatwes before the jee War; but you have foul a oc eee as jou have to di ie Around them two ‘or three times, and after the war started, we didn't do ar thing in the ardén, we had scaped to Kepac My mother did bother ||-.fy wo take of {Hie the whan she When we returnes, was pre Laelia Tdug up the po- ' paring pota: at tatoes ‘and the , Ee pie. a wer very small pes R SOR eS That year we had plenty of fruit, very nice Fruit, “We had milk and cheese from the cow in ourgarden, We Gide have any sugar: but my mothe heard how you could make jam without i Sugar. by cooking overripe Fruit for a long time |Wwe asked for prices, PAT WAS VERY CRITICAL, IN DECEMBER AND JANUARY, NO MORE FLOUR, NO MORE POTATOES. WE COULDNT EAT FRUIT ONLY... AND YOUR ORGANISM CANNOT EAT Don MEAT EVERY DAY. MY FAMILY, MY Y/ RELATIVES AND SO ON, EB U/N attemsts to deliver food to the enclave were a failure, Aconvoy Sin July 92 had been ambushed The first relief convoy arrived in August with 46 tons of food (The UN. estimated Gorazde heeded 35 cons per day) Convoys got. through only sporadically thereafter Serbs| turned back or deldyéd convoys with impunity despite AUN. Security Couneil resolition dutharizing the use of forte to delwer food and medicine to besieged Bosnian ci‘Nobody had enough food. camming ver often old 2 knocked, locking for | ped. Every day, ten Tren Down in tawn, apartments were fi well Furnished, and people had taken whatever villages in the ared where there was no fighting were 4fowiag corn, pocaties, toma Koes. they were exchang what people in apartments trad. “There were people who didnt have anything to trade, Refugees fram Viseqrad, for example, did bring anything wich them, chey didn have money, cheg did't have apartments, they; ined with others sld.get I0kg of Flour Pople in villages cobidnt watch TV “here Was no electrici [Gretak wasa Bosnian army mountain post west of \Glthe Gorazds pockee that could be reached by 2 recarious route throug Sérb-contralied territory. he Bosnian military had been using the path to iniéct Some weapons And personnel inte the encave THe GoRAaDE ENCLAVE] guest GORALDE, Te now trucked food 5 ples from Tenovo ta Grebak for the pesple of Goraade. But the people of Gorande Fad %> comb and gee the food themechesdive an Thae trip was S CHOICE. Nery dangers ke [Gleeres died ; waste passibie to ep oroaire 71a FATHER NENT Mes thd oak cuer i known £0 FREE TIMES TO, Pai the day ony ac Gorazdans as THER ANO T Two night. ie Was the white Death Fives EACH. vasa "iadle OF winter on the storms, snow. Ys = Grebak path, dhyrough the ‘ Others were mountains... On . killed by lone trip there was 3 landminés and @ sngustorm and in ambushes. ry father fell : uteonscious. The json of a neighbor saved his life. He had froscbitten fingers and toes Srenae Eripminy persons froze to ~ |) death.” - ribed one of his “We went dawntoun to wait fI'T think I paid two kg of flour for the £0 Grebak. for a vehicle. There was ride to Zorovici, which was very dangerous s that momen cold. This was bc MaPch. Ene shelling at that moment [Band cols. This was February or Mar Lire Food, pried Je Z PLUMS, WALNUTS, Witt FY NEIGH, BOR Once, onthe same raad,my brother was in atruck that slid out and turned over. He Wasnt badly inured. but three or four died. “Te wasnt possible to go all-the way ff" We waited in Zorovici two or three hours for the evening, and ko Zorovici because of the snow.” | when the whole group had gathered, about 200 people, we went We had to ge ono or three kilometers on foot.hard to jung 2 water, cald waterT slept for Ralf aq). an hour, 15 min Hues, an hour near a fire, without blankets| fo They didn't alldw someone tak ilInthe after. Some people |> were takiappen co me. ee to me. he would“You cant think about anything only about the way,sleep eae hardest “We got to our terntory — fB‘Wwe found a damaged old house. My neighvor "In the morning we left early, about chree slept ac ance, out t was 50 cold Y couldn't [that village, and that was Apter that we waited three or four hours for the ge (foe eay en vox vehicles. They came with 2 new group from town and - a PEO! picked up our group, make the tip to Grebak or had Ino other source oF food had to vation thac sometimespacket inthe Park rt ning of 1993. “Te went from civilian to army controlSOMETIMES WE CVE Lost iy Wire 2 lights in the sk the sound of the when they bk eir- weight.”time there that didnt allow an THE BEHAVIOR OF THE PEOPLE WASN'T ACCEPT: ON THE OTHER }} ABLE, BUT, a HAND, THE AIRDROPS =D US. Stronger people {found more food § Sind brought younger people xc the most, Td, 30 times. 1 Brought back food maube 20 iy, you know, in Good condition, 2. good Ta they dropped food near the front. ine, ard Fue were there,.we'd carry food home Sver-the night and then he newhile the ance Owen peace plan was still on the table, the UN Security Council declared Srebre- nica a ‘Safe area.” eee ese at eS Py fuccher carp. He] cation, the Serbs By launched an F offensive that conquered all government Rervitory in the BANot waiting for fis In early May the UN. ex- tended Safe area status £0 other Bosnian enclaves, d including Gorazde. But Inthe one hand, the UN. ‘as obligating itself, pre- sumably.t0 keep the safe g areas 32fe ; on the other safe areas implicitly formalized Serb gains and the concentration of Muslims ce into wnat President Clinton waned would become “shooting galleries, ” (whi. idn't stop the US. from [supporting the plan)In early Sune, the UN acte Seemed, if UN. forces Hehemselves came under attack. In Gorarde's Guncil also rqurther deployments to the sage Areas, but member states balked atthe number of extra troops originally 34000—the The aetack on Gorazde continued from multiple directions and carried on into July. Hundreds were killed in th Sadako Ogato, UN. High Commissioner far Refugees, proposed that’ Gorazde and the Jocher eastern safe areas, Srebrenica and Zepa, be evacuated of cwilians. That was Hind only life-saving alternative,” she said A total of eight. UN. mil itary person. | nel “observers by the 4 bs f5e weeks, The att: paused. Mean, while, fureherid remembered. And the ‘Bie antics of some Silly giSad

lead’ Karad “nile Akashi, the com vc dp o StF Foreign Minister Vitaly Churkin said Tve Reard more broken promises inthe last 24 hours than Lhave in my President © Meanwhile, Bosnian Fresidene Inetheg nad r in eh worden Neither you nor your personnel Mrave'done any- : iD use che BL WERE COMING WIN 24“What can you do with them? Ten patients were waiting to go into the theater at on - rs LX i S Neha ok Mer‘A lot of children were wounde dead children,Not many people were Killed in the hospital tselr We were ve lucky consider. ing the number of [oy sliells that hit” — See Pomp [Somebody was wounded or Two guys came withan RPG, but whenever a [i There was a terrible panic, especially ia cellars tank showed itself: they were taking cover’ : and women!NATO planes were always circlin, ;NATO planes vere alvaps ciccing fl arything. Only watching , taking pictures| a zi DD) PRICE FOR. CONTINUE become a symbol VIOLENCE. lof the mearingless- ness of the safe munity generally Facing the seeming] imminent collapse SP ns in cediby in foreign acfairs, the CiSton sd MT didnt underst: countries of the world were going to low the Serbs to-take this town al- though ik was a protected town. On April 22, NATO gave the Serbs an ultimatum demanding an imme- diate cease-fwe and thé with drawal of their forces from Gorazde. Truro corms o ERB ur RAWALS The Russians, ostensibly sympathetic $ the Serb vious opjections to airstrikes Said Foreign Ministerized that they had played the game as far as it could go. inst. them, and only a comman nd inthe hands OF UN. official Akash rad The Serbs allowed a con- You of UN. peacekeepers asl le's mos, iy wounded HT found three bottles of fuel in the corner ready for making 4 fire. Bue probably they were ruched and didn't have time. reMT saw my cousin Azra’s house Sniy to rmaoms were but “I couldnt do any- ithout water “In my house, part of the roof Was completely des- ‘troyed, Shot by a tank “ T found their literature, foad, shirts, cigarettes, hand grenades, bullets...“Theu) upstairs Theyd takert a stereo, videotapes. TNT 3 sestroyed, with shit. every a where. One of fe j|the rooms uy stairs was Full o ok sic [Tashe vew lof LC. Gen- eral Rose, the ug he said that the 05 Ay - THINK THAT WE SHOULDHOW THE HELL DID ONE BLOKE WITHA 1 THINK THEY BASICALLY THEY LET TANKS DOWN CROWBAR COULD HAVE, TWAT ROUTE? STOPPED THAT K. id Rose: lot better than Lhad fj Rose toured the hospital and claimed n led to believe... the town had not been destroyed director, Diz Begovie, bad admitted the level which I had expe that casualty estimates “ware indeed an exaggeration.” eral Rose—claimed that Gorazde's aly Figut had come from tn- trustworthy sources, among them the UN. litSry Observers, more than 700 had killed, near 2900 wounde’ fhimself had ordered In, were, in fact, elite British troops.Bb js Rete Edin, in Key men. & S ee : ARE TOY, OnaTue HAVE, EVER SAT ATA TABLE. "AN AMERICAN, Te 7 MR CLINTON ‘ABOUT M7 TWO t : ye CtWhit was Fearn ; an anvaeat Meanie, Tuas with ened nae] Hove wal and Fg F didnt Krow much English, but I understood that his wire was in 5: trac he hadit 5 ‘Ask angone who krows me Iam a J listened poke while he patched Meanwhile, I wanted in on Whit's Mery plbasane fellow And twas being | |menes of Gal a Gel os S| | conversae on hora pleasant 20 F oe ed se Se 7 AMERICA MAN THINKS[C vanced Edin £0 intervene, Whi¢ £0] [between me and these horn notice. I wanted cue, cue of where. sting peopl? aad heir is Peavced to pute 2 kindred Urousand) | ats any catretic prospectsSet Ras ene ONE WILL. KNOW THEYRE) ROT ORIG” ins. /is EAR DID you Ase THEN THAT IF ITS TRUE THERE ARE NO MASS GRAVES IN SREBRENICA, WHYwas ~¢ WORKING AT SCHOOL, 100, ‘At Britbat I worked with an engi- ring squadron, 1 built them inbrale. They ad generator anted it for émerger situations cause of snipers. They we jag many time “1 would 99-40 Britbat"with m, je fem the technical scnoel over the pedestrian bridge. “The Serbs coud see the second Bovidge, the first bridge, everything, “L stayed on as a translator ta Bh time and they paid me with food. U].N. peacekeepers had retained their in Gorazde since the end of the Serb offensive of 1995 mostly British and were stationed there only intermitcently allowing the resupply of the peacekee pes and relief convoys into the enclave. Sometimes eqs, flour, canned food. [Sometinas coe, sometimes Coke! 1f [D BEEN ‘A SURGEON, LDIn May his forces seized back heavy weap- ons— previously turned over tothe UN. by agreement— ard added themto a renewed bombarament of Sarajevo. The Serbs further demonstrated the limits And dangers of air powee <> NATO and the UN. by Sowning aU.S fighter with a Sucfake-to-air missile, NATO Htaliated with lien iced air strikes, and Mlasic’s Imen once lagaintock itindeeds Of UN, soldiers and per sonnel hostage, ome including 33 Bricis pease: keepers Hom the Gorazde enclave, On Sune 4,the commander of UN. militar Yugoslavia, Lt. General Bernard Janvier oF France, secretly met Miadic t2 obtain the release of the host: than half of whom were French. Mladic demanded that ISome of jthese hos- kkages were chainedto Serts mili feary instal latins as human A shields. rcas in the- former 25, more [Sarmer firs promise there be no future air strikes an exelici 7 a) A) On June 9, the UN's top civil-f Satisfied the UN. fi For his part, ian representative inthe area, had been cowed, AUN Lt General Yasushi Akashi, indicated the ff General Mladic ff Janvier had UN would back away from [now Curned his already ex- confrontacion with the Serbs. Mf attention to east- pressed his It would now- |—apipe Gen Bosnia and its [misgivings ‘sreictiy oy fl safe areas. about the UN'S PEACEKEEPING z commitment PRINCIPLES ito the eastern sage areas and | the presence of 5 peacekezrers areas, ne had argued, could neutrality, 193) there. Defend- |) ing those safe | i Ee} ., Whether Mladic got —_- guarantee from Janvier still disputed, but three days later a phased release of the he: stages began. ABOVE ALL ONE SHOULDN' Let us ae POay IN THE HONEST with {ORM IF ONE GuaseLves CANNOT THROW AND THOSE We ARE PLEDAED TO PROTECT, contravene UN. t[Mllacies first targer| Mie Seobroned? I Mladic launched his attack on Srebrenica in uly 1995, His forces brushed aside the Dutch peacekeepers stationed there and t20k some of them hostage. The Dutch put. up no resistance, themselves but called for air Support to halt the Serbs six times. or postponed by top UN. office Beh aber tne Batin thew sees Came ubier eae Tn any case, t was too late Bosnian soldidrs, wha Aad oelieved the UN sould defend the safe area, put-up An ineffectual defense. Their requests were turned down . 7 incliding Janvier personally whelming Sero offensive in 1993, ‘the enclaves de- nders demilitarization* Hand Srebrenica Finally. five days after the first re- quest, two NATO planes made bomb- ing runs. They were ineffective Dutch hostages and shell panicked cwilians if NATO attacked again VT left. Srebrenica with other soldiers. The civilians went to Potocari, the base of UN. forces..including, Soldiers boys, and older men— pre- erred running a Serb gantlet 23 urrendering, They [fae NERMIN: “The IChetniks arted shell- 3. They were RR. gar cannon, neavy machine-guns. HASO:"We escaped from Korjevie folje,. We leFe wounded and dead people behind I went, back to pick u friend. Hea been’ wouncea be- ise me. I approached the vilage where my Friend was wounded TWAS wit 12, 500 > THE OLt ZA AND WOMEN... My FATHER, \voTien, Mi SisTea, » the Chetniks had Flashlights land they were killing che wounded one by one.Perhaps ene incapacicat- whom, we armed, Fell in- 6 be Ero ry 40 kilometers of Serp-c HASO: “The firing had been goir minutes. Bosnian Soldiers were surrendering to the Serbs. They were not behaving normal oF the combat gis. ‘Some people started Sutrénd! ering. Some cary ithe wounded to" niks. A lot of Githem were crazy from combat ga5. A Jed there in the field. ling normal... was ind a couple of “The Chetniks approached and ‘from combat ases. started firing. T didnt know what was hap- pening around meWwe stayed till early morning. The Chez calles on togo toward “They thought the combat gas lad Gamadéa my mind. 60 they [Nero had givenlf I found about. 200 men searching for pon reachwog I Chetnis fo curvender 1 Tuzla ‘an. pond 23g)t and we stayed there| jays Pee eee. back toward Srebrenica. Fidead people,~ f They Cote killed Oy gunfire, lochers P snigh im women and child- However, while atched, hundreds of separated and ledWithin several days, Zepa would fall to the th barely a murnuc from At acrefing Mui stitan ) (zi5 Seba ss st ied it a safearea. on Duly. He ‘RESULT erally abandon lene riotion that the UN. woul defend any s:Mary of Zepats men hid in caves Jarcuind the town before trekking fea Bosnian goveenment territory lac technically neutral Serbia. the Serbs trucked H: land Siscer from Srebre nian goverment lines, but — 7 Toon Nok War's HAPPENED TO HIM, MArver we expected an attack ebrenica and Zepa ingon. We were getting Radio’ Sarajew and Voice Of America. 1 asked Nermin if he knew what happened to his brother, 4rom \Jndm hed bean separated in the break-out fiom Srebrenica. T DONT HAVE ANY INFOR- Mio aBo0T, st remaining nia. Said Mladic— During avery heavy shelling of 10or'5 cage he Bah ockiars ER Grande arti’ themselves in the deep forest ed, We didn't have any protection from them.‘Some of our soldiers wanted to take arms, "My mother was scared about my brothers destiny pons, whatever they could from thé LIN and mine. She told us many timés— soldiers, because they were useless. The TARE CARE Ducch in Srebrenica Hadn't done anything F WE HAD THEIR AYEAPONS AS WELL, s : We COULD STOP me THE SERBS. : : OF YOUR ‘Noumust TRY TO FIND A Q [was TO REACH SARATEVO. FREE , NA TERRITORY, for one and 2. half, T [he fall of the Srebr Even, before CT Ing avea and the liquid- J the Srebren- lation of Muslim men from there was the nadir of the fi the British and French fa beg £0 . Ripossbe LURES SS Presidene Clinton withdrawal Pay Nl s had pledged a ose large i) TRAE, EE. (ag a Sve ing force peacehecrio WA Vl Pe event of sucha fantingents rae / from what UN. withdrawal Pau ogbeen SAA ance was no L af WAN faced with the consider ect Y Brospect of US. Ground troop in- volvement in an he UN. peace. i warasti ented | 1 3 - = ie Keeping mission had failed an election year [Blue the U.S. rowhad THE BOSNIAN WOME The united allied front pushed UN.Secre- Blan oped 2 fore AI Said US. Sec- [SERBS ARE Now cary General Bowos-Ghal ca prune tre geal a) a paleo iar of AN ATTACK AGAINST procedure for authorizing air atcact leadir ies Ba Scate GORAZOE Witt BE ido direct confron- Md Caristopher: Kacion with the Serbs from the air, The allies had beén out raged by the magni- tulle of the UN.S hu- miliation at Srebre- nica, and at a Conger ence convened in London on Suly 21,the US. galvanized them fl into“iSsuing a wam- ee ing 0 Che “Seres i Z that a final tripwire i He removed the veto power of the, had been set—at the civilian area representative and S , Yasushi AkashiOn Aug, 9, the UN.announced ff On Aug, 28, one Serb shell killed 38 people in Sarajevo, which earlier its peacekeepers would soon had beén afforded the same protection guaranteéd Gorazde at the start withdrawing from Gorazde, [London conference. ire 5 madi Ne 2 ed / oes Gorazde. it seemed they were ff The next day, the UN. essentially ceded its authority over air power About to be abandoned. 4p US-domitated NATO which row had a pretext i€ couldnt 9335 up. “The British had already pre- pared themselves for 2.435 THING GOIN TO. evacuation. A captain came and fl Warren Tous THAT A ordered the soldiers to be ready J HAPPENED TO £ leave in two hours. SREBRERICA WE HAVE PER- tat MISSION FROM THE: SERB SIDE TO LEAVE THROUGH “And ple heard. They approached the camp. There was amass of pebpi ted ff Fake food gasoline. me : : tgs : i i = 2 Serbs Heals The British left the camp. [ican cee everything. Theyill start shellin,“Twas the first one who could have taken sugary {because L thought everything salt, coffee, batteries for cars, fuel, but £ didnt was going to end forus. The people came in, started to rab. Behind (Ojp Aig. 30, with the Gorazde peacekeepers out of harms way—and no “longer potential hostages—NATO began a two-week bombir me paign “aganet the Bosnad Serbs. pp e . = sg |Zhe map even simpler by swapping Gorade ‘Serb-contrelled |Suburbs of Sarajevo, “Were they going to trade us for Brcko? Or Banja Laka? Nobolly Knew exactly whae would happen Te was a period when peo d “At that time, TV crews and everybody were coming with the same question: ‘Whaé do you think “about that? About being traded?’ ”The nexe night. Haris aad he la Dar 4 vided of The Bodaguard starring Whit Hpwstan and Kevin Costner, ito Edins. We were getting |) Sy rey ath |p fEwken the | Serp-contralled hilltop across te Desa a lenly aru ig Mates Five.Pertop i. !ATON,136 Vie swached| TRE eat (oad a wae Mews again rough:President Alija, Teetbegovic 5f Bos- mia had once ac- knowledged that z| the east®m enclaves. Gorazde would be linked to Sara- Jevo by a corridor: Presigent Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia, who was representin. Bosnias sidelined Serbs, and Bosnian Prime Minister Wee Pease initially Raggi over eH width OF the corridor on napkins. But the rest 7 of Eastern Bosnia — including Visegrad and Foca; the fallen safe Areas, Srebrenica and Zepa; “and all the other towns and villages where Mus had been expelled or slaughtered—would remain ee cial under the control of those who had cleansed it: the Bosnian Serbs The war in Bosnia was overHed been at ¢he Tiron shen heardWHEN I Aeon ve PEACE WL CAR FROM Home TAKE PLACE TO TOWN, WHEN SHORTLY AFTER LEAN a0 Toa S10? To Buy U5. Toots corte WHAT I WANT, THROUGHOUT THATS REAL eo] 0 Z v5 STARTS COMING WAND THERE'S A SINGLE CUR RENCY, ECON” OMIES WiLL ‘SOLVE THESE IS usta PAUSE IN SIDE FORCED WITH Bur FULL REGARD 5D sustICE AND HE WiSHES OF THE PEOPLE WHO LDS THEIR wes HOMES IN. ~ PLACES LIKE FOCA AND ViseaeAan,ee in _ WA br H +s Sanam TAIL. Meret / (Daten Sas — aq To TAKE A DRINK, LIKE BILL CLINTON, IN SOME SMALL HOTELau “IRRECOVERABLE”?From Swedes ey -\ | A, (nner cee www.ltbosanskéstorije.comNe Foifje:co mBara wat Spout yeher Apbtire Se so dune: Ix miss GORATOEwo Bi rt i)BIBLIOGRAPHY I never intended this book to be « comprehensive overview of the break-up of Yugoslavia and the war in Bosnia, However, I found it necessary to provide some context in order to tell the story of Gorazake, I leaned heavily on a ‘number of books for background information. Noel Malcolm's Bosnia, A Short History (New York University Press, 1994) is widely considered a masterpiece of scholarship, and rightly so. I had the pleasure to listen to Me. Malcolm talk in Sarajevo in late 1998. Unfortunately, he was introduced for an hour by a professor, a parliament member, and 2 minister and only got 20 minutes to speak himself: He downplayed the role of the historian — his own role — saying that he'd heard a number of British politicians had read his books (Mr. Malcolm is himself British), but that Britain had changed its policy in Bosnia only after America had told it to do so, Anyway, found Malcolm’ section on World War IT particulary helpful As fac as World War II goes, was also gceatly helped by Matteo J. Milazzo's The Cheenik Movement & The Yugoslav Resistance (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975), which describes the different factions and changing allegiances in exerueiating detail I relied on the very seadable Tia ind the Rise and Fall of Yugoslavia (Carsoll & Graf Publishers, Inc., 1994), by Richard West, for information about the Pactisans and Tite's post-war Yagoshivia. Mark Thompson's Paper House, Tee Ending of Yugoslavia (Vintage, 1992) gare me a good overall feel for Yugoslavia and the thoughts of Yugoslavs at the time of the break-up. As faras the polities ofthe disintegration of Yagoslavia, there is no hetter reference than Vggestavta, Death fa Natien (TV Books, Inc., 1995 and 1996), by Allan Lite and Laura Silber, which accompanied a television documentary. Little and Silber interviewed most all the major political players and their book isa triumph of reporting. Itwas on my desk at all rimes: I had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Silberin New York City,but she didn’ come toa party [invited her to. Another excellent book on the break-up is Misha Glenny’s The Fail of Yugoslavia, The Third Batkan War (Penguin Books, 1992 and 1993). Glenay has a real understanding of how the Balkans tick, though I read an essay or two by hhim during the war that pissed me off. I cant remember why. I did need specific help in understanding the history of the arrangement herween the U.N. and NATO in Bosnia and how that arrangement affected the safe areas. Chuck Sudete’s Blood and Vengeance (Norton, 1998) and David Rohde's Endgame (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997) were more than a litte helpful. Both these hooks, which I consider nwo of the best to come out of the war, tell the story of the fall of the Srebrenica safe area. Another useful book on Srebrenica is Jan Willem Honig and Norhert Baths Srebrenica, Recerd ofa War Crime (Penguin Books, 1996). For information on the end of the war and the backroom negotiations at the Dayton, Ohio, peace talks, I turned t© Richard Holbrooke’s Zé End a War (Random House, 1998). Holbrooke was a US. assistant secretary of state at the time of Dayton accords, which he helped design Tam also indebted to the New Yark Times,and the Guardian newspapers which provided me a day-by-day account of the war in Bosnia A NOTE ON THE POSSIBLE USE OF CHEMICAL WARFARE BY SERB UNITS AT SREBRENICA 1 interviewed two men in Gorazde about their experiences breaking, out of Srebrenica in July 1995. Both of them claimed the Serbs had used chemical warfare against the column of Muslim men trying co reach friendly tertiory: When I talked to these men in late 1995,1 had heard no such accusations before. As a result, was skeptical and dict ask many follow-up questions. My mistake, Human Rights Watch has since collected many first-hand accounts in. its Nox. 1998 report, Chemical Harfire in Bosnia? The Strange Expericness of the Srebrenica Survivers. Human Rights Watch concluded that the use of an incapacitating agent “e elusive." for one, was convinced by the harrowing and detailed testimonials I read in the report. Those testimonials meshed with my own sather lazy interviews about the matter. Ag result, I've chosen to present the accusations of the use of chemical weapons in the chapter thac details the fall of Srebreni ;not be nuled out” though “conclusive evidence remains www.bosanskehistorije.comSPECIAL THANK YOUS ‘My parents, Leonard and Carmen Sacco, and my sister, Maryanne, and her husband, Keith, encouraged me through the years I worked on this book. Richard La Sasso, my friend since high school, spent many hours discussing Bosnia with mie and abways ‘took an interest in the progress of my work. Beyond that, I relied on him often for grammatical and word Usage questions. ‘Alena Nahabedian, Holly Cundiff, and Christi Guenther rescued me from personal despair though they probably didnt know it. Almost everyone I met in Gorazde treated me with great respect and kindness, Edin and his family welcomed me into their home like a brother and a son. Till the list day T was writing thi book, Edin continued answering my questions graciously. Believe me, asked him a lot of questions. [ft wasnt for him, this hook would not exist. My deepest, deepest thanks go to him www.bosanskehistorije.comAbout the Author Joe Sacco was born in Malta. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in journalism. His comic book Pelestine, about his time in the Occupied Territories, won an ‘American Book Award in 1996, and his graphic novel Saje Area: Govazde, about his time in Bosnia won the Will Eisner Award for Best Griginal Graphic Novel in 2002, Sacco has also contributed graphic journalism pieces to Deteils, Time magazine, and Harper's. His most recent book, Footnotes in Gaza, a sequel to Palestine, was released in late 2009 by Metropolitan Books. Also by Joe Sacco (from Fantagraphics Books) Palestine (1993-1995, $24.95) is Sacco’s original 288-page graphic novel detailing his experiences on the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip in December 199% and January 1992. It is also available in a $29.95 hardcover Special Edition with supplementary material. Notes from a Defeatist ($19.95) is a collection of Sacco's pre-Palestine journalistic pieces. And But I Like It ($24.95, hardcover) is all rock 'n' rol, all the time! ‘nail irom FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS, 7563 Lake City in, Seattle, WA 98115; or eal 1-800457-110 to order ty phen or order fem wor fantagraphic.com Bookstores peace contact W.W. Norton ane Company, In, (212-354-5603) Canadian bookstores pleate contact Canadian Mars Group (5.516.001). Tho books wore published and ditabuted nthe United Kingdom by Jonatnan Cape Lt (26-7640-80). More books by Joe Sacco Released by Drown and Quartet and Metrepltan Books, these thee bocks ae avaiable 2 your lca baokstere or though your entine bookoelle. www .bosanskehistorije.com