Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
In mid-1995, thanks to NATO bombing raids and joint action by the Croatian and
Bosnian armies, the siege started to weaken. On Feb. 29, 1996—the four-year an-
niversaryoftheindependencereferendumthathadsparkedthewar—thegovernment
officially declared that the siege was over. It's impossible to know exact figures, but
most estimates suggest that about 300,000to350,000lived throughthe siege, includ-
ing around 50,000 to 70,000 Serbs who decided to stay in their home city. During the
siege, about 10,000 Sarajevans died—including nearly 1,600 children—and 56,000
to 70,000 were wounded.
Spin to the right to see the towering, glassy skyscraper—the
Bosnian Parliament
build-
ing. While freshly rebuilt today, this was utterly destroyed during the war.
Looking farther to the right, up the big boulevard, you'll see the prominent, bright-
yellow facade of the
Holiday Inn.
When it was built for the 1984 Olympics, this was
the premier hotel in Sarajevo, fit for visiting dignitaries. But less than a decade later, the
first shots of the Bosnian War were fired right here. As tensions were rising throughout
Bosnia-Herzegovina,tensofthousandsofpeaceprotestersfilledthisstreetonApril5,1992.
Karadži
ć
instructed snipers positioned in the hotel to open fire on the unarmed crowd,
killingsixandwoundingmanyothers.Later,thehotelhousedforeignjournalistsanddignit-
aries, and was therefore virtually the only safe space in the entire city center—though even
this enclave suffered its share of incidental damage. Since the war, the hotel has been fully
renovated.
