Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
women who were the first documented victims of the Siege of Sarajevo. Dilberovi
ć
was
a Dubrovnik-born Bosniak pursing her medical degree at the University of Sarajevo, and
Su
č
i
ć
was a Croat resident of Sarajevo; both were killed by sniper bullets while standing on
this bridge during the Holiday Inn peace rally massacre. But this bridge is internationally
better known as “Romeo and Juliet Bridge,” for two other victims of the war. Two young
Sarajevans—AdmiraIsmi
ć
(aBosniak)andBoškoBrki
ć
(aSerb)—wereloverswhowanted
to escape to a better life together. Brki
ć
used his connections with Serb officials to obtain
promise of safe passage out of the city. On May 19, 1993, the couple made it as far as this
bridgebeforesnipersopenedfire;bothwerehitandfelltotheground.Boškodiedinstantly;
Admira crawled to her beloved, and died clutching his body in her arms. The bodies could
not be retrieved and buried for fear of further sniper attacks, so they lay on the bridge for
another week, locked in a heart-wrenching embrace. After four days, American war cor-
respondent Kurt Schork issued a dispatch describing the corpses, grabbing the attention of
people around the world with this example of the horrifying conditions in the Bosnian cap-
ital. The ill-fated “Romeo and Juliet of Sarajevo” have been immortalized in film, song,
and news accounts. Sarajevans embrace the couple for the way they embody a united Sara-
jevo—with people of various ethnicities living together under siege. As Ismi
ć
's father said
inSchork'sdispatch,“Lovetookthemtotheirdeaths.That'sproofthisisnotawarbetween
Serbs and Muslims. It's a war between crazy people, between monsters.”
