Safe Area Goražde: The War in Eastern Bosnia, 1992-1995

“There were hot meals and beds and a view of the Drina for the reporters and celebrity writers and ambassadors and cartoonists that were sure to pour in!”

When Sacco arrives in Goražde, he is housed in the town’s hotel, recently reopened after repairs. The perks and amenities that they grant him hint at their excitement for a reconnection with the outside world. The townspeople expect the world to descend on Goražde once it is free to hear their stories, believing that the famous and influential will come.

“If the noose got tight again, I could flash my UN-issued Blue Card and get out of here and back to Sarajevo…back to mommy if things really slipped back to unthinkable.”

While in Goražde, Sacco is very conscious of his privileged status as a UN-sanctioned journalist. He has the option to leave when he wants and is not trapped in the enclave. This freedom of movement separates him from the people around him. The means by which he describes his possible escape, as escaping “back to mommy,” casts him as someone coddled and indulged compared to the suffering townspeople.

“What do you think? Will Michael Jordan play basketball again?”

This simple question illuminates how disconnected the people of Goražde are from the world, particularly American culture. Michael Jordan, star of the Chicago Bulls, retired from basketball in 1993 only to play again in 1995. When Sacco visits Goražde in 1995 and Edin asks him this question, he realizes that Edin has little to no information about the outside world since the conflict began.

“Tito’s period and policy, according to the opinion of a large number of people, was a very nice period which won’t be repeated. In general, most people regret the end of this period.”

During the time that Tito led Yugoslavia, he promoted the idea of “brotherhood and unity” to avoid The Impact of Ethno-Nationalism. Though his rule was authoritarian, Edin and many others enjoyed this time, as ethnic tensions were dampened in Yugoslavia. Without Tito or another strong unifying leader, Yugoslavia broke apart.

“It is very horrible, what has befallen us. The malefactors must be sent to the Hague and stand trial for war crimes.”

When Sacco and other journalists first meet Riki, they notice the man’s efforts in learning and speaking English. He uses interesting vocabulary, such as “malefactors,” to show off his efforts in studying the language. This captures Riki’s desire to be American and his wish to move on from the conflict.

“Before the cease-fire, Edin said, when snipers were still shooting, the family tended to the animals and the garden at night or during the morning mists.”

Despite the conflict in Goražde disrupting everyday life, the need for survival pushed many to risk their lives to perform simple, previously safe tasks. For Edin and his family, living on the Drina across from the Serb lines, tending their farm and livestock became a risky venture. Their commitment to survival reflects The Resilience of Community Under Siege.

“You can’t expect good relations between us in the near future. You will try to kill all the Serbs in Bosnia and make a Muslim country.”

Before the conflict broke out, Edin returned to his hometown of Goražde and tried to speak with his Serb neighbors and friends to prevent any tensions from rising too high. One man he talked to insisted that they could not go back to previous days of coexistence, invoking the theme of the impact of ethno-nationalism. He believed that the goal of Bosnian Muslims was to transform Bosnia into a Muslim state—reasoning that the Serbs used to attack Goražde, framing it as a preemptive defense.

“The civil authorities used to consider that older couple in Kokino Selo priority one for firewood disbursement. But they’d been dropped to priority three and now received none. Fortunately, a young neighbor was helping out.”

As the conflict worsened and conditions became dire, the community in Goražde tried to look out for one another. When the older couple no longer received wood, a young man chopped wood for them. This situation demonstrates the limited resources of the town to provide for the townspeople and refugees, while the young man’s desire to help reflects the resilience of community under siege.

“I’d like to tell you it was me they loved, but that wouldn’t be the Real Truth. What really made ’em swoon was how I’d gotten there, not by foot and over mountains through enemy minefields, but by road—the Blue Road, the UN route to Gorazde.”

Sacco’s time in Goražde is marked by his popularity among the townspeople. They are drawn to him because he is an outsider and because of what he represents to them. His association with the Blue Road, the only safe path in and out of the enclave (See: Symbols & Motifs), means that he possesses a freedom of movement that no one else in Goražde does. He represents the possibility of the end of the conflict and the ability to move on, not only from the conflict but also from Goražde itself.

“After years being trapped, sealed off, they now had a glimmer of Somewhere Else…and maybe—perhaps—that Emerald City was no longer an infinity away.”

Sacco notices that many look to the Blue Road, and Sarajevo beyond it, as representing opportunity and the future. In this excerpt, he describes the need that some in Goražde feel to go to Sarajevo and resume or advance their lives as looking toward “the Emerald City.” This allusion to the famous, fantastic city of Oz in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum associates their desires with the transformative journey of Dorothy. The road to Sarajevo and the city itself are means to a new life.

“She said before the war they’d done everything with their Serb neighbors. They’d had them over for coffee, they’d celebrated Orthodox Christmas with them, they’d gone to their weddings.”

When Edin’s mother speaks of life before the conflict, she highlights how closely the Serb and Muslim communities of Goražde once lived together. She had a social circle with Serbs from the town and was present for many important moments in their lives, just as they were there for her. Their disappearance and violent actions against Goražde created a sense of betrayal, in which strong relationships were undermined through the impact of ethno-nationalism.

“Some people didn’t want to take anything. They just wanted to burn. They were very angry. They didn’t care about anything. You couldn’t say anything to anyone. People were scared and out of control.”

The primary way in which the townspeople and refugees of Goražde struck back at the Serbs was by burning their property in the town. Without the weaponry or support from the international community to do much more than mount defensive efforts, burning property and possessions was a means by which people felt that they could achieve retribution. It also fed into the conflict by erasing the Serbs’ presence and connections to Goražde, deepening the impact of ethno-nationalism.

“All that was left was to orally defend his thesis before his professors, about 15 minutes’ worth of talking, he told me.”

The conflict paused the lives of those who survive it. The greatest example of this in Sacco’s work is the situation that Edin finds himself in. The conflict began right before Edin completed his degree, the final requirement being a 15-minute defense of his completed thesis. However, he must wait years to actually do so because the enclave is cut off from Sarajevo. A degree that was only 15 minutes from completion quickly became one that is years in the making.

“I can’t understand why the rest of the world hasn’t intervened more forcefully. The UN is always pointing out its neutrality, even now.”

When Sacco interviews Dr. Begovic, the doctor questions what keeps the rest of the world from intervening, pointing to the ineffective role of international organizations in conflict. He cites the UN’s commitment to their own neutrality as a reason why they do not do more to stop the Serbs’ attacks but wonders what the limit to this hesitation is. He cannot fathom what worse violence must occur to earn support.

“They needed their journalism now, for the top of the hour, and a few weren’t above inducing some quickie action themselves. Angry townsfolk told stories of photographers throwing candy at kids to capture the predictable mad scramble.”

Sacco is not the only journalist to visit Goražde. Though he embeds himself in the community and spends extended periods with townspeople, other reporters come in for the day to grab a quick story. Many throw candy to kids to capture them fighting over it. This callous, detached attitude toward the townspeople reflects the international community’s overall treatment of Goražde. The UN constantly dangles support and protection over Goražde but rarely commits to meaningful action. These journalists may give out candy, but they do so in a degrading way and offer nothing else to the community, leaving as soon as they have their stories.

“Stronger people found more food and brought much more back than older or younger people […] I was very lucky, almost the luckiest man in town. But I was ready, you know, in good condition, young, a good runner.”

Edin discusses the food drops by NATO, highlighting how the dire situation in Goražde created a hierarchy of survival. As a strong, young man, he could take and carry more food from these drops than the weak, such as children or the elderly. With no governmental or police forces able to control the distribution of the food drops, it became a scramble for whoever could grab the most.

“The rebel Serbs knew where he lived and showered his apartment with fire from a hilltop they commanded early in the war. His flat had been hit 250 times by bullets, he said, and six times by shells. Only one room remained habitable.”

The impact of ethno-nationalism is undeniable in starting and fueling the conflict in Bosnia. The attacks by Serbs outside of Goražde on Serbs that decided to stay in the town demonstrate how the ideology and rhetoric of a greater Serbia were more important than individual Serbs. Veljko, one such Serb who stayed in Goražde, tells Sacco that the Serbs attacking the town targeted his home, trying to kill him. They did not see him as a fellow Serb but as someone going against their ethno-nationalist goals, making him an enemy.

“I had a Serb friend in Foca I wouldn’t mind speaking to again, just to get his side of things, but generally I don’t want to see the people who’ve done this for another 20 or 40 years, They shattered my life and I can’t put the pieces together again.”

Sacco asks many people in Goražde if they would live alongside Serbs again and receives many different responses, though all reference the pain of what happened. In this excerpt, a man references his desire to reconnect with a Serb friend to gain his perspective of the conflict. Despite this, the man does not feel a desire to actually live with Serbs again for a long time, believing that they ruined his life. The ongoing fear and mistrust of the Bosnian Muslims reflect the ongoing legacy of the impact of ethno-nationalism.

“And they were singing Montenegrin songs, Chetnik songs. A lot of voices. They were drunk, drugged, who knows? They were singing when they attacked.”

When Edin shares his account of the 1994 offensive with Sacco, he mentions that the Serbs were singing while they attacked. Such behavior is referenced throughout the work and highlights the power imbalance between the two sides of the conflict. The Serbs used the armed forces of the former Yugoslavia and possessed advanced equipment, such as tanks. The Bosnians in Goražde had guns but could rarely match the firepower of their antagonists. The Serb forces knew they were the stronger force, and their singing exemplifies not only the nationalism behind their goals but also the confidence they felt in their ability to wage war.

“Said Rose: ‘The situation was a lot better than I had been led to believe…the town had not been destroyed to the level which I had expected.’”

Rose’s comments about Goražde demonstrate the UN’s unwillingness to firmly commit themselves to the protection of the town, reflecting the ineffective role of international organizations in conflict. Rose made this assertion after the 1994 offensive, in which Goražde was nearly destroyed and a humanitarian crisis was flaring up. Though evidence of destruction and death were all around the town, Rose tried to downplay the situation to justify the UN’s vacillation and neutrality.

“Sometimes in Gorazde I basked in the certainty that I’d descended from a higher place, where the streets were paved with orthodontic equipment and the dental floss flowed like wine.”

Throughout Safe Area Goražde, Sacco reflects on his privilege of being from the US and not Goražde. The orthodontic equipment and dental floss that he mentions here, though important to a person’s health, are a luxury compared to what Goražde’s citizens have and need. Goražde barely has the equipment or resources to bandage a wound.

“Then I read from my interviews and most Serbs hadn’t minced words, they didn’t want to live with Muslims, they accused the Muslims of starting the war, of all kinds of atrocities…as for Serb atrocities, most Serbs I talked to denied they’d happened.”

Sacco captures the other side of the conflict by interviewing Serbs as well as the people from Goražde and finds that their view of the conflict is completely different. They not only blame Muslims for violence but also deny that the many atrocities committed by Serbs were real. The people whom Sacco interviews are committed to their ethno-nationalist ideology and their experiences during the war, highlighting the continued divide between the two groups and the impact of ethno-nationalism.

“But Edin decided to start reviewing his university thesis the next day. Just in case. After all, if there was peace, and if he could get to Sarajevo, he might as well be ready to finish up his degree right away.”

When the conflict ends, Edin wants to restart his life from where it stopped years ago before he returned to defend Goražde. His primary goal is to leave Goražde for Sarajevo and complete his degree. He begins preparing the day after peace is declared, demonstrating his desire to move on completely and reclaim the life he lost.