Exodus of Sarajevo Serbs

The Exodus of Sarajevo Serbs was the migration of ethnic Serbs from Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, between January and March 1996 after the Dayton Agreement that concluded the Bosnian War (1992–95).[1]

1991 census
2013 census
Pre- and post-war census data.

Background
Main articles: Bosnian War and Siege of Sarajevo
Destroyed housing units in Sarajevo, 1996

Following Slovenia and Croatia's secession from the Yugoslav Federation in June 1991, the political leaders of the ethnically mixed Bosnia and Herzegovina were divided on the configuration of the state. In October 1991, the Bosnian Croat and Bosniak members of the parliament of the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo passed a 'memorandum on sovereignty and neutrality' causing protest from Bosnian Serb leaders who walked out of the assembly.[2] Most Bosnian Croats and Bosniaks favored independence while Bosnian Serbs preferred Bosnia to stay in Yugoslavia; in March 1992, a European Community-backed Bosnian referendum was held that was boycotted by Bosnian Serbs, in which 99.7 percent voted for independence. Following the referendum, violent skirmishes broke out and Sarajevo was closed off in barricades by Bosnian Serb activists. War broke out after the European recognition of Bosnia's independence on 6 April 1992.[2]

After it was initially besieged by the forces of the Yugoslav People's Army, the city was then besieged by the Army of Republika Srpska. Lasting from 5 April 1992 to 29 February 1996, it was the longest siege of a capital city in the history of modern warfare.[3] The siege was marred by atrocities against the civilian population. Attacks caused significant damage to the city's buildings and infrastructure.[4] A total of 13,952 people were killed during the siege, including 5,434 civilians.[5] The war ended after NATO conducted air strikes against Bosnian Serb positions in August 1995, which led to peace talks and the signing of the Dayton Accords in December 1995, creating the Serb republic (Republika Srpska) as an entity within the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.[6] The Bosnian government officially declared an end to the siege of Sarajevo on 29 February 1996, when Bosnian Serb forces left positions in and around the city.[7]

Exodus

The Dayton Agreement finalized the demarcation between the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) and Republika Srpska (RS), the two post-war entities of the country. The Sarajevo suburbs of Ilijaš, Vogošća, Hadžići, Ilidža, and Grbavica were incorporated into Federation, while other peripheral parts of the former Sarajevo municipality became part of RS (see Istočno Sarajevo). The five areas had been held by Bosnian Serbs during the war.[8] The Serb community massively left the Bosnian government-controlled part of Sarajevo for Republika Srpska. Their number was reported in 1996 as 62,000,[9] with sources generally giving an estimate of between 60,000 and 70,000.[8][10]

The exodus of Sarajevo Serbs was one of many exoduses of Serbs during Bosnian War.[11] Right before this exodus there was another exodus of 17,000 Serbs from Odžak.[12] Both of them were preceded by massive exodus of 200,000 Serbs from Croatia during Operation Storm which set precedents for the exodus of Sarajevo Serbs.[13] It was reported on 1 January 1996 that 'rumours and blind panic trigger mass flight from [the] city's contested suburbs'.[14]

Australian-Bosnian professor Dino Murtic emphasized that exodus of Sarajevo Serbs was massive and planned and that Bosnian president Izetbegović initially demonstrated indifference about it stating that the people of Sarajevo "finally deserved to be free of their murderers".[15] After some time, Izetbegović called Serbs to stay in Sarajevo.[16]

Some Serbs exhumated the graves of their ancestors from Sarajevo graveyards to graveyards near their new accommodation.[17]

Responsibility

The Institute for War and Peace Reporting reported that all involved parties in Bosnia were responsible for the mass exodus of Sarajevo Serbs, including the officials of Republika Srpska.[18] It was difficult to determine if this exodus was voluntarily or coerced.[19] According to N. Chakravartty, the ethnic cleansing of Serbs from Croatia during Operation Storm (silently supported by major powers like United States and Germany) set precedent for the exodus of 150,000 terrified suburban Sarajevo Serbs who did not feel that a Muslim-led Bosnian government or the outside world will guarantee their safety.[13]

While Bosniak leaders in Sarajevo discouraged Serbs from staying and there were instances of attacks and vandalism on those who tried to stay, Serb leaders presented this as the sole reason behind the exodus. The leadership of Republika Srpska used the displacement of Serbs from Sarajevo to their advantage by directing the refugees to Brčko, Zvornik, Bratunac and Srebrenica, thereby homogenizing the ethnic demography of the state.[20] This conclusion was echoed by the Assembly of Bosnia who blamed the departure of Serbs on authorities in Pale, Bosnia and Herzegovina so that they could create an ethnically pure post-war Republika Srpska.[21] By resettling Serbs in areas that were previously inhabited by Bosniaks, RS authorities ensured that Bosniaks would not return.[8][10] Bosnian Serb-controlled media broadcast warnings to Sarajevo Serbs that it was dangerous for them to stay while Serb paramilitaries burned buildings in Sarajevo suburbs that were due to be transferred to the Federation, creating an atmosphere of panic and fear.[22] Many were forced to leave under threats and intimidation from Bosnian Serb extremists and there were cases of killings of those who refused to follow orders.[8]

In 1996, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe cited the delay of the establishment of an international police force in Bosnia on the part of NATO as among the factors which contributed to Serbs leaving Sarajevo. It also noted the "systematic looting and torching" of Serbian suburbs of the city and the failure to prevent them as a reason for the exodus.[23] The Implementation Force was criticized for not intervening and standing idly by as buildings were torched and burned.[20]

Media coverage

The Western observers claimed that Serbs used mass exhumations during their exodus from Sarajevo to gain moral victory.[24] Peter Brock argued that even after the 1996 exodus, the Western media still refused to acknowledge the flight of tens of thousands of Sarajevo Serbs that occurred at the beginning of the Bosnian War in early 1992.[25] Even before the exodus of Sarajevo Serbs began, another exodus of 17,000 Serbs from Odžak went unnoticed in the public.[12]

Eventually, the exodus of Sarajevo Serbs forced foreign journalists including Tom Gjelten to reconsider their initial judgement about Sarajevo being harmonious.[26]

References
  1. Bollens 2007, p. 97: "The Dayton Accord of December 1995 set off processes that unraveled efforts to create Sarajevo as a multicultural space.. In this "reunification of Sarajevo" there would be the transfer over a three-month period of the districts and suburbs.. home to about 60,000 Serbs.. Despite these international efforts, and whether by choice or force, what resulted was a mass exodus in early 1996 of some 62,000 Sarajevo Serbs from inside what would be the Dayton borders of Sarajevo city and its suburbs within the Federation."
  2. Pickering, Paula M. (2018). Peacebuilding in the Balkans: The View from the Ground Floor. Cornell University Press. pp. 25–27. ISBN 978-0-80146-346-4.
  3. Connelly, Charlie (8 October 2005). "The new siege of Sarajevo". The Times. UK. Retrieved 10 May 2010.
  4. Bassiouni, Cherif (27 May 1994). "Final report of the United Nations Commission of Experts established pursuant to security council resolution 780 (1992) – Annex VI – part 1 – Study of the battle and siege of Sarajevo". United Nations. Archived from the original on 22 February 2001. Retrieved 10 May 2010.
  5. Murphy, Joanne (2020). Management and War: How Organisations Navigate Conflict and Build Peace. Springer. p. 44. ISBN 978-3-03049-252-6.
  6. Ramet, Sabrina P., ed. (2010). Central and Southeast European Politics since 1989. Cambridge University Press. p. 314. ISBN 978-1-13948-750-4. Archived from the original on 7 February 2023. Retrieved 7 February 2023.
  7. Kidd, James (30 March 2017). "The ghosts of Sarajevo: a journalist looks back at the enduring tragedy of the Balkan wars". The National. Retrieved 17 September 2021.
  8. Suhrke, Astri; Berdal, Mats, eds. (2013). The Peace In Between: Post-War Violence and Peacebuilding. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-13667-192-0. The single largest case of such displacement was the exodus of approximately 60,000-70,000 Serb civilians in February and March 1996 from the Grbavica neighbourhood and the suburbs of Vogosca, Ilijas, Hadzici and Ilidza, areas of Sarajevo held by the Serbs during the war but which under the Dayton Peace Accords were to be transferred to federation control... Many of these Serbs were resettled in areas formerly inhabited mainly by Bosniaks. The goal was to prevent Bosniaks from returning and in doing so, consolidate Bosnian Serb control over those areas acquired during the war.. Although Bosniak leaders did much to stoke the fears of local Serbs to leave the city in the days before the transfer, the exodus from Sarajevo was initiated and encouraged by the leadership in Republika Srpska.. Many were forced to leave under the threat of death and some were killed for disobeying orders.
  9. McEvoy & O'Leary 2013, p. 345:"On the other hand, Dayton's ethnic circumscription of space after the war had detrimental effects on Sarajevo, catalyzing a mass exodus in early 1996 of some sixty-two thousand Sarajevo Serbs from inside what would be the Dayton borders of Sarajevo city and its suburbs and creating today's more monoethnic postwar city (Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre 1996)."
  10. Human Rights Watch Staff (1996). Human Rights Watch World Report. Human Rights Watch. p. 204. ISBN 978-1-56432-207-4.
  11. FBIS 1996, p. 27: "The exodus of Sarajevo's Serbs is just one of many Serb exoduses during this war, but it is fatal for them. The Sarajevo Serbs are the most urban, educated, and largest ..."
  12. FBIS 1996, p. 27: "Before the exodus of the Sarajevo Serbs, the exodus of almost 17,000 Serbs from Odzak and Vukosavlje passed unnoticed in the public."
  13. Chakravartty 1999, p. 120: "The ethnic cleansing of the Krajina Serbs, quietly applauded by the governments of the United States and Germany, set precedents for the exodus of frightened Serbs from Sarajevo — once the beacon of Slavic and Islamic coexistence — after the Dayton accord signed December 14, 1995, in Paris. Neither the Muslim-led Bosnian Government nor the outside world, was able to offer the suburban Sarajevo Serbs — numbering approximately 150,000— convincing guarantees of safety."
  14. Independent 1996.
  15. Murtic 2015, p. 164: "Some Serbian families even dug out and transported the remains of their ancestors from the graveyards. For them, life under the political domination of Bosniaks and/or Croats was out of question. The Izetbegovic government in Sarajevo showed indifference to this massive, planned exodus of Sarajevo's Serbs. Izetbegovic himself once said that the people of Sarajevo 'finally deserved to be free of their murderers' (Sell 1999, p. 183)."
  16. Murtic 2015, p. 164: "Later, he called on all Serbs to stay."
  17. Murtic 2015, p. 164
  18. IWPR 1996: "All sides involved in Bosnia seem set to win from such a development. Bosnian Serb authorities, international mediators, and the Bosnian federal government have all cast their shadows over the transfer of control over the Sarajevo suburbs from Republika Srpska to the Bosnian federation. All, therefore, bear some responsibility for the resulting mass exodus of Sarajevo's Serb inhabitants"
  19. Burg & Shoup 2015, p. 172: "The departure of the Sarajevo Serbs after Dayton and the exodus of Serbs from Krajina further illustrate the difficulty of distinguishing between coercion and voluntarism."
  20. Lippman, Peter (2019). Surviving the Peace: The Struggle for Postwar Recovery in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Vanderbilt University Press. pp. 58–59. ISBN 978-0-82652-263-4.
  21. Pejanović, Mirko (2004). Through Bosnian Eyes: The Political Memoir of a Bosnian Serb. Purdue University Press. p. 195. ISBN 978-1-55753-359-3.
  22. Hodge, Carole (2019). The Balkans on Trial: Justice vs. Realpolitik. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-00000-712-1.
  23. Council of Europe 1998, p. 553: "The Assembly regrets the delay in establishing the International Police Task Force. It considers that this has been a factor, among others, in the failure to persuade people of Serb origin to remain in the five districts of Sarajevo which have been transferred to the federation. It deplores the incidents of intimidation and violence which have occurred. The Assembly in particular deplores the fact that neither IFOR nor the International Police Task Force were prepared to stop the systematic looting and torching of the Serb suburbs of Sarajevo in March 1996, nor offer effective protection to those wishing to remain, resulting in the mass exodus of Serbs from the city."
  24. Turton 2003, p. 1
  25. Brock 2005, p. 286: "Years later, "enlightened Western" journalism still refused to acknowledge the flight of tens of thousands of Sarajevo's Serbs along with its entire Jewish community — both with palpable memories from World War II atrocities — on the eve of the recognition of Bosnian "independence" in early 1992. "
  26. Brock 2005, p. 286: "Gjelten grudgingly conceded that "the Serb exodus" eventually forced foreign journalists "to reconsider their initial judgment" about Sarajevo's harmoniousness."

Sources

Further reading
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