Serbs in Sarajevo: A very uneasy peace

GRBAVICA, Bosnia-Herzegovina - The rooms of the bombed out apartment building appeared to have been occupied by snipers. The shattered windows provided a commanding view of the Bosnian government-held section of Sarajevo. The floor was littered with high-caliber shell casings.

On the walls, someone had painted ghoulish, macho graffiti: black skulls, coffins, and a knife dripping blood. Above the entry way, someone also had painted in Cyrillic letters the word Mrtvacnica, meaning "charnel house."

Once meant as wartime bravado, the graffiti word now has become an apt term for this entire Sarajevo neighborhood. To Serbs living here, Grbavica has become a dead zone. A Serbian stronghold throughout the four-year war, the neighborhood now is set to be turned over to the Muslim-backed government.

"People are just really scared," said Sandra Djuric, 15, who has lived in a Grbavica apartment since her family fled its apartment in government-controlled Sarajevo. "They don't feel safe now. They don't believe the Muslim government will protect them. Most of the people who can are leaving for the mountains."

Under the Dayton Peace Agreement, this neighborhood, layered on the hills along the south bank of the Miljacka River, will be turned over to the government, probably sometime in March, depending on revisions in the accord. Bosnian Serb soldiers already have withdrawn from the neighborhood, which falls in the "Zone of Separation," where NATO troops are taking control.

Lightly armed Bosnian Serb police, in purple camouflage uniforms, still patrol the area, but Italian troops under NATO command now can be seen at many intersections.

Resentment runs high in the neighborhood, where people feel Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic sold them out by agreeing to transfer the area to the Bosnian government.

The sullen, tired faces of residents show their sense of defeat and anger. At every building, people can be seen packing trucks with furniture and belongings. Loaded vans and trucks drive south out of the neighborhood into areas firmly in the control of the Bosnian Serb army. Many apartment buildings, still marked with Serbian nationalist slogans, stand empty.

In many apartments, bathroom piping and electrical fixtures have been stripped. Land mines have been placed in many areas throughout Grbavica, and some apartments reportedly have been booby-trapped.

Government services, from garbage pickup to mail service, have stopped. Dogs and pigeons pick at mounds of trash piled on street corners. One small neighborhood market sells a few basic items such as soap and potatoes for Yugoslav dinars or German marks.

Neighborhood of snipers

Because of its proximity to downtown Sarajevo (about as far as Third Street is from Fifth Street in downtown Cincinnati) Grbavica was hotly contested. Bosnian Serb snipers used the apartment buildings of Grbavica to shoot thousands of civilians. Bosnian government troops failed repeatedly in attempts to capture the area and drive out the snipers.

Grbavica residents now fear the notorious role the neighborhood played in the war will lead to reprisals once the Bosnian government takes control.

No one is sure how many people live in Grbavica, but the number is shrinking rapidly. The United Nations estimates that 70,000 people lived in all of the Serb-controlled sections of Sarajevo when the Dayton agreement was signed in December. They estimate 15,000 have fled since then.

Those who remain are mostly the elderly and those who cannot afford to leave, according to Ms. Djuric.

"We would like to leave if we could go somewhere, but we have no money, no possibility, no place," she said. "We have to stay."

Scared off

The bridge's opening, two weeks ago, was supposed to guarantee free passage for civilians. Instead, both Bosnian and Bosnian Serb police have required everyone who crosses to register where they are going and what they intend to do. They must also give the names of who they intend to visit. Many have been scared off.

Those who do cross wait in line for up to three hours.

"The opening of the bridge was supposed to help people in Grbavica have contact with their city and realize Sarajevo isn't a Muslim police state," said Kris Janowski, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commission on Refugees. "These police restrictions haven't helped ease people's fears at all."

Ms. Djuric and her friend Jesna Kelecevic, 16, said they have been across the bridge three times since it opened. Waiting in the snow and cold has been worth it to see their city again. "Lights, cars, trams, shops, lots of people. We really missed Sarajevo," said Ms. Kelecevic.

Grbavica spent much of the war without electricity and running water. People have little food or money and no work.

"People are really sick of this war," Ms. Kelecevic said. "They don't want to live that way any more."

Asked if her family will stay in Grbavica, Ms. Kelecevic shrugged. "No one knows what's going to happen here," she said.

Published Feb. 16, 1996