Civil War: April 1992

Abstract

Sarajevo had long been a symbol of multicultural, multi-professional and multiethnic society, a seemingly happy, thriving, cosmopolitan one, and in April 1992 most citizens, including many Serbs, were eagerly looking forward to the prestige, multilateral outlook and status of living in the capital of a new, internationally recognised nation. Most citizens, and many Serbs living in Sarajevo, regarded Serbs living outside the city in the smaller towns and countryside as their less sophisticated ‘country cousins’. Radovan Karadzic’s political followers were considered ‘radical nationalists’, with whom Sarajevans had little in common. Hostile Serb militiamen, hovering on the outskirts of the city, were known as ‘villagers in the hills’. To a somewhat lesser extent, Croats living in Sarajevo regarded Mate Boban’s political following, and Croats living in places other than Sarajevo, also as ‘country cousins’.