Abstract
This chapter focuses on the dangers of staying in, and working from, the Holiday Inn during the early months of the siege of Sarajevo. Its frontline location made it a dangerous place to reside, and this chapter provides an analysis of how the hotel’s new guests dealt with the hazards of living there. Here the author draws on extensive interviews with journalists based at the hotel to provide a detailed analysis of how journalists adapted to these dangers. The author also discusses the myriad guests (journalists, aid workers, political activists, filmmakers, playwrights, and musicians) who passed through the hotel during the siege.
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Notes
- 1.
UN-ICTY, Case No. IT-98-29/-T, ‘The Prosecutor v. Dragomir Milošević’: (D70033-D69927), 12 December 2007, p. 53.
- 2.
Miroslav Prstojević, Sarajevo: ranjeni grad, Sarajevo: Ideja, 1994, p. 110.
- 3.
A total of ten journalists were killed in Sarajevo during the siege (including two Serbian journalists—Miloš Vulević and Živko Filipović—in Ilidža). Among them were three Oslobodjenje journalists (Salko Hondo, Kasif Smajlović and Karmela Sojanović) and the Sarajevo correspondent for the Slovenian magazine Mladina (Ivo Standeker). One high-profile case (outside Sarajevo) involved the hardline editor-in-chief of Pale-based Bosnian Serb Televison, Risto Djogo, who was, allegedly, murdered at the Hotel Vidikovac (later the Hotel Sveti Stefan) in Zvornik. See Vreme News Digest Agency, No.156, 19 September 1994.p. 2.
- 4.
Margaret Moth worked as a photojournalist/camerawoman for CNN when she was injured in Sarajevo. She was a remarkable woman, who continued to cover conflicts around the world (including returning to Sarajevo in 1994) despite the horrific injuries she sustained in Sarajevo (for which she required extensive facial reconstruction surgery). She died of cancer in March 2010 at the age of 59. For an overview of her work and life see ‘Margaret Moth: Fearless’, CNN Documentary, broadcast on CNN, 22 September 2009.
- 5.
Author’s interview with Malcolm Brabant (BBC), August 2015.
- 6.
The Independent, London, 2 April 2010, p. 29.
- 7.
The street has had a number of names throughout the twentieth century. During the period of the KSHS it was known as Vojvode Putnika (after the Serbian military leader, Radomir Putnik). During the occupation by the Ustaše (1941–45) it was known as Ante Strarčević street (after the Croatian nationalist philosopher, writer and politician) before being changed to the Bulevar Crvene armije (Soviet Red Army) in 1946. In 1952 its former name of Vojvoda Putnik was reinstated and remained in place until 1994, when it was renamed Zmaja od Bosne, after Husein-kapetan Gradaščević (the leader of the uprising against the Ottoman Empire in the 1830s). See Behija Zlatar et al., Sarajevo: Ulice, trgovi, mostovi, parkovi i spomenici, Sarajevo: Mediapress, 2007, p. 121.
- 8.
Author’s interview with John Sweeney (The Observer), July 2014.
- 9.
Giving evidence in the trial of Ratko Mladić in September 2013, the BBC journalist, Jeremy Bowen, described the approach to the hotel along ‘Sniper Alley’. It was, he said ‘Very dangerous because you could be shot by at by snipers from the Serb side. I would drive down it from the TV station to the [Holiday Inn] hotel and into the town in an armoured land rover. Before we had an armoured land rover, we had to take the roundabout route that avoided Sniper Alley. Even with the armour, I would drive fast because it is much harder to hit a moving target. During the siege many civilians were killed on the road by snipers. One sniper position overlooked the Holiday Inn.’ UN-ICTY, Case No. IT-09-92-T, ‘The Prosecutor v. Ratko Mladić’(Witness Statement: D70033-D69927), 13 September 2013, p. 5.
- 10.
Author’s interview with Zoran Stevanović (Reuters TV), August 2015.
- 11.
Author’s interview with Joel Brand (The Times/Newsweek), April 2014.
- 12.
New York Times, New York, 26 September 1992, p. 7.
- 13.
The Guardian, London, 14 July 1992, p. 21.
- 14.
Paul Harris, More Thrills than Skills: Adventures in Journalism, War and Terrorism, p. 183.
- 15.
Author’s interview with Džemal Bečirević (UPI/Washington Post), April 2015.
- 16.
When Sullivan arrived in Sarajevo in October 1992, the UPI’s equipment consisted only of ‘a Volkswagen Golf with no windows and a satellite phone with no consistent access to electricity’, so he opted to move to the Holiday Inn where there were distinct advantages. ‘Being in the loop’ he said, ‘was the primary benefit. Information circulated, and people were generally collaborative’. Author’s interview with Kevin Sullivan (UPI), April 2015.
- 17.
Author’s interview with Kevin Sullivan (UPI), April 2015. On Kevin Sullivan’s first evening at the Holiday Inn, he was introduced to an Oslobodjenje journalist, Marije Fekete, whom he later married. And despite being a distinctly unromantic place to meet a prospective partner, Sullivan was not alone. The CNN correspondent, Christian Amanpour, met her husband, James Rubin, then the US State Department spokesman, in the Holiday Inn. See The Times, London, 13 June 1998, p. 16.
- 18.
The American Spectator, Summer Reading Issue, June 2000, p. 115.
- 19.
The Guardian, London, 14 July 1992, p. 21.
- 20.
Author’s interview with Joel Brand (The Times/Newsweek), April 2014.
- 21.
Peter Maass, Love Thy Neighbour: A Story of War, p. 122.
- 22.
The aesthetic qualities of the Holiday Inn were the subject of some debate between the wartime guests. Most thought the building to be rather ugly, and many of its more recent guests are of the same opinion. Indeed, the Holiday Inn was judged to be ‘10th ugliest hotel in the world’ (though judging by those hotels placed below, this may be a little harsh). See Daily Telegraph (Travel Section), 18 April, 2015, www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/picturegalleries/9672211/The-worlds-ugliest-hotels.html?frame=2395834 [last accessed 12 June 2015].
- 23.
Roger Cohen, Hearts Grown Brutal: Sagas of Sarajevo, New York: Random House, 1998, p. 120.
- 24.
Peter Maass, Love Thy Neighbour, p. 122.
- 25.
Juan Goytisolo, Landscapes of War: From Sarajevo to Chechnya, Oregon: City Lights Books p. 29.
- 26.
Author’s interview with Malcolm Brabant (BBC), August 2015.
- 27.
Miroslav Prstojević, Sarajevo Survival Guide, Sarajevo: FAMA, p. 84.
- 28.
Author’s interview with Remy Ourdan (Le Monde), London, 5 November 2013.
- 29.
Anderson Cooper, Dispatches From the Edge: A Memoir of War, Disasters and Survival, p. 54.
- 30.
Author’s interview with Joel Brand (The Times/Newsweek), May 2015.
- 31.
Author’s interview with Joel Brand (The Times/Newsweek), May 2015.
- 32.
Author’s interview with Vaughan Smith (Frontline News), June 2015.
- 33.
Author’s interview with Holiday Inn (Sarajevo) employee, April 2015.
- 34.
Author’s interview with Sean Maguire (Reuters), September 2013.
- 35.
UN-ICTY, Case No. IT-09-92-T, ‘The Prosecutor v. Ratko Mladić’(Witness Statement: D70033-D69927), 13 September 2013, p. 9.
- 36.
Author’s interview with Jeremy Bowen (BBC), March 2014.
- 37.
Author’s interview with Vaughan Smith (Frontline News), June 2015.
- 38.
Author’s interview with Peter Maass (The Washington Post), April 2015.
- 39.
Peter Maass, Love Thy Neighbour, p. 148. Maass is not suggesting here that cameramen simply set up their equipment and waited for something to happen, but images could be captured from the confines of the Holiday Inn. This is not entirely novel—some of the most striking images of war or conflict have been captured from hotel balconies. Perhaps the most famous image of ‘Tank Man’ during the events was captured by the American photographer Jeff Widener (and published in a number of European newspapers) who worked for Associated Press (AP). Images were also captured by Charlie Cole of Newsweek, Stuart Franklin of Magnum Photos, and Arthur Tsang Hin Wah of Reuters. All the images were captured from balconies at the Hotel Beijing.
- 40.
Author’s interview with Malcolm Brabant (BBC), August 2015.
- 41.
Myers also noted that ‘To leave the hotel by the front door is to invite death—after all, the gardener was shot there. One leaves from the underground car park, bursting out of its entrance like a Grand Prix racing driver leaving pole position. One expects sniper fire immediately. If one is quick the sniper will be too rushed to be accurate. But if his main purpose is to scare, then he does his job well.’ Ibid, p. 21.
- 42.
Martin Bell, In Harm’s Way, pp. 85–86. See also Jeremy Bowen, War Stories, p. 130.
- 43.
Authors interview with Martin Bell (BBC), December 2013.
- 44.
Martin Bell, In Harm’s Way: Bosnia: A War Reporter’s Story, London: Penguin, 1996, p. 114.
- 45.
The Guardian, London, 14 July 1992, p. 21.
- 46.
Jeremy Bowen, War Stories, p. 136.
- 47.
Michael Nicholson, Natasha’s Story, London: Macmillan, 1993, p. 12.
- 48.
Ibid, p. 12.
- 49.
Michael Nicholson, Natasha’s Story, p. 13.
- 50.
Authors interview with Martin Bell (BBC), December 2013.
- 51.
Martin Bell, In Harm’s Way, pp. 77.
- 52.
Authors interview with Martin Bell (BBC), December 2013.
- 53.
The use of armoured vehicles was controversial among the journalists. Some saw them as necessary, other saw their use as grotesque. They were resistant to bullets, but not fully bulletproof. Top-heavy, however, the Land Rovers were a mixed blessing, forever falling off mountains or rolling into ditches. See New York Times, New York, 19 June 1994, p. 14.
- 54.
Bell, In Harm’s Way, pp. 92–93. See also The Times, London, 26 August 1992, p. 8.
- 55.
Author’s interview with Zoran Kusovac (Sky News), March 2015.
- 56.
Author’s interview with Joel Brand (The Times/Newsweek), May 2015.
- 57.
For Paul Marchand’s personal account of his journalistic endeavours in Beirut and Sarajevo see Paul Marchand, Sympathie pour le diable, Outremont: Lancot, 1997. A documentary film of with the same title was made in 2010 by the French film director Arthur Liminia.
- 58.
Paul Marchand, Sympathie pour le diable, p. 95.
- 59.
New York Times, New York, 26 September 1992, p. 7.
- 60.
New York Times, New York, 91 June 1994, p. 24.
- 61.
Interview with Paul Marchand in ‘Veillées d’armes: Histoire du Journalisme en temps du guerre’ (‘The Troubles We have Seen: A History of Journalism in Wartime’), Second Journey, Director: Marcel Ophuls, Little Bear Productions, 1994.
- 62.
Emma Daly, ‘Dateline in the 1990s: In Sarajevo, Scant Rations but Abundant Black Humour’, Overseas Press Club of America, 24 April 2014, https://www.opcofamerica.org/news/dateline-1990s-sarajevo-scant-rations-abundant-black-humor [last accessed 2 June 2015].
- 63.
John Simpson, Strange Places, Questionable People, London: MacMillan, 1999, p. 445.
- 64.
Martin Bell, ‘Farewell to War’, in Tony Grant (ed.), From Our Own Correspondent: A Celebration of Fifty Years of the BBC Radio Programme, London: Profile Books, 2005, p. 19.
- 65.
Ljiljana Smajlović, ‘Okrutno šminkanje krvavog rata’, Vrene, Belgrade, 8 February 1993, in Helsinški odbor za ljudska prava u Srbiji, Jezgro velikosrpskog projekta, pp. 634–635.
- 66.
Ljiljana Smajlović, ‘Dva “Pulicera” za jedan sat’, Vreme, Belgrade, 5 April 1993 in Ibid, pp. 641–642.
- 67.
Peter Brock, Media Cleansing, Dirty Reporting: Journalism and Tragedy in Yugoslavia, Los Angeles: GM Books, 2006, p. 133.
- 68.
Ibid, p. 132.
- 69.
John F. Burns, ‘Neutrality isn’t the same as being fair’, The British Journalism Review, London, Vol. 21, No. 3, 2010, p. 30.
- 70.
Lisa Smirl, ‘Not Welcome at the Holiday Inn’.
- 71.
Robert Donia, Sarajevo: A Biography, p. 315.
- 72.
According to a Guardian article from April 1994, the British, too, were to set up an embassy (run by a chargé d’affaires rather than a full ambassador), initially from the Holiday Inn. But the chargé d’affaires, Robert Barnett, only spent one or two nights in the hotel before establishing his headquarters elsewhere. See The Guardian, London, 1 April 1994, p. 12.
- 73.
Richard Holbrooke, To End a War, New York: Random House, 1998, p. 48.
- 74.
Author’s interview with Holiday Inn (Sarajevo) employee, April 2015.
- 75.
Phillip Hammond, Media, War and Postmodernity, New York: Routledge, 2007, p. 50.
- 76.
Peter Andreas, Blue Helmets and Black Markets: The Business of Survival in the Siege of Sarajevo, 2008, pp. 71–72.
- 77.
Author’s interview with John F. Burns (New York Times), July 2015.
- 78.
Author’s interview with Džemal Bećirević (UPI/Washington Post), April 2015.
- 79.
Author’s interview with Allan Little (BBC), March 2015.
- 80.
See Susan Sontag, ‘Waiting for Godot in Sarajevo’ Performing Arts Journal, Vol. 6, No. 2, 1994, pp. 87–106.
- 81.
The Guardian, London, 25 July 1993, p. 13.
- 82.
Susan Sontag, ‘Godot Comes to Sarajevo’, The New York Review of Books, 21 October 1993. See also Janine di Giovanni, ‘Siege Food: Bosnia’, in Matthew McAllister, Eating Mud Crabs in Kandahar: Stories of Food During Wartime by the World’s Leading Correspondents, California: University of California Press, 2011, p. 34.
- 83.
With celebrity engagement risking trivialisation of the conflict, there existed a distinct unease at the celebrity endorsement of a ‘Bosnian cause’, of which many of the celebrity advocates knew very little, and they were derided as gimmicks by some. In an article in The Guardian in September 1993 entitled Sarajevo? Been there. Done it, Peter Beaumont caustically commented that ‘Whatever the good intentions of all these stunts or exercises in consciousness-raising—call them what you will—a fundamental sense of uneasiness remains about the motivation.’ See The Guardian, London, 20 September 1993 (Supplement), p. 4.
- 84.
See ‘Veillées d’armes: Histoire du Journalisme en temps du guerre’ (‘The Troubles We’ve Seen: A History of Journalism in Wartime’), First Journey, Director: Marcel Ophuls, Little Bear Productions, 1993. See also John Simpson, Strange Places, Questionable People, London: MacMillan, 1999, pp. 451–457.
- 85.
Author’s interview with Stephane Manier (France 2), April 2015.
- 86.
See ‘Veillées d’armes: Histoire du Journalisme en temps du guerre’ (‘The Troubles We’ve Seen: A History of Journalism in Wartime’), Second Journey, Director: Marcel Ophuls, Little Bear Productions, 1994.
- 87.
See Christian Science Monitor, Massachusetts, 27 June 1994, p. 16.
- 88.
See ‘A Sarajevo Diary: From Bad to Worse’, Director: Dom Rotheroe, W.O.W Productions, 1993.
- 89.
Dzevad Karahasan, Sarajevo: Exodus of a City, p. 37.
- 90.
Ibid, p. 40.
- 91.
Associated Press Archive, SD F05079304, Story No. w094045, 5 July 1993. Some write that in the winter of 1993 the ‘Miss Besieged Sarajevo’ contest took place in the Holiday Inn (an event that was to be made globally famous by the Irish rock band U2’s song, Miss Sarajevo), where, according to Paul Harris, ‘a couple of dozen girls, involuntarily slimmed down on EC rations, paraded in the Holiday Inn’. (The winner was Inela Nogić, a seventeen-year-old Sarajevan, though the result was less important than the image of the participants holding aloft a banner at the end of the event emblazoned with the words ‘Don’t Let Them Kill Us’.) The event did not, however, take place at the Holiday Inn but the Bosniak Cultural Centre.
- 92.
In one of the unresolved controversies of the Bosnian war, the one-time President of the SDP in Srebrenica (and then Police Chief in Srebrenica), Hakija Meholjić, claimed that he had met in the Holiday Inn with Alija Izetbegović during the ‘Bosniak Congress’ and that Izetbegović had informed him that the US President had offered him (NATO) military intervention, but that Srebrenica had to be sacrificed in order to provide a justification. According to Meholjić, the proposal was ‘rejected without any discussion’. See Dani, Sarajevo, 22 June 1998, p. 5. Meholjić repeated these accusations in a controversial Norwegian documentary film Srebrenica: izdani grad (Srebrenica: A Town Betrayed). Interviewed drinking coffee in the lobby of the Holiday Inn he said, ‘Whether Clinton offered it to him or not, I do not know.’ The matter has never been resolved. Meholjić’s interview can be seen in Srebrenica: izdani grad (Dir: David Hebditch), Fenris Fil, Oslo, Norway, 2012.
- 93.
The Muslimansko nacionalno vijeće Sandžaka (MNVS) similarly changed its name to the Bošnjačko nacionalno vijeće Sandžaka (BMVS) on 10 May 1998.
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Morrison, K. (2016). The Hazards of Living on the Frontline. In: Sarajevo’s Holiday Inn on the Frontline of Politics and War. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57718-4_9
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