Abstract
The focus shifts towards the fate of the hotel in the post-siege era, as it returned to its normal function, as a hotel for business and tourism. This chapter charts the events that, despite the undoubted iconic status the building acquired during the siege and a successful immediate post-war period, have led to its demise. The focus here is primarily upon the process of privatisation that led to the hotel’s closure in 2015, analysing how the hotel, which survived the siege, could not survive privatisation.
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Notes
- 1.
UN ICTY, ‘Death Toll in the Siege of Sarajevo, April 1992 to December 1995: A Study of Mortality Based on Eight Large Data Sources’, Expert report prepared for the Case of Slobodan Milošević—Bosnia and Herzegovina, Case No. IT-02-54.
- 2.
Paddy Ashdown, Swords and Ploughshares: Building Peace in the 21st Century, London: Phoenix Press, 2008, p. 221.
- 3.
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Letter: Karadžić to President Clinton Accepting the Dayton Agreement, 02 December 1995, Document No. No. (FOIA)/ESDN (CREST): 5235e00d935294098d5174.
- 4.
For the Serb departures from previously Serb-held parts of Sarajevo see Robert Donia, Sarajevo: A Biography, pp. 337–339.
- 5.
See Xavier Bougarel, ‘Urban Exile: Locals, Newcomers and the Transformation of Sarajevo’, in Bougarel, Helms & Duijzings (eds.), The New Bosnian Mosaic, Ashgate Publishing, Aldershot, 2007, pp. 72–73.
- 6.
The PIC was established in London in December 1995. The Steering Board of the PIC (which operates under the chairmanship of the High Representative) is the executive arm of the PIC and includes the USA, UK, France, Germany, Canada, the Presidency of the EU, the European Commission, Japan, Russia, Italy, and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (represented by Turkey).
- 7.
For an overview of the status of Sarajevo’s city-centre hotels in the last months of the siege, see Oslobodjenje, Sarajevo, 18 October 1995, p. 11.
- 8.
Oslobodjenje, Sarajevo, 26 August 1995, p. 5.
- 9.
Robert Donia, Sarajevo: A Biography, p. 344.
- 10.
Stephen Badsey, The Media and International Security, London: Frank Cass Publishers, 2000, p. 135.
- 11.
International Crisis Group (ICG), ‘Media in Bosnia and Herzegovina: How International Support Can Be More Effective’, ICG Bosnia Report No. 21, 18 March 1997, p. 15.
- 12.
See Michael Nicholson, Natasha’s Story, London: Macmillan, 1993.
- 13.
The Guardian, 7 November 1997 (Supplement), p. A5.
- 14.
For more on U2’s concerts which included the Sarajevo live links, see Bill Carter, Fools Rush In, pp. 243–87.
- 15.
Neil McCormick, U2 by U2, London: HarperCollins Entertainment, 2008, p. 344.
- 16.
AIM Press, Paris, ‘Thousand Days of the Siege of Sarajevo’, 28 July 1999. The Holiday Inn was not the only hotel in Bosnia & Herzegovina to be utilised by the international community. In Mostar, the Hotel Ero (known locally as ‘the pensioners hotel’), located just behind the front line on Šanticeva Street, had served as a base for the HVO during the Muslim–Croat conflict, but was subsequently repaired and utilised by the European Union Administration of Mostar (EUAM), who used the hotel as their base thereafter. The hotel brought together all kinds of people—from EU administrators and local politicians to soldiers and local crooks. Yet it proved to be no safe haven. On 12 September 1994 the room of Hans Koschnick, the EUAM chief, was hit be a rocket propelled grenade. He, however, had been at the lobby bar having finished a late dinner with EUAM staff, and escaped injury. Koschnick was again subject to an attack on 7 February 1996, when Bosnian Croats, angered by the EUAM’s plans to push through a decree on the administration of the city (creating three Croat and three Bosniak majority municipalities as well as a shared ‘central zone’), rioted outside the hotel and trapped Koschnick in his (bulletproof) car which took several bullets. He resigned one week later. See Sumantra Bose, Bosnia after Dayton: Nationalist Partition and International Intervention, London: Hurst & Co., 2000, p. 107; John R. Yarwood, Rebuilding Mostar: Reconstruction in a War Zone, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1999, pp. 13–35; and International Crisis Group (ICG), ‘Reunifying Mostar: Opportunities for Progress’, ICG Balkans Report No. 90, April 2000, p. 9.
- 17.
For a history of the Intercontinental Hotels Group prior to 1998 see James Potter, World of Difference: 50 Years of Intercontinental Hotels and Its People, London: Weidenfeld Nicholson, 1996.
- 18.
A 1999 International Crisis Group (ICG) report noted that while foreign investment had been rather slow, the hospitality and tourism sector was not one which was ‘likely to grow as long as the Balkan region as a whole remains politically volatile’ but that some parts of the infrastructure for the 1984 Winter Olympics could serve as the basis for future development. The Holiday Inn, to some extent, bucked this trend because it hosted a large number of ‘internationals’. See International Crisis Group (ICG), ‘Why will no one invest in Bosnia and Herzegovina?’, ICG Balkans Report No. 64, 21 April 1999.
- 19.
Dani (Specijalni prilog), Sarajevo, 20 December 2002, p. 6.
- 20.
Robert O’ Connor, ‘Old Name Returns to Peaceful Sarajevo’, p. 6
- 21.
Robert O’ Connor, ‘Old Name Returns to Peaceful Sarajevo’, p. 6.
- 22.
Author’s interview with Peter Maass (Washington Post), April 2015.
- 23.
Janine Di Giovanni, Madness Visible: A Memoir of War, p. 260.
- 24.
Holiday Inn, Sarajevo, ‘Knjiga utisaka, 2003’, Holiday Inn (Sarajevo) archive.
- 25.
RFE/REFL, ‘Sarajevo Notebooks: For Journalists’ the Story of their Lives’, 6 April 2012, http://www.rferl.org/content/sarajevo_siege_anniversary_reporters_notebook/24540320.html.
- 26.
See AIM Press, Paris, ‘Why was the great privatisation in FBiH annulled?’, 26 April, 2000.
- 27.
See Timothy Donais, ‘The Politics of Privatization in Post-Dayton Bosnia’, Southeast European Politics, Vol. III, No. 1, June 2002, p. 7.
- 28.
Dani (Specijalni prilog), 20 December 2002, pp. 4–5.
- 29.
Dani (Specijalni prilog), 20 December 2002, p. 3.
- 30.
An article in the Bosnian magazine Start stated that the Holiday Inn would be fully upgraded with the latest technologies being made available in guests’ rooms—including a Sony Playstation for children. See Start, Sarajevo, 20 April 2004, p. 34.
- 31.
Slobodna Bosna, Sarajevo, 29 June 2015, www.slobodna-bosna.ba/vijest/22295/hotel_holiday_kriminal_sa_medjunarodnim_predznakom.html [last accessed 3 July 2015].
- 32.
Dnevni Avaz, Sarajevo, 22 April 2008, p. 8. See also Oslobodjenje, Sarajevo, 19 May 2008, p. 19.
- 33.
Oslobodjenje, Sarajevo, 23 April 2012, p. 7.
- 34.
Dani, Sarajevo, 22 February 2008, p. 14.
- 35.
Slobodna Bosna, Sarajevo, 10 April 2008, p. 29.
- 36.
Dnevni avaz, Sarajevo, 23 April 2008, p. 8.
- 37.
Oslobodjenje, Sarajevo, 23 April 2012, p. 7.
- 38.
Oslobodjenje, Sarajevo, 27 February 2013, p. 6.
- 39.
For more on the IHG’s objection to the use of the term ‘Holiday’ see World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Arbitration and Mediation Centre: ‘Administrative Panel Decision. Six Continents Hotels Inc. v Triptih d.o.o’, Case No. D2012-1600, 12 October 2012.
- 40.
Klix.ba, ‘Hotel Holiday Inn promijenio ime u Holiday’, 26 February 2013, http://www.klix.ba/biznis/hotel-holiday-inn-promijenio-ime-u-holiday/130226069 [last accessed 1 June 2015].
- 41.
See Mreža (Federalna televizija), 8 November 2013, www.federalna.ba/bhs/vijest/79961/08112013 [last accessed 2 May 2014].
- 42.
Balkan Insight, 19 February 2014, http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/bosnians-shape-up-demands-as-protests-continue [last accessed 23 June 2014]. For the function of the plenums and the issues upon which they focus see Damir Arsenijević, Unbribable Bosnia & Herzegovina: The Fight for the Commons, Baden-Baden: Nomos 2014.
- 43.
During a visit to the hotel in April 2014, the author discussed a number of issues with the workers staging a sit-in protest in the hotel’s atrium. One recurring theme was the frustration with the owners and their apparent inability to address the problems. Some expressed hope that Alpha Baumanagement would do so, but there was an evident dejection and absolute loss of trust between the workers and the hotel’s owners. Others expressed a sense of betrayal—that their work, in some cases three decades of work, was not fairly acknowledged.
- 44.
Osservatorio Balcani e Caucuso, ‘The slow decay of the Holiday Inn’, 11 March 2015, www.balcanicaucaso.org/eng/Regions-and-countries/Bosnia-Herzegovina/Sarajevo-the-slow-decay-of-the-Holiday-Inn-159953 [last accessed 2 June 2015].
- 45.
Business Magazone, Tešanj, 12 May 2015, p. 12.
- 46.
Ibid, p. 12.
- 47.
Slobodna Bosna, Sarajevo, 11 September 2014, p. 21.
- 48.
Radio Slobodna Evropa, ‘Radnici se pitaju: Kome smeta što je Holiday vračen u život’, www.slobodnaevropa.org/content/radnici-se-pitaju-kome-smeta-sto-je-holiday-vracen-u-zivot/27080943.html [last accessed 12 July 2015].
- 49.
Slobodna Bosna, Sarajevo, 29 June 2015, www.slobodna-bosna.ba/vijest/22295/hotel_holiday_kriminal_sa_medjunarodnim_predznakom.html [last accessed 3 July 2015].
- 50.
Klix, ‘Radnici hotela Holiday Vahid Alić i Adis Skorupan pušteni na slobodu’, www.klix.ba/vijesti/bih/radnici-hotela-holiday-vahid-alic-i-adis-skorupan-pusteni-na-slobodu/150725064 [last accessed 4 July 2015].
- 51.
Slobodna Bosna, Sarajevo, 29 June 2015, www.slobodna-bosna.ba/vijest/22295/hotel_holiday_kriminal_sa_medjunarodnim_predznakom.html [last accessed 3 July 2015].
- 52.
Dnevni avaz, Sarajevo, 16 June 2015, p. 10.
- 53.
Radio Slobodna Evropa, ‘Radnici se pitaju: Kome smeta što je Holiday vraćen u život’, www.slobodnaevropa.org/content/radnici-se-pitaju-kome-smeta-sto-je-holiday-vracen-u-zivot/27080943.html [last accessed 12 July 2015].
References
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Morrison, K. (2016). The Rebirth and Demise of Sarajevo’s Holiday Inn. 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_12
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