The siege of Sarajevo (Serbo-Croatian: Опсада Сарајева, Opsada Sarajeva) was a prolonged military blockade of Sarajevo, the capital of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, during the ethnically charged Bosnian War. The city was initially besieged by the Yugoslav People's Army, before they were replaced by elements of the newly-formed Army of Republika Srpska. Lasting from 5 April 1992 to 29 February 1996 (1,425 days), the siege was three times longer than the Battle of Stalingrad and more than a year longer than the siege of Leningrad, making it the longest siege of a capital city in the history of modern warfare.
When Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence from Yugoslavia after the 1992 Bosnian independence referendum, the Bosnian Serbs—whose strategic goal was to create a new Bosnian Serb state of Republika Srpska (RS) that would include Bosniak-majority areas—encircled Sarajevo with an initial siege force of 13,000 stationed in the surrounding hills. From there they blockaded the city, and assaulted it with artillery, tanks, and small arms including snipers, dropping at least 500,000 bombs. Civilians, including children, suffered significant casualties as they were caught in the crossfire during some of the conflict's most intense urban fighting, and were at times deliberately targeted by besieging forces.
Units of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH) inside the capital, who numbered around 70,000 troops, defended much of the urban area throughout the war without heavy weapons or armor. Following numerous engagements, the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) captured the suburbs of Ilidža, Azići, and Grbavica. The VRS however was unable to advance further into the city due to heavy resistance. Despite a number of attempts, the ARBiH was unable to break the siege and sustained heavy casualties. Following the Markale massacres, NATO initiated Operation Deliberate Force in 1995, a sustained air campaign which targeted VRS positions across Bosnia, including around Sarajevo itself. The siege was eventually lifted following the signing of the Dayton Agreement on 14 December 1995.
A total of 13,952 people were killed during the siege, including 5,434 civilians. The ARBiH sustained 6,137 fatalities, while Bosnian Serb military casualties numbered 2,241 killed soldiers. The 1991 census indicates that before the siege, the city and its surrounding areas had a total population of 525,980. According to some estimates, the total population of the city proper prior to the siege was 435,000. Estimates of the population of Sarajevo after the siege ranged from 300,000 to 380,000. Sarajevo's population endured up to six months without gas, electricity or water supply during certain stages of the siege.
After the war, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) convicted four Serb officials for numerous counts of crimes against humanity which they committed during the siege, including terrorism. Stanislav Galić and Dragomir Milošević were sentenced to life imprisonment and 29 years imprisonment respectively. Their superiors, Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić, were also convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.
From its establishment after World War II until its breakup in 1991 and 1992, the government of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia suppressed the nationalist sentiments which existed among the many ethnic and religious groups which comprised the population of the country, a policy which prevented the occurrence of chaos and the breakup of the state. When Yugoslavia's longtime leader Marshal Josip Broz Tito died in 1980, this policy of containment underwent a dramatic reversal. Nationalism experienced a renaissance in the following decade after violence erupted in Kosovo. While the goal of Serbian nationalists was the centralization of a Serb-dominated Yugoslavia, other nationalities in Yugoslavia aspired to federalization and the decentralization of the state.
On 18 November 1990, the first multi-party parliamentary elections were held in Bosnia and Herzegovina (with a second round on 25 November). They resulted in a national assembly dominated by three ethnically based parties, which had formed a loose coalition to oust the communists from power. Croatia and Slovenia's subsequent declarations of independence and the warfare that ensued placed Bosnia and Herzegovina and its three constituent peoples in an awkward position. A significant split soon developed on the issue of whether to stay with the Yugoslav federation (overwhelmingly favoured among Serbs) or to seek independence (overwhelmingly favoured among Bosniaks and Croats).
Throughout 1990, the RAM Plan was developed by the State Security Administration (SDB or SDS) and a group of selected Serb officers of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) with the purpose of organizing Serbs outside Serbia, consolidating control of the fledgling SDP, and the prepositioning of arms and ammunition. The plan was meant to prepare the framework for a third Yugoslavia in which all Serbs with their territories would live together in the same state. Alarmed, the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence from Yugoslavia on 15 October 1991, shortly followed by the establishment of the Serbian National Assembly by Bosnian Serbs.
The Serb members of parliament, consisting mainly of Serb Democratic Party (SDP) members, abandoned the central parliament in Sarajevo, and formed the Assembly of the Serb People of Bosnia and Herzegovina on 24 October 1991, which marked the end of the tri-ethnic coalition that had governed after the 1990 elections. This Assembly established the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina on 9 January 1992, which became the Republika Srpska in August 1992.
The declaration of Bosnian sovereignty was followed by a referendum for independence on 29 February and 1 March 1992, which was boycotted by the vast majority of Serbs. The turnout in the referendum was 63.4% with 99.7% of voters choosing independence.
Violence broke out in many places during and after the referendum. On 1 March, a gunman opened fire at a Bosnian Serb wedding procession in Baščaršija, Sarajevo's historical centre. The guests were carrying and waving Serbian flags, an act which the Bosniaks, who mostly supported independence, interpreted as a deliberate provocation. The groom's father was killed, and an Orthodox priest was wounded. Some of the witnesses identified the shooter as Ramiz Delalić, a Bosniak gangster who had become increasingly brazen since the collapse of communism. Arrest warrants were issued for him and another assailant, but little effort was made by the Sarajevo police to apprehend them. The killing was denounced by the SDS, who charged that the SDA or the government was complicit in the shooting, as evidenced by their failure to arrest the suspects. An SDS spokesman claimed the wedding attack was evidence of the mortal danger Serbs would be subject to in an independent Bosnia. This statement was rejected by the founder of the Patriotic League, Sefer Halilović, who stated that the procession was not a wedding but was in fact intended as a provocation.
On 2 March, Serb paramilitaries set up barricades and positioned snipers near Sarajevo's parliament building, but their coup d'état was thwarted by thousands of Sarajevo citizens who took to the streets and placed themselves in front of the snipers. Armed Bosniaks known as "Green Berets" also erected barricades in and around Sarajevo. More barricades appeared near Banja Luka, and a motorist was killed by armed Serbs in Doboj. By the end of the day, twelve people had been killed in the fighting. Following Bosnia and Herzegovina's official declaration of independence from Yugoslavia on 3 March 1992, sporadic fighting broke out between Serbs and government forces all across the territory. It continued through the run-up to Bosnia and Herzegovina's recognition as an independent state.
On 3 March, Bosnia's Bosniak President Alija Izetbegović claimed that Serbs from Pale were marching on Sarajevo. Fighting soon broke out in the town of Bosanski Brod. Eleven Serbs were killed in the village of Sijekovac outside of Brod on 26 March, and the SDS claimed they were massacred by a Croat-Bosniak militia. The town was besieged and shelled by the JNA and Serbian paramilitaries on 29 March. There were further clashes in Bijeljina, which was attacked by a Serb force led by Serb Volunteer Guard. On 4 April, as the information of the killings in Bijeljina came to light, the Bosnian government announced a general mobilisation call. The SDS responded that this call brought Sarajevo one step closer to war.