Abstract
This chapter discusses the wartime destruction of public spaces in the besieged Sarajevo through a particular mode of spatial violence against non-military targets: shelling and sniping of civilians who were moving, gathering and mixing in public spaces. The chapter analyzes how the city’s micro-geography and urban morphology were appropriated to enable such violence and transform central Sarajevo into a ‘topography of fear’ composed of a network of dangerous and forbidden zones. It also examines the spatial effects of violence and terror on the transformation of Sarajevo’s urban network and flows. The argument is that sniping and shelling obliterated the patterns of everyday life that sustained Sarajevo’s ethnic mix and affected a certain level of ethnic division of the city and its population.
What is the difference between Sarajevo and Auschwitz? There is no gas in Sarajevo .
Maček (2009: 53)
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Information from informal conversations between the author and residents of Sarajevo during her fieldwork in 2008.
- 2.
Data gained from conversations between the author and residents of Sarajevo during her fieldwork in 2008.
- 3.
The author’s analysis of data from the Oslobodjenje newspaper.
References
Agamben, G. (1998). Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press.
Arendt, H. (1958). The Human Condition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Bakšić, H. (1992, February 6). Granata je rekla sve [Grenade Told Everything]. Oslobodjenje.
Bassiouni, M. C. (1994). Study of the Battle and Siege of Sarajevo. Annex VI Part 1 of the Final Report of the United Nations Commission of Experts Established Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 780 (1992). http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/comexpert/anx/vi-01.htm. Accessed 12 Sept 2017.
Bevan, R. (2006). The Destruction of Memory: Architecture at War. London: Reaktion.
Conrad, J. (1907). The Secret Agent. London: Methuen Publishing.
Coward, M. (2007). Urbicide Reconsidered. Theory and Event, 10, 2.
Coward, M. (2009). Urbicide: The Politics of Urban Destruction. New York: Routledge.
DeLanda, M. (2006). A New Philosophy of Society: Assemblage Theory and Social Complexity. London: Continuum.
Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1987). A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. London: Athlone Press.
Dovey, K. (2010). Becoming Places: Urbanism/Architecture/Identity/Power. London/New York: Routledge.
Dovey, K. (2016). Urban Design Thinking: A Conceptual Toolkit. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Foucault, M. (1995). Discipline and Punish: The Birth of Prison. New York: Vintage Books.
Gehl, J. (2011). Life Between Buildings. Washington, DC: Island Press.
Gellman, B. (1992, June 13). Defense Planners Making Case Against Intervention in Yugoslavia. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/06/13/defense-planners-making-case-against-intervention-in-yugoslavia/58100c89-9379-4849-8f99-ce7085de3ce1/?utm_term=.912271e6527d. Accessed 5 Oct 2017.
Grabrijan, D., & Neidhart, J. (1957). Arhitektura Bosne i put u suvremeno [Architecture of Bosnia and the Way (Towards) Modernity]. Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga.
Graham, S. (2003). Lessons in Urbicide. New Left Review, 19, 63–77.
Graham, S. (2007). Demodernizing by Design: Everyday Infrastructure and Political Violence. In D. Gregory & A. Pred (Eds.), Violent Geographies: Fear, Terror and Political Violence. New York/London: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group.
H.I. (1992, August 8). Raskršće smrti [The Crossroads of Death]. Oslobodjenje.
Harden, B. (1992, June 18). War Is ‘A Bad Dream’ for Sarajevo Sniper. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1992/06/18/war-is-a-bad-dream-for-sarajevo-sniper/85122c0c-0f80-463a-9557-2fc4d2c5d08e/?utm_term=.7da4a6feee1a. Accessed 23 Apr 2017.
Henri Levi, B. (1992, July 2). Tragedija zatocenog grada [Tragedy of the Besieged City]. Oslobodjenje.
Herscher, A. (2007). Urbicide, Urbanism, and Urban Destruction in Kosovo. Theory and Event, 10(2). http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/theory_and_event/toc/tae10.2.html
Herscher, A. (2010). Violence Taking Place: The Architecture of the Kosovo Conflict. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Hoffman, B. (2006). Inside Terrorism. New York: Columbia University Press.
Husejnović, M. (2012, August 13). Ratko Mladić: General od “Velušića” do Potočara [Ratko Mladić: General from “Velušići” do Potočari’]. Balkan Insight. http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/ratko-mladic-general-od-velusica-do-potocara/1422/2. Accessed 5 Oct 2017.
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). (1999, December 20). Stanislav Galic detained by SFOR in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Press Release JL/P.I.S./456-e. United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. http://www.icty.org/en/press/stanislav-galic-detained-sfor-bosnia-and-herzegovina. Accessed 23 Apr 2017.
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). (2007, December 12). Prosecutor v. Dragomir Milošević, ICTY Trial, Case No. IT-98-29/1-T. United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. http://www.icty.org/x/cases/dragomir_milosevic/tjug/en/071212.pdf. Accessed 5 Oct 2017.
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). (2015, August 31). Court Case Ratko Mladic, Transcript, Page 38468. United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. http://www.icty.org/x/cases/mladic/trans/en/150831ED.htm. Accessed 23 Apr 2017.
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). (n.d.). Case Information Sheet, Stanislav Galic (IT-98-29). United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. http://www.icty.org/x/cases/galic/cis/en/cis_galic_en.pdf. Accessed 23 Apr 2017.
Jusufović, Z. (2008). Mission Impossible, Sarajevo War Tour.
Kapić, S. (2000). The Siege of Sarajevo 1992–1996. Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga tiskarna d.d.
Kazazović, N. (1992, May 28). S’ lica uzasa: Deset koraka do smrti [From the Place of Horror: Ten Steps from Death]. Oslobodjenje.
Kebo, O. (1999). Sarajevo za početnike [Sarajevo for Beginners]. Split: Feral Tribune.
Kozar, Dj. (1992, February 12). Markale i srpska propaganda: Granata nije igračka [Markale and Serbian Propaganda: A Grenade Is Not a Toy]. Oslobodjenje.
Kozar, Dj. (1993, March 10). Oprez—Snajperist [Warning—Sniper]. Oslobodjenje.
Kozar, Dj. (1995, August 30). Mladiceva desetina smrti [Mladic’s Tenth of Death]. Oslobodjenje.
Kurtović, S. (1994, February 6). Četnički pokolj: Granata u srce naroda [Chetniks’ Slaughter: Grenade in the Heart of People]. Oslobodjenje.
Lefebvre, H. (1991). The Production of Space. Cambridge: Oxford.
Lefebvre, H. (1996). Writings on Cities. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Luković, P. (1992, May 28). Mediji monstrumi [Media Monstrums]. Oslobodjenje.
Maček, I. (2009). Sarajevo Under Siege: Anthropology in Wartime. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Magaš, B., & Žanić, I. (1999). Rat u Hrvatskoj I Bosni i Hercegovini 1991–1995 [The War in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina 1991–1995]. Zagreb/Sarajevo: Dani.
Memić, F. (1992, February 6). Smrt u Sarajevu [Death in Sarajevo]. Oslobodjenje.
Milutinović, R. (2016, December 7). Ratko Mladic ‘Terrorised Sarajevo During Siege’: Prosecutors. Balkan Insight. http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/ratko-mladic-terrorised-sarajevo-during-siege-prosecutors-12-07-2016. Accessed 5 Oct 2017.
Oslender, U. (2007). Spaces of Terror and Fear on Colombia’s Pacific Coast. In D. Gregory & A. Pred (Eds.), Violent Geographies: Fear, Terror and Political Violence. New York/London: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group.
Oslobodjenje. (1992, May 28). Nove slike uzasa: Zlocin pred Trznicom [New Images of Horror: The Crime in Front of the Market Hall]. Oslobodjenje.
Pawlikowski, P., & Stojanović, L. (1992). Serbian Epics—1992. Pawel Pawlikowski. http://www.pawelpawlikowski.co.uk/page3/. Accessed 5 Oct 2017.
Prlenda, A. (1995, August 29). Karadžićevi krvnici i dalje ubijaju civile: Četnički masakr u Sarajevu, 35 ubijenih, 90 ranjenih [Karadžić’s Hangmen Still Kill Sarajevo Civilians: Chetniks’ Massacre in Sarajevo, 35 Killed, 90 Wounded]. Oslobodjenje.
Riedlmayer, A. (2007). Crimes of War, Crimes of Peace: Destruction of Libraries During and After the Balkan Wars of the 1990s. Library Trends, 56(1), 107–132.
Ržmy, G. (1995, March 23). Tramvaj koji neće da umre [Tram That Refuses to Die]. Oslobodjenje.
Savitch, H. V. (2005). An Anatomy of Urban Terror: Lessons from Jerusalem and Elsewhere. Urban Studies, 42(3), 361–395.
Še. A. (1992, July 6). Geto usred grada [Ghetto in the Middle of the City]. Oslobodjenje.
Short, R. J., & Kim, Y.-H. (1998). Urban Crises/Urban Representations: Selling the City in Difficult Times. In T. Hall & P. Hubbard (Eds.), The Entrepreneurial City: Geographies of Politics, Regime, and Representation. New York: Wiley.
Sorguč, A. (1992). Legion of Faceless Snipers Escape Their Crimes. Balkan Insight, June 21, 2012. http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/legion-of-faceless-snipers-escape-their-crimes/1452/4. Accessed 23 Apr 2017.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ristic, M. (2018). Topography of Terror: Sniping and Shelling of Urban Space. In: Architecture, Urban Space and War. Palgrave Studies in Cultural Heritage and Conflict. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76771-0_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76771-0_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-76770-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-76771-0
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)