Bosnia marks war anniversary

07 April 2012 | 00:43 Code : 1899714 Latest Headlines
 Bosnians commemorated the 20th anniversary of the destructive war against their country by placing 11,541 empty red chairs in memory of the victims, in the capital city of Sarajevo.


During a grassroots initiative, organized by volunteers, eleven thousand, five hundred and forty one empty red chairs were lined up along the main avenue in the city center, to pay tribute to the victims of the long, destructive war against the Muslim population of the country in the 90’s, with one seat representing each victim. 

"This city [the capital city of Sarajevo] needs to stop for a moment and pay tribute to its killed citizens." Said Haris Pasovic, organizer of the “Sarajevo Red Line”. 

The Bosnia war, led to the death of at least one-hundred thousand Bosnian citizens and displacement of hundreds of thousands of others, many of them Women and children. 

The destructive war began in 1992 and lasted till the late 1995, during the breaking up of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. 

During the war, the capital city of Sarajevo experienced a 43-months period of siege, by the Serb forces along with the Yugoslav People’s Army, which is considered to be the second longest besieging of a city in the modern history of warfare after the Gaza Strip siege by the Israeli forces.