Editing Siege of Sarajevo (section)

==Atrocities==
[[File:Shells - Sarajevo Tunnel Museum.jpg|thumb|left|Examples of weapons used against [[Sarajevo|Sarajevans]] displayed at [[Sarajevo Tunnel]] Museum]]

The second half of 1992 and the first half of 1993 were the height of the siege of Sarajevo, and atrocities were committed during heavy fighting. Serb forces outside the city continuously shelled the government defenders. Inside the city, the Serbs controlled most of the major military positions and the supply of arms. With snipers taking up positions in the city, signs reading ''Pazite, Snajper!'' ("Beware, Sniper!") became commonplace and certain particularly dangerous streets, most notably Ulica Zmaja od Bosne, the main street which eventually leads to the airport, were known as "[[Sniper Alley|sniper alleys]]". The sniper killings of Admira Ismić and Boško Brkić, a mixed Bosnian-Serbian couple who tried to cross the lines, became a symbol of the suffering in the city and the basis of ''[[Romeo and Juliet in Sarajevo]]'', but it is unknown from which side the snipers opened fire.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/Bosnia/updates/9604/10/ |publisher=CNN |title='Only a bullet' could separate them |date=10 April 1996 |access-date=10 May 2010}}</ref>

[[File:Sarajevo Siege Collecting Firewood 2.jpg|thumb|Sarajevo residents collecting firewood, winter of 1992–1993]]

Within Bosniak-held areas of Sarajevo, public services quickly collapsed and the crime rate skyrocketed. During the first year of the siege, the 10th Mountain Division of the ARBiH, led by a rogue commander, [[Mušan Topalović]], engaged in a campaign of mass executions of Serb civilians who still lived within the Bosniak-held areas. Many of the victims were transported to the [[Kazani pit killings|Kazani pit]] near Sarajevo, where they were executed and buried in a mass grave.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://zurnal.info/novost/18413/casno-novinarstvo-kako-su-sarajevski-mediji-tokom-rata-pisali-o-zlocinu-u-kazanima|title=ČASNO NOVINARSTVO: Kako su sarajevski mediji tokom rata pisali o zločinu u Kazanima|website=zurnal.info}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sarajevotimes.com/performance-in-memory-of-kazani-pay-tribute-to-all-victims/|title=Performance in Memory of Kazani: Pay Tribute to all Victims!|date=26 October 2015}}</ref>

Bosnian Serb [[offensive (military)|offensives]] were mounted to take over some neighbourhoods, especially in [[Novo Sarajevo]]. Compared with the siege force, the Bosnian government forces were very poorly armed. Bosnian [[black market]] criminals who joined the army at the outset of the war illegally smuggled arms into the city through Serb lines, and [[raid (military)|raids]] on Serb-held positions within the city yielded more.

[[File:Evstafiev-bosnia-sarajevo-water-line.jpg|thumb|left|Citizens of Sarajevo in line for water]]
Reports indicated an average of approximately 329 shell impacts per day during the course of the siege, with a maximum of 3,777 on 22 July 1993.<ref name="UNCOE" /> This [[urbicide]] by shellfire extensively damaged the city's structures, both residential and cultural. By September 1993 it was estimated that virtually all the buildings in Sarajevo had suffered some degree of damage, and 35,000 were completely destroyed.<ref name="UNCOE" /> Among buildings targeted and destroyed were hospitals and medical complexes, media and communication centres, industrial complexes, government buildings and military and UN facilities. Other significant buildings damaged or destroyed included the Parliament buildings and the City Hall/National Library, which was set on fire and burned to the ground, destroying over 1,500,000 volumes and 600,000 serials.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=1996-07-01|title=The National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Current War|journal=The Library Quarterly|volume=66|issue=3|pages=294–301|doi=10.1086/602886|s2cid=147428591|issn=0024-2519}}</ref><ref name="erasingthepast">{{cite web|url=http://fp.arizona.edu/mesassoc/Bulletin/bosnia.htm|title=Erasing the Past: The Destruction of Libraries and Archives in Bosnia-Herzegovina|first=András|last=Riedlmayer|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118204551/http://fp.arizona.edu/mesassoc/Bulletin/bosnia.htm|archive-date=2012-01-18}}</ref>

[[File:Sarajevo 19.3.1996 war.JPG|thumb|Overall view of downtown Grbavica, a suburb of Sarajevo. March 1996]]

The shelling took a heavy toll on residents. [[Mass murder|Mass killings]] of civilians, primarily by mortar attacks, made headline news in the West. On [[Dobrinja mortar attack|1 June 1993]], 11 people were killed and 133 were wounded<ref name="bbc">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/1/newsid_2493000/2493441.stm |title=On this day: 1993: Serb attack on football match kills 11 |date= 1 June 1993|work=BBC News |access-date=3 February 2010}}</ref> in an attack on a football game. On 12 July, twelve people were killed while waiting in line for water.

The biggest single loss of life was the first [[Markale massacres|Markale marketplace massacre]] on 5 February 1994, in which 68 civilians were killed and 200 were wounded. Medical facilities were overwhelmed by the scale of the civilian casualties, and only a small number of the wounded benefited from medical evacuation programmes like 1993's [[Operation Irma]].<ref>{{Cite news |publisher=Keesing's Record of World Events |title=Geneva talks (Bosnia) |date=August 1993 |url=http://www.keesings.com/search?kssp_search_phrase=%22operation+irma%22&x=0&y=0&kssp_a_id=39603n05xxx&kssp_selected_tab=article&kssp_rspn=1&kssp_v_id=39 }}</ref>