Military stalemate Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia United Nations SFR Yugoslavia(April–May 1992) Republika Srpska(May 1992–96) France[k] Italy[l] Ireland[m] Ukraine[n] Sweden[o] Denmark[p] 1993 1994 1995 The siege of Sarajevo (Serbo-Croatian: Opsada Sarajeva) was a prolonged blockade of Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, during the ethnically charged Bosnian War.

[16] 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.

[25] 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.

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.

On 1 March, a gunman opened fire at a Bosnian Serb wedding procession in Baščaršija, Sarajevo's historical centre and a Bosniak section of the city.

[34] 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.

[43] On 6 April, Serb forces began shelling Sarajevo, and in the next two days crossed the Drina from Serbia proper and besieged Bosniak-majority Zvornik, Višegrad and Foča.

[45] The JNA attacked the Ministry of Training Academy in Vraca, the central tramway depot, and the Old Town district with mortars, artillery and tank fire.

The Bosnian government had expected the international community to deploy a peacekeeping force following recognition, but it did not materialize in time to prevent war from breaking out across the country.

On 2 May, Bosniak forces consisting of the Green Berets and the Patriotic League, opened fire on a column of eight JNA MEDEVAC vehicles in Vojvode Stepe street.

After numerous JNA armored columns failed to take the city, the Serbs began to concentrate their efforts on weakening it by using continual bombardment from at least 200 reinforced positions and bunkers in the surrounding hills.

[54][55][56] General Milutin Kukanjac, the commander of the JNA in Sarajevo, confirmed that just in Dobrovoljačka street alone four officers, one soldier and one civilian were killed in the attack.

[59] Civilian casualties of a 27 May shelling of the city led to Western intervention, in the form of sanctions imposed on 30 May through United Nations Security Council Resolution 757.

[61] From 25 to 26 August, under command of Colonel Tomislav Šipčić, the Sarajevo City Hall was burned down by cannon fire from Serb positions.

[68] Turajlić, who had gone to Sarajevo Airport to greet a Turkish delegation, was returning to the city in a United Nations armored vehicle that had taken him there when a force of two tanks and 40–50 Bosnian Serb soldiers blockaded the road.

[74] On 22 September, UNPROFOR again requested NATO air support in the Sarajevo area after Serb forces attacked a French armored personnel carrier.

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.

[84] On 6 February 1994, a day after the first Markale marketplace massacre, UN Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali formally requested NATO's confirmation that air strikes would be carried out immediately.

[85] On 9 February 1994, agreeing to the request of the UN, the North Atlantic Council of NATO authorized the Commander of Allied Forces Southern Europe (CINCSOUTH), U.S. Admiral Jeremy Boorda, to launch air strikes against artillery and mortar positions in and around Sarajevo that were determined by UNPROFOR to be responsible for attacks against civilian targets.

[85] There was some confusion surrounding compliance with the ultimatum, and Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Boross announced that his country's air space would be closed to NATO aircraft in the event of airstrikes.

[74] On 22 September, UNPROFOR again requested NATO air support in the Sarajevo area after Serb forces attacked a French armored personnel carrier.

On 30 August, the Secretary General of NATO announced the start of air strikes, supported by UNPROFOR rapid reaction force artillery attacks.

Finally, on 20 September 1995, French General Bernard Janvier (Commander of UNPROFOR) and U.S. Admiral Leighton W. Smith Jr. (CINCSOUTH) agreed that it was not necessary to resume the strikes as the Bosnian Serbs had complied with the UN's conditions.

[96] One of the last acts of hostility of the siege occurred at around 6 pm on 9 January 1996, when a single rocket-propelled grenade was fired at a tram running down the main street of Sarajevo, killing a 55-year-old woman, Mirsada Durić, and wounding 19 others.

On 5 December 2003, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) convicted the first commander of the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps, General Stanislav Galić, of the shelling and sniper terror campaign against Sarajevo, including the first Markale massacre.

[17] In the case against Galić, the prosecution alleged in an opening statement that: The siege of Sarajevo, as it came to be popularly known, was an episode of such notoriety in the conflict in the former Yugoslavia that one must go back to World War II to find a parallel in European history.

Not since then had a professional army conducted a campaign of unrelenting violence against the inhabitants of a European city so as to reduce them to a state of medieval deprivation in which they were in constant fear of death.

In the period covered in this Indictment, there was nowhere safe for a Sarajevan, not at home, at school, in a hospital, from deliberate attack.In 2007, General Dragomir Milošević,[18] who replaced Galić as commander of the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps, was found guilty of the shelling and sniper terror campaign against Sarajevo and its citizens from August 1994 to late 1995, including the second Markale massacre.

The ICTY concluded that the Markale town market was hit on 28 August 1995 by a 120 mm mortar shell fired from Sarajevo-Romanija Corps positions.

However, the judges ruled that Perišić did not have effective control over the VRS officers, who largely fought independently of his instructions, yet still received payment and benefits from Belgrade.