The UN report on the Battle and Siege of Sarajevo is a document that records the events within the city from April 5th 1992 to February 28th 1994. The document’s purpose is to shine a light and describe the consequence of the Battle of Sarajevo and its violations of human law. Sarajevo is the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The city’s name is derived from ‘Seraglio’, meaning ‘palace in the fields’ in Turkish. Sarajevo’s history dates back to Roman times with the Slavs eventually conquering the area. The cities architecture is comprised of 3 influences, which the text (UN report) describes as “the old Oriental heart of the city, the turn of the century Viennese city around it, and the contemporary high-rise apartment buildings and …show more content…
An attempt to control the streets and people would thus lead to catastrophic failure. The Sarajevo Romanija Corps instead resorted to continuously bombarding the city from the surrounding hills in order to stay in control.
It is in this environment that The Cellist of Sarajevo takes place. Resources are scarce and enemy snipers gun down citizens. Within Sarajevo there lives a cellist who was famous before the war. One day as the Cellist watches people line up outside his window to buy food, a mortar shell lands in the middle of the group, killing 22 of them. The Cellist vows to play Albonini’s Adagio in the crater created from the bombing for 22 days, one day for each of the dead.
Arrow is another inhabitant of the city. She is a sniper who was recruited to protect the Cellist and defend him from enemy snipers who might gun him down. The constant barrage inspires her to use her abilities to save lives. The character of Kenan contrasts with Arrow. The bombardment has left him terrified of the city he lives in. Every four days he makes a dangerous trip across town to fetch water for his family. He also fetches water for his neighbor, an old woman who doesn’t seem to appreciate the risk he puts himself through for her. During his journey, he is angered after seeing men drive around in fancy cars while he and his family starve. These are clearly men
Steven Galloway’s novel The Cellist of Sarajevo follows Sarajevo citizens who are struggling to survive in their home during the genocide which occurred there in the 1990’s. These people become psychologically affected through living on a battleground, and in a life altering way. The very image of war is enough for most to feel disappointed in mankind, but watching your home crumble around you while being able to see the faces of those causing the destruction would likely make one lose any remaining faith in humanity. This is demonstrated in The Cellist by the agency of the bystanders
battles of Sarajevo, Bosnia in the 1990s and Roberto Benigni’s Life is Beautiful focusing on life
In the period preceding the attack of Serbs, Bosnian army used the ‘safe area’ as a base to attack the Serbian population. Since April 1995, the Serbs took
"We cannot despair of humanity, since we ourselves are human beings" (BookRags, 1) - Albert Einstein. This quote is particularly true, since it is very important to maintain what identifies us as human beings, especially during horrific times, such as war. The Cellist of Sarajevo, a novel by Steven Galloway, delivers an interesting story by using internal conflict of the three characters, to demonstrate a theme, of the great possibilities of regaining humanity with the belief of a better life and a brighter future, thus revealing that finding hope is crucial for the survival of humanity.
During war people go through a spectrum of feelings from hope to despair. Hardships make even the most optimistic people lose hope. In the novel, The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway, Kenan struggles to hold on to his hope as it diminishes due to the Bosnian war. Before the effects of the war impacted Kenan, when he was provided with a little window of hope he always makes the most of it, he goes through daily struggles to continue surviving and he maintains a positive attitude towards life. Although, Kenan’s hope for Sarajevo diminishes as he accepts the war as a part of his lifestyle, learns that his fate is entirely up to the men on the hills and undervalues the cellist for commemorating the dead.
The Bosnian-Herzegovina genocide or “ethnic cleansing” went on from April 1992 to December 1995 around the end of the Second World War. When Bosnia became its own independent nation on April 5th 1922 it wanted to “cleanse” its country of any non Serbian residents. The killing of Bosnian Muslims during this time was stated by international tribunals to be an ethnic cleansing however the events that took place in July 1995 in Srebrenica was so horrific it was deemed a genocide. The United Nations should have intervened a lot sooner than they did and should have sent more than just peace keepers to protect the human beings that were being slaughtered.
Imagine a missile coming through the peace of which once used to be a beautiful clear blue sky. The sound of the shell is low but builds as it comes down to break for impact on the streets. Giving a group of innocent civilians not enough time to flee, or at the very least take cover. Before time to react, the shell hits and explodes leaving twenty-two people dead. The civilians were simply hoping to be able to buy some bread for their families, but ended up facing death. The Cellist of Sarajevo, a novel by Steven Galloway, brings an interesting story by using internal conflict of three characters living through war, to demonstrate a theme, of the great possibilities of regaining humanity with the belief of a better life and a brighter future,
Music is known to leave its mark on people helping them to overcome challenges in their lives or to give them courage to defy the odds. In one’s daily life, music is normally taken for granted or is seen as nothing special. As ordinary as it may seem, music can convey emotion in times when the body is numb or all hope is lost. Similarly, in The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway, the cello’s music gave people hope and determination to live their lives in spite of the rampant siege around them. Therefore, music very much impacts the lives of the principal characters Dragan, Kenan, and Arrow.
The majority of characters from war-time novels often resort to substance abuse as a way to cope with the horrors of war. In Joseph Boyden's Three Day Road, the young Cree soldier, Xavier, uses excessive amounts of morphine to forget the bloodshed he witnessed on the battlefield. Similarly, Mrs. Ross, the mother of the young Canadian soldier Robert from The Wars becomes an alcoholic as a way to deal with the departure of her son to war. However, in Steven Galloway's “The Cellist of Sarajevo,” the primary characters, although affected by war, employ a different strategy to come to terms with and survive the war, and to regain their moral values and identity. In this novel, music is employed as a tool of healing and rebirth. Specifically, Arrow, Kenan, and Dragan use the music of the anonymous cellist to reclaim their sense of humanity, compassion, and self-identity and move forward despite the ongoing war, much like the mythical Phoenix rises from the ashes in rebirth.
The phrase became traditional in the follow-up of Serbian assaults on ethnic Bosnians during the Bosnian War. The crusade of the Bosnian War in 1992 lead the bigotry to a global dispute, as the Croats enforced ethnic cleansing protocols against the Muslim Bosnians. A number of genocides in 1994 and 1995 supported the continued entanglement of NATO air strikes in both applying a no fly zone and establishing the Serbian air force. United Nations arbitrators on the ground missed the opportunity to fix up the situation earlier. A heavy occupation force enforcing the end of the conflict brought 60,000 troops to the area. These crisis represents a criterion within the discussion about military force to avert a massive ethnic cleansing.
They occur and we neglect to notice the unearned inequity. Even though genocide is difficult encounter as actuality it is. The Bosnian genocide was a heartbreaking event that caused misery and loss of lives to 100,000 with 80,000 being of the Bosnian culture (Bosnia-Herzegovina). March 1, 1992-December 14, 1995 35 dreadful months for the Bosnians. If you think of all the terrifying things done to them they would sometimes rather be dead than alive. Could imagine being in so much agony you would wish you were dead. The perpetrators, the Serbians were making an effort to exterminate the Bosnians. They were stopped by the Bosnians who fought for their lives. This would be recognized as genocide because it shares several characteristics with
The Yugoslav army was made up of Serbs, controlled by Milosevic. Croatia is where the first huge exterminations occurred shortly after they declared their independence from Yugoslavia. This resulted in hundreds of Croat men deceased. In 1992, Bosnia declared their independence from Yugoslavia. Bosnia was a majority Muslim population. Serbs believed that Muslims were an inferior race (Mike). Serbs placed Bosniak Muslims and Croats into concentration camps as a way to “Ethnically Cleanse” the nations. Two of the camps, Omarska and Keraterm, were places where killings, torture and brutal violence was happening. Another camp, Trnopolje, was a camp were mostly women, children, and elderly men were placed. This camp functioned as a staging area for rapes and massive killings. No other country knew about this as the Serbs were keeping it a secret. (REMEMBERING CONCENTRATION CAMPS IN
The Bosnian War was an international arms conflict that involved 2 main sides, the Republika Srpska, and Herzeg-Bosnia. The Republika Srpska would show very little sympathy towards the Non-Serb population of cities they would occupy. 1995 of the Bosnian War reached its most violent climax, Bosnian Serb Forces in occupied Srebrenica began an ethnic cleansing of the Non-Serb population, and massacred more than 8000 people. Many generals and other people of high class within the Republika Srpska were tried for their actions, but none confessed and denied everything, this is what makes the following person so significant. Dragan Obrenovic, who was the only person who admit guilt for the Genocide and it taking place. The accused, Dragan
Known as Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II, the Yugoslav Wars (also known as the Wars of Yugoslav Succession, the Yugoslav Civil War, or the War in the Balkans) were a series of wars fought in the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. Though the entire conflict can be divided up into four distinct wars, they are related due to their common origin and the presence of the same ethnoreligious groups in the multiple wars. These wars have become notorious due to the atrocious war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by all sides.
The land of Kosovo has been plagued with tension for hundreds of years being claimed by several surrounding countries. The two biggest contenders, Albanians in Kosovo and Serbia have been fighting for the land, which culminated in a full war from 1998-1999. The war brought international attention to the war crimes committed by both sides, and proved that the two countries had years to go before coming to a solution. The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) led by Kosovo Albanians, and the Serbian militia led by President Slobodan Milošević committed heinous crimes against their enemies. Crimes range from ethnic cleansing to rape and destruction of whole villages. The violence created a serious refugee problem that is still relevant today.