Is Sarajevo a multiethnic city?
by
Harun Karcic*

They point to the overwhelming presence of Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) and to the significantly smaller numbers of Croats and Serbs inhabiting Sarajevo compared to the city’s pre-war ethnic makeup. Although there has been no recent population census, it is estimated that a large portion of Sarajevo’s population is in fact made up of Bosniaks. So, what exactly happened to all the Serbs and Croats who once lived there?

There are a number of historical facts that need to be considered in order to understand the shift in the ethnic composition of Bosnia’s capital.

First, although pre-war Sarajevo had a mixed population comprising Bosniaks, Serbs, Croats and Jews, its Bosniaks undoubtedly made up the majority. As the political situation worsened prior to the Serbian onslaught in early 1992, numerous Serbs and Croats who had relatives elsewhere fled Sarajevo to the safety of predominantly Serb and Croat areas of Bosnia or even to neighboring Serbia and Croatia, which many viewed as their “kin states.” Bosniaks, on the contrary, had no “kin state” and hence no choice but to remain in the city. It should also be known that many Sarajevo Serbs were tipped off about the upcoming war by friends and relatives serving in the Yugoslav People’s Army (which was made up largely of Serbs) and hence left before the noose tightened around the city.

However, not all Serbs and Croats fled. Those who felt they could not betray their city stayed behind and shared their fate with fellow Bosniaks. Although a vast majority of those killed during the four-year Serb siege were Bosniaks, scores of Serb and Croat residents of Sarajevo were also killed. Likewise, although a vast majority of the city’s defenders were Bosniaks, there were also Serbs and Croats defending the city. Gen. Jovan Divjak, an ethnic Serb who took part in the defense of Sarajevo against the Serb onslaught, is a case in point.

Second, following the signing of the Dayton Peace Accords in 1995, certain Serb-held suburbs of Sarajevo were to be returned to the official Bosnian government as part of the US-brokered peace deal. Although there were international troops deployed to protect Serb residents who lived in these areas after the handover, Serb politicians called upon all Serbs to evacuate the city so that they do not come “under the regime of Alija Izetbegovic and his mujahedeen.” Serb officials such as Gojko Klickovic, head of the Bosnian Serb Resettlement Office, stated that “we must not allow a single Serb to remain in the territories which fall under Muslim-Croat control.” These calls to flee Sarajevo resulted in an estimated 70,000 Serbs fleeing the capital in early 1996.

Third, the Serb genocide of Bosniaks during the war took the form of mass killings, mass rape and mass deportations with the intent of destroying the Bosniak presence in the eastern and northern parts of the country. The Bosniaks who were lucky enough to be deported made their way only naturally to the Bosniak-majority towns in central Bosnia such as Tuzla, Zenica and Visoko, where they spent the rest of the war as refugees. The end of the war saw many of them move to Sarajevo to find permanent accommodation (often in apartments abandoned by Serbs) and to look for jobs. This resulted in Sarajevo’s population ballooning with Bosniaks.

Today, Serbs and Croats are slowly returning. Although they are in smaller numbers, they hold important positions. Many Serb and Croat residents of Sarajevo have found jobs in the numerous international NGOs that have flooded the city and the country after the war and that are keen on employing members of all three ethnic groups lest they be accused of being biased. Likewise, state institutions function according to the so-called “ethnic key,” which has resulted in many Serbs and Croats holding important positions in the government, administration and judiciary. This “ethnic key” principle, which favors ethnicity to qualification, has resulted in many unqualified Serbs and Croats taking up jobs at the expense of qualified Bosniaks.

Thus the abandonment of the city by Serbs and Croats and the large influx of deported Bosniaks did indeed change the ethnic makeup of the city. Even though the reasons for this change are understandable, it is sadly the Bosniaks who feel the heat today for Sarajevo’s new image as a “Muslim city.” Any visitor to Sarajevo will notice that the city’s Catholic and Orthodox churches as well as its Jewish synagogues remain perfectly intact as they remained in all territories controlled by the Bosnian army during the war. On the contrary, all the mosques (more than 600 of them) that were under the control of the Serb and Croat armies during the war have been systematically destroyed.

In fact, the question of multi-ethnicity can be posed to any town in the Serb-administered part of Bosnia (the “Serb Republic”) whose Bosniak population has been wiped out. Banja Luka, Zvornik, Visegrad, Foca and Trebinje are just a few towns that had significant if not predominant Bosniak populations before the war, yet today they are ethnically homogeneous Serb towns. Sadly, due attention is not devoted to them.

Sarajevo’s ethnic composition changed during the course of the war; however, due emphasis ought to be paid to the causes and not merely to the end results of the new ethnic composition. Sarajevo was indeed compelled to become a Bosniak-majority city as a result of Serb and Croat anti-multicultural war policies. So, how ironic is it that today it is these very Serbs and Croats who complain that Sarajevo is no longer multiethnic?