Romeo and Juliet in Sarajevo
Set up the slideshow at the start (blank screen)
Reader 1
Think of the world's most famous lovers and who comes to mind? In all probability, Romeo and Juliet.
Click for slide 2 (movie poster)
What is it about this couple that makes the world remember their story – even if we don't always know
the details that well?
Could it be because their love was so innocent – they could not bear to be apart? Perhaps it is
because of the opposition to their being in love?
Or is it because the story ends in the tragic death of the couple?
Reader 2
Whatever the reason, William Shakespeare's play has captured the interest of millions since its first
performance in 1594.
Click for slide 3 (happy photograph)
Bosko and Admira have been called the 'Romeo and Juliet of Sarajevo’. Unlike Shakespeare's play,
theirs is a true story. It demonstrates that love knows no religious, political or nationality boundaries.
From 5 April 1992 to 26 February 1996, 10,615 people, of whom 1,601 were children, were killed in
Sarajevo, a city of just over half a million people and capital of Bosnia. Many were killed because their
religion made them different.
This edited news article, written by a Reuters journalist in 1993 during the Bosnian war, describes
what happened to Bosko and Admira.
Click for slide 4 (tragic photograph)
Reader 1
Two lovers lie dead on the banks of Sarajevo's Miljacka river, locked in a final embrace.
For four days they have sprawled near Vrbana bridge, in a wasteland of shell-blasted rubble, downed
tree branches and dangling power lines.
So dangerous is the area, no one has dared recover their bodies.
Bosko and Admira, both 25, were shot dead on Wednesday trying to escape the besieged Bosnian
capital for Serbia.
Sweethearts since high school, he was a (Christian) Serb and she was a Muslim.
'They were shot at the same time, but he fell instantly and she was still alive,' recounts Dino, a soldier
who saw the couple trying to cross from government territory to rebel Serb positions.
'She crawled over and hugged him and they died like that, in each other's arms.'
Bosko is face-down on the pavement, right arm bent awkwardly behind him. Admira lies next to her
lover, left arm across his back.
The government side says Serb soldiers shot the couple, but Serb forces insist Bosnian Muslim-led
government troops were responsible.
'I don't care who killed them, I just want their bodies so I can bury them,' says the dead girl's father. 'I
don't want them to rot in no-man's land.'
Government and Serb authorities have discussed the matter, but so far are refusing a ceasefire to
permit recovery of the couple.
'I'm an auto mechanic and I know a lot of people in this city,' says the girl's father. 'Everyone is
washing their hands in this case, Bosnians and Serbs alike.'
Click for slide 5 (happy photograph)
Reader 2
In a country mad for war, Bosko and Admira were crazy for each other.
The university chemistry students dated for seven years before moving in to live together nine months
ago.
With his father dead, no one would have blamed Bosko if he had left Sarajevo when his mother and
brother fled before war broke out last year.
Instead, he stayed in the city.
'He had no one here, just Admira,' explains the dead girl's mother.
'Bosko stayed in Sarajevo because of her. Admira wanted to repay him by travelling with him to
Serbia.'
Mystery, and perhaps treachery, surrounds the couple's death. Government and Serb officials admit
they agreed to let them pass through the lines last Wednesday afternoon at 4.00 pm. Bosko and
Admira walked at least 500 meters along the north bank of the Miljacka river, fully exposed to soldiers
on both sides.
Click for slide 6 (tragic photograph)
As they passed Bosnian lines and headed for the Serb-held neighbourhood, someone shot them.
The young couple had been dead two days before Admira's parents found out. Ham radio operators
in Serbia contacted them trying to confirm rumours of Bosko's death. 'I spoke to his mother then and
she gave me permission to bury them together in Sarajevo,' says Admira's father.
'We want them to lie together in the ground, just as they died together. Love took them to their
deaths.'
'That's proof this is not a war between (Christian) Serbs and Muslims. It's a war between crazy
people, between monsters. That's why their bodies are still out there.'
Reader 1
It took almost a week to recover the bodies. The Serbs used Muslim prisoners to do this under cover
of darkness and buried the bodies together in a military cemetery.
Click for slide 7 (Admira’s mother)
Three years later and after the war, they were exhumed by Serbian friends for Admira's parents and
reburied side by side in Sarajevo's Lion Cemetery, surrounded by thousands of other victims of the
siege and within sight of the café where they courted.
Reader 2
Click for slide 8 (Kurt Schork)
Kurt Schork was the Reuters journalist who wrote the article.
A plaque reads: 'During 1335 days of the siege, he showed the whole world the truth about the war,
the heroism and the scale of the suffering of the citizens of Sarajevo.'
While reporting another war in Sierra Leone, Kurt, already an honorary citizen of Bosnia, was shot
dead in an ambush by rebels in May 2000. He was 53. Half of his ashes are now buried at Sarajevo's
Lion cemetery because it was the wish of his family.
Admira's mother has good reason to remember him. 'When all the other journalists were besieging us
in search of an exclusive story – and of course they were only doing their job – Kurt was the only one
who really tried to help us recover their bodies and did not mention the story. He was buried next to
my children and every time I go to the cemetery I bring him flowers as well. It was an honour to have
known him,' she said.
Click for slide 9 (Grave site)
Reader 1
What does all this show us? It shows that love can be stronger than any differences of religion,
politics or nationality. It shows the futility of war. It shows what a tragedy religious prejudice, hatred
and bigotry can result in. It shows how sectarianism is wrong. It also shows how someone doing their
job can still show compassion for their fellow human beings.
In life we all have individual decisions to make about right and wrong. Often we simply can't afford to
do nothing.
Click for slide 10 (quotation)
Because, as Edmund Burke once said, 'The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good
men to do nothing.'
Thank you for your attention.