1479 days under siege: almost half of the employees of the University of Sarajevo turned their backs on their university

About half the professors, lecturers and employees of the University of Sarajevo turned their backs on the University at the beginning of the Bosnian war in April 1992. Most of them had Serb nationality. Many members of the university fled the city to save themselves and their families. A considerable number of them however joined the Serb besiegers or supported the siege. This is the sobering result of the study „The University of Sarajevo during the 1479 days of siege“, which was prepared by scientists of the University and presented to the public on Monday and Tuesday in the Bosnian capital.

In spite of the constant shelling, in spite of the snipers, in spite of hunger and cold, training and teaching were maintained by the other half of the professors at risk to their lives. These are some of the points made in the speech of the General Secretary of the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV), Tilman Zülch, as one of the two guest speakers, mentioning the exemplary courage of the university teachers on Monday evening. Prof. Elihu Richter from Jerusalem called for parts of school-books to be removed which stir up bad feelings and prejudice towards certain ethnic groups.

2450 specialised personnel from the Clinical Centre of Sarajevo are accused in the study of not fulfilling their medical duties and leaving in the lurch the wounded, the sick and pregnant women. It is clear from the total destruction of the maternity ward, the children’s clinic and the kindergarten in Sarajevo that the aim of the Serb besiegers was to destroy the future of the city. The National Library and the Oriental Institute were depredated with the object of wiping out the roots of the Bosnians, their centuries-old culture, tradition and identity.

In his speech Zülch drew attention to the dreadful years in which Sarajevo was cut off by Serb troops from the outside world and in which, according to the figures of the university, more than 10,000 people lost their lives through the war. Europe did no more than look on for years at the siege and shelling of Sarajevo and the starvation blockade. „By refusing to intervene to put an end to the genocide the European states and also the political parties in Germany and the Kohl/Kinkel government carry part of the responsibility for the suffering in Sarajevo . The western world is responsible for the fact that in Bosnia today there is an unjust peace, in which the criminals are rewarded and the victims punished once more“, he said.

Zülch was decorated for his work during the Bosnian war with the Silver Order of the Arms of the Executive Committee of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (1996), the Srebrenica Award against Genocide of the three Associations of Wives and Mothers (2006) and the Human Rights Prize „Sloboda“ (Freedom) of the Anti-War Centre of Sarajevo (2006).