Siege of Sarajevo
The battle for and siege of the city of Sarajevo, now in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), but then part of Yugoslavia began on April 5 1992, the day before the European Community recognized BiH as an independent state.Spontaneous peace marches took place, involving thousands of people taking to the streets, with the largest group of protesters heading for the Parliament building. Unidentified gunmen were then reported to have fired into the crowd from the top of a hotel, with one protester confirmed dead.
The subsequent siege and relentless bombardment from the hills surrounding Sarajevo took an enormous physical toll on the city and its inhabitants, with estimates of 5,000 people having been killed or reported missing. In some areas, there were dangerous streets called "sniper alleys" where city residents risked being shot at while crossing or running through them.
Some estimates report an average of approximately 329 shell impacts per day during the course of the siege, with a high of 3,777 shell impacts on 22 July 1993. This shellfire has caused extensive damage to the city's structures, including civilian and cultural property.
The siege ended in 1995.
On February 29, 1996, the Bosnian government declared that the siege of Sarajevo was over.
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