Safe Area Goražde: The War in Eastern Bosnia, 1992-1995

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of graphic violence, death, and religious discrimination.

“The two other eastern enclaves, Srebrenica and Zepa, also designated safe areas, had been abandoned by the UN in the summer. The victorious Serbs entered Srebrenica and Zepa, and, in the aftermath, horrible stories had emerged.”

Though Goražde is a UN-designated safe area, the distinction is primarily a title without much to support it. The UN restricted itself to protecting the safe areas to avoid risking their status as a neutral agent in the conflict. The UN’s reluctance to deal more firmly with the violence resulted in two of the other safe areas being overtaken by the Serbs, leading to the deaths of many Bosnian Muslims. The costs of UN inaction introduce the theme of The Ineffective Role of International Organizations in Conflict.

“There were hot meals and beds and a view of the Drina for the reporters and celebrity writers and ambassadors and cartoonists that were sure to pour in!”

When Sacco arrives in Goražde, he is housed in the town’s hotel, recently reopened after repairs. The perks and amenities that they grant him hint at their excitement for a reconnection with the outside world. The townspeople expect the world to descend on Goražde once it is free to hear their stories, believing that the famous and influential will come.

“If the noose got tight again, I could flash my UN-issued Blue Card and get out of here and back to Sarajevo…back to mommy if things really slipped back to unthinkable.”

While in Goražde, Sacco is very conscious of his privileged status as a UN-sanctioned journalist. He has the option to leave when he wants and is not trapped in the enclave. This freedom of movement separates him from the people around him. The means by which he describes his possible escape, as escaping “back to mommy,” casts him as someone coddled and indulged compared to the suffering townspeople.