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

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

Sacco is the author of Safe Area Goražde and features as a primary figure within it. The work follows Sacco as he visits Goražde multiple times in the waning months of the conflict. He conducts interviews with people from the town as well as with refugees from other towns. He grows close with a few of the townspeople.

Despite the conflict, Sacco enjoys a privileged status in Goražde, being a foreign journalist who can come and go when he wants on the UN’s Blue Road while the townspeople remain trapped in the town. One time, when he is delayed, he panics and begins to understand the situation in Goražde in a more profound way: “It’d been my turn to understand how much more than a few kilometers of road separated me from them” (67). The people of Goražde spend years trapped in their enclave, surrounded by enemies and yet not too far from Sarajevo. Despite their proximity, they cannot reach the city or receive much aid. When Sacco cannot travel, he feels how constricting and frustrating it is to be trapped.

Sacco’s interactions with people in Goražde vary between interviews and confrontations.