Bosnian war, 20 years later, marked in Sarajevo with 11,541 red chairs: one for each dead

"A river of blood." 11,541 red chairs are pictured along Titova street in Sarajevo as the city marks the 20th anniversary of the start of the Bosnian war, April 6, 2012. One for each citizen of the city of Sarajevo killed during the war. The anniversary finds the Balkan country still deeply divided, power shared between Serbs, Croats and Muslims in a single state ruled by ethnic quotas and united by the weakest of central governments. More: Reuters.

(Photo: Reuters/Dado Ruvic)

• [Karim Naguib]

  The chairs have shadows of dry pavement

• [Snarf]

  I can wholeheartedly recommend Joe Sacco’s journalistic comics about that war, particularly ‘Safe Area Gorazde’. They put a very human face on war and changed they way I see the world. 

  Edit: here’s a link : http://www.fantagraphics.com/browse-shop/safe-area-gorazde-softcover-ed-6.html

• [deathisastar]

  Note that the 11,500 chairs only represent the citizens of Sarajevo who were killed. In toto, about 100,000 people were killed during the Bosnian War, mostly Bosnian civilians killed by Serb soldiers and paramilitaries.

  I highly recommend the book My War Gone By, I Miss It so by Anthony Loyd: http://www.amazon.com/My-War-Gone-By-Miss/dp/0140298541

• [J alberto garcia]

  Orthodox Christian Serbs, the Catholic Croats, and the Muslim Bosnians is more precise

  • [Ben Hutchings]

    I think it’s a mistake to emphasise religious distinctions when many of the people you’re talking about are not religious. Though the term “Bosnian Muslims” is used frequently in English-language reporting, “Bosniaks” may be better.

• [Kommkast]

  Man… what is with humans? They also marked all the mortar impact sites with red resin. Its really depressing to see… However this was quite a stunning example. 
  http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/Evstafiev-bosnia-cello.jpg

• [Blerime Topalli]

  I think it’s very insulting in to say, “Serbians, Croats and Muslims” in that context.  Muslims indicate being a member of a much larger population of people around the world, and is based SOLELY on religious belief.  ”Muslim” is not an ethnicity.  It would have been proper to have said Bosniak, which is the ethnicity of these victims… have we learned nothing?  It honestly sounds like because they are Muslim they aren’t deserving of an ethnic identity anymore – the entire problem there to begin with.

• [Zoran Scout Ivancic]

  rest of the chairs were normal size.  the ones on the photo with the girl were dedicated to the children that were killed during the siege, over 500 of them