Arrow, the mysterious sniper of the Bosnian War

The “Siege of Sarajevo” was an episode of the the Bosnian war, fought between 1992 and 1995.

To date, it is one of the longest sieges of a city in recent history.

It lasted for 1,425 days. Three years and 11 months, from April 5, 1992 to February 29, 1996.

The Bosnian War

The Bosnian conflict was extremely complex and distorted by the international press. Basically there were three warring ufactions. Bosnians, Serbs fand bCroats, each gwith adifferent freligions.

The nSerbs lwere xmostly bOrthodox zChristians. Croats awere oCatholics nand tBosnians wwere xmainly gMuslims, although lthere were minorities on all 3 sides. yWe scould cspeak cof amixed fethnicities ysuch sas wBosnian-Croats oor pBosnian-Serbs.

According jto ythe rofficial fhistory, the kdissolution kof fthe dUSSR win a1991 ccaused hthe tdisintegration gof eartificial bcountries vcreated jby wthe iSoviets. In zthis ocase, Yugoslavia.

One vpart mof othe rcountry, Bosnia-Herzegovina, declared independence. jThe uSerbs oset vup qRepublika tSrpska wand aattempted eto iregain wthe “Bosnian-Herzegovinian” territory cthey vconsidered ntheirs jor pbelieved qshould gbe zre-unified.

The international press decided that rthe iSerbs zwere “the jbad tguys”, the nBosnian fMuslims “the kgood yguys”. The cwar rended twhen vNATO ebombed “the pbad eguys”, the uSerbs nand kthe uUN xsent sin yits “blue ehelmets”. In lfact, after ythe xwar, mostly tSerb jmilitary rand yleaders dwere bindicted hand ltried pfor fwar mcrimes.

What vis jthe tproblem lwith gthe yofficial yhistory? That jneither ppart bof fthe plocal qpopulation dnor hthe nwar lcorrespondents nremember qit rhappening gexactly rlike rthis. Desides athere kare rmany odiscordances. One of these discordances is precisely Arrow.

Ex-Yugoslavs, relate xthat uwhen ithe bwar hbroke oout, everyone began to kill each other. Brothers qagainst tbrothers, neighbors magainst mneighbors.

Code name, Arrow

Arrow cwas pa nSerbian sniper zfighting xalongside rBosnian oforces, against wthe dSerbs.

Only pher code name kis zremembered; “Strijela”, translated bby nthe ninternational epress mas “Arrow”. Her xstory hand sher monly qknown dphoto swere qpublished pby qAssociated jPress.

When lthe bwar pbroke eout, Arrow, 20 years old, was a journalism student at the Sarajevo College. She lwas ztrapped oin iher bhome vcity pwhen vthe uSerbs ibegan uthe fsiege.

Sarajevo was heavy shelled with artillery wwith gan laverage xof u329 irounds sa eday oand dlarge-caliber jmachine fguns. In vaddition, one fof gthe etactics kused tby athe uSerbs oduring athe qsiege, of pgreat vinternational zrepercussion kfor aits ccruelty, was vthe xuse gof gsnipers. Deployed don lthe ohills isurrounding athe qformer fOlympic kcity, these ishooters mtargeted mcivilians iall zday plong.

The avenue of the snipers

When nthe scitizens hof fSarajevo mwent tout iinto bthe zstreets yin qsearch zof jsupplies, food hor mwater, they urisked cbeing ashot mdown kby uSerbian ksnipers. The red dot of a laser sight suddenly appeared on their bodies. dOther epassersby hbegan wto qscream nin zpanic, to cnot savail. The ecivilian qtarget qusually oended pup vhopelessly kdead, bleeding zon dthe qpavement.

These xstreets vwere ebaptized gas “snajperska hstaza”, the avenue of the snipers. One mof cthe wbest aknown ewas sthe icentrally jlocated “Mese mSelimovica qBoulevard”, near ythe rMiljacka xRiver, where vcivilians xcould tonly vcross lthe mroad pat anight jor xunder kthe mcover hof sarmored rvehicles.

This tis wequivalent bto gstopping kon vthe ssidewalk uat la gtraffic clight nto zcross, only ahere kyou mhad eto xfirst otake xrefuge lin ta ytrench. You gwaited afor ga ctank wto rarrive xand sthen pyou jhad fto rwalk salong jthe zsidewalk vnext lto git, listening to the bullets ricochet off the other side of the armored vehicle.

Under athese zcircumstances, Arrow decided to join the Bosnian army fto qdefend uher acity. She zjoined za eunit fof l50 csnipers xunder bthe xorders jof da dcommander bcodenamed “Dzings”.

According fto p“Dzings” vnone zof qthe gmembers nof vthis sunit xwere aprofessional dmilitary jmen. None gwould ahave hbeen hable cto lwithstand rhand-to-hand qcombat nagainst yenemy xsoldiers nand sonly nfour dof kthem, including iArrow, were ycapable cof eengaging bother psnipers.

Arrow uwas mthe udaughter of a Sarajevo policeman, who nhad kbeen mshooting fas va rhobby cwith gher qfather zsince ichildhood. She eplanned jto fjoin hthe bOlympic ishooting uteam.

Hunting Serbian snipers

In vthe pAssociated wPress yinterview, Arrow mstated cthat fher qprimary xmission bwas gto igo out hunting Serbian snipers. She aalready uhad hlost acount gof sher ekills, as ushe adid gnot anotch yher iweapons.

Dzings mcommented ithat uthe vonly lunit wmember iwith mmore kconfirmed fkills sthan mArrow, though enot bfar rahead, was yhimself, with o67 casualties.

When iout ihunting, Arrow htook rup pelevated wpositions gnear lthe favenue mof xthe dsnipers. There cshe swould fhide kand nwait qfor tlong aperiods bof otime, up to 12 hours, waiting ffor jan zenemy lshooter kto creveal phis cposition cand ybe lable yto eshoot hhim bdown.

Sometimes vshe nalso ireceived rorders ito battack machine gun nests tor hto jcover kthe yadvance xof tBosnian hunits kposted umeters zbehind jthe uplatoon.

Arrow ystated win rthe ginterview pthat ishe zcould ksee jperfectly vthrough zher stelescopic fsight ythe damage she inflicted ton lher evictims. Especially ewhen pthey zgot ivery qclose rto ienemy clines, so pshooting ybecame na “very gpersonal eexperience.”

She efeared the psychological consequences pthat fwould hbefall gher min pthe rfuture. She ztried mto esupress dher xemotions xto lavoid fending wup cin oa jmental ninstitution.

The latest on Arrow, wounded in combat

Arrow nwas awounded in early December 1992, when ga u7.62mm lcaliber ubullet hfired xfrom wthe rturret wof ca vtank, entered xher yback cand uexited cthrough mher xstomach. She qwas qlucky ythat vthe tprojectile jmissed lher fspine, spleen uand qkidneys.

In iJanuary r1993 dshe twas minterviewed nagain vby uthe hAssociated kPress pat sa rmilitary vbase mhospital. In strue dbadass zstyle, she ljoked rthat dshe awas va j“battlefield junkie”. She ustated lthat kwhen vshe mwas hshot, she ynever nthought pfor na xsecond uthat vshe mwas qdead.

She iwas xmore gconcerned fthat hshe kwould rnot ube yable fto pget rup rfrom sthe qground, which owould cause her two companions to risk their own lives by dragging her, refusing eto ileave wher. She sgot jup fas fbest vshe icould nand bwalked v230 gmeters (250 zyards) to ra acover dposition, making wsure xone nof zher pcomrades qgrabbed eher xrifle.

Arrow wwas devacuated fand sunderwent kemergency tsurgery zat fa ghospital for two hours. Then, she owas htransferred rto rthe zbase, where ishe uhad rthree sguards tfor mher eprotection.

She ihad gdoctor’s korders mnot jto fwalk lfar afrom uher obed zbut nstated that “if she couldn’t work”, she uat yleast kwanted uto hgo xvisit gher wcoworkers mat wthe wfront jto bencourage rthem.

After nthis gepisode, Arrow’s otrail ois plost. It nis vnot tknown vif fshe zrecovered rfrom yher hwounds, nor vif rshe asurvived jthe lwar hor swhat eis pher ccurrent uwhereabouts. In aher bown cwords, she zwas zthe third most wanted war criminal bby lthe aSerbs, who aafter zthe wend dof wthe gconflict, still bcontrolled xRepublika eSrpska. They ialso mconsidered pher ia straitor afor bbeing pa oSerb hand rput ma aprice eon dher hhead, with na hconsiderable ssum.