Thirty years of unity: Historic reintegration of Sarajevo’s Grbavica neighborhood

On March 19, 1996, several months after the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement, which ended the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina and lifted the nearly four-year siege of Sarajevo, members of the Ministry of the Interior of Sarajevo Canton entered the neighbourhoods of Grbavica, Kovacici, and Vraca.

The Interior Ministry’s group consisted of 67 Bosniaks, 20 Serbs, and 13 Croats. Alongside members of the International Police Task Force (IPTF), they were the first to enter this part of the city. Images of weeping citizens returning to their Grbavica travelled around the world, and this act de facto concluded the reintegration process of Sarajevo neighbourhoods into a unified city.

Some of the most horrific crimes during the siege of Sarajevo were committed in Grbavica. In late March 2013, the Court of BiH sentenced Veselin Vlahovic "Batko," known as the "Monster of Grbavica," to 45 years in prison for his crimes. Vlahovic also murdered a Sarajevo hero, Goran Cengic, a famous handball player for Sarajevo’s Bosna, who had attempted to save his neighbour, University Professor Dr. Husnija Cerimagic. Today, a sports hall near the Zeljeznicar Football Club stadium is named after him. Furthermore, the territories belonging to this settlement were used to constantly fire upon the civilian population throughout the city.