The 800m-long
Sarajevo tunnel is revered as an inanimate war hero and credited with enabling the city to survive
the longest siege in modern military history. A short section is accessible to the public at the
Tunnel Museum in the suburb of Ilidža. From central Sarajevo we took tram #3 to the Ilidža stop and then a 7KMarks taxi-ride for the last 3 kilometres. Museum entry was 5KM and it’s open daily from 9am to 4pm, year round.
As Yugoslavia disintegrated in the early 1990s, the Bosnian government followed the example of Slovenia and Croatia and declared independence. The people of Bosnia had split along ethnic lines and one faction, the Bosnian Serbs, immediately declared themselves independent from the newly-announced state of Bosnia-Hercegovina.
Escalating tension soon led to armed conflict and, supported by the Yugoslavian National Army, Bosnian Serb forces attacked what they saw as the rebel government in Sarajevo. Despite superior firepower, Bosnian Serbs were outnumbered by the (mostly Muslim) defenders of Sarajevo, and chose to surround the city and cut its supplies of water, gas and electricity, in the hope of forcing a surrender and the acceptance of their demands.
The hills around Sarajevo were occupied by Serb forces, except a small corridor to the southwest, and access to that was blocked by the UN peacekeeper-controlled airport. The only way Sarajevans could obtain access to the supplies and arms they needed from the outside world was to tunnel under the airport.
The tunnel was dug by hand by soldiers working around the clock in shifts and it took four months for men working from opposite ends to reach through and shake hands. The finished version averaged a height of 1.5 metres, width of 1metre and had steel rails to support trolleys of heavy supplies. An oil pipeline, telephone cables and a limited supply of electricity were connected and thousands of tonnes of food, medical supplies and munitions were carried through the tunnel. Most famously, it was used to transport President Izetbegovic in his wheelchair, and most comically some of the museum video footage shows a startled white goat emerging from one end.
As well as extensive video footage, the museum also has a collection of military equipment and war-paraphernalia. Bullets, shell cases the size of a man’s thigh, uniforms, camouflage equipment, backpacks and some of the trolleys used to transport goods are on display. The entrance to the tunnel itself is outdoors under a covered area surrounded by sandbags and camouflage netting. There’s extensive printed information on display, including an aerial view showing the Bosnian Serb grip on the city and making plain the necessity for the tunnel.
"The desire… is that, in the area of the tunnel museum… a large monument can be built so that future generations can learn about the evil that was lived through and so that they can ensure it will never happen again."
Indeed.
From journal Snowflake's Chance in Hell