The novel is set against the backdrop of the Siege of Sarajevo, the longest siege in modern European history. It is imperative to understand a general background of this situation, as Galloway does not provide much historical context to explain who “the men in the hills” are and why they are destroying the city. Peter Andreas for the Wilson Center says succinctly, “The tortuous, globally televised battle for the Bosnian capital came to represent the entire post-Cold War experience of ethnic conflict, UN hand wringing, Western paralysis, questionable humanitarianism, and a mushrooming global relief aid industry. Like the Rwandan camps in Goma, ex-Zaire, Sarajevo became an embarrassing symbol of Western failure and incompetence, prompting Hollywood movies and a myriad of journalistic polemics. Outrage over events in Sarajevo, one could argue, helped pave the way for more robust international military intervention in Kosovo at the end of the decade, and contributed to the U.S. turn away from UN-led multilateral conflict resolution initiatives.”
The former Yugoslavia was divided into six republics, with the most multi-ethnic being Bosnia and Herzegovina. Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, was also very multi-ethnic. In 1990 a coalition of nationalist parties came to power and the fragmentation of Bosnia continued apace. Slovenia and Croatia were also pursuing independence and Bosnia became a more dangerous place. One party, the SDS led by Radovan Karadzic, wanted to remain a Yugoslav state while two others, the SDA and the HDZ, did not. The SDS walked out of Parliament in October 1991 and set up a parallel assembly and headquarters in a local hotel. In spring 1991, the government held a referendum on independence. The SDS called on Serbs to boycott and erected barricades throughout parts of Sarajevo that they claimed for their own. War was avoided until snipers holed up in the Holiday Inn fired into the crowd of peaceful demonstrators. Karadzic fled and Bosnian Serb leaders located themselves in the hills and used a nearby wartime base to fire upon the city below.
Until May 1991, it was possible to imagine that life might have more or less continued as normal. However, in May General Ratko Mladic assumed command of the Bosnian Serb Army (VRS) and the city was increasingly shelled and destroyed. The Conversation explains, “It was, however, the first winter of the siege that brought real privation to Sarajevo. No running water, no electricity and limited amounts of food (UN aid and anything that could be purchased for inflated prices on the black market) meant the challenges of surviving were manifold. And the extremities of life under siege had a significant impact upon people’s ability to stay sane. Daily shelling and sniping – sometimes in a slow and methodical manner – and constant danger of death placed citizens of Sarajevo in an unimaginable psychological position. Some withdrew into themselves, while others found survival mechanisms and a way of facing the realities of their lives. Otherwise normal activities became vital mechanisms for survival – dressing well, attending theatre performances or going to ad hoc gigs. Humour, albeit of the rather dark variant, was equally important. Preservation of one’s dignity was a serious matter.”
The international community tried to deal with the situation but failed. NATO airstrikes on the VRS and two mortar attacks were somewhat helpful, but the war in Bosnia did not end until the Dayton Peace Agreement in November 1995 and the siege was not lifted until February 1996. Most of the city became part of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
According to AP, “more than 200,000 were killed or disappeared, tens of thousands were wounded and more than 2.5 million Bosnians fled or were driven from their homes. According to the Bosnian Health Ministry, 8,017 people were killed in Sarajevo alone, 769 of them children. Another 46,982 people, 11,442 of them children, were wounded.” General Mladic was put on trial in 2012 and found guilty of war crimes in 2017; he was given life in prison and his final appeal was rejected in June 2021.
