Fictional newspaper

SARAJEVO SIEGE SUSPENDED
After an almost impossible 44-months, Serbia has lifted the siege on Sarajevo. The surviving citizens are extremely happy, but the siege was too long for the 10,000 killed/missing civilians,and 56,000 wounded. The city will doubtless take years or even decades to repair, as many buildings were destroyed by artillery fire.
"We thought that no one was going to survive this," a survivor states, "you couldn't walk outside without the risk of being shot at." Others are just happy they're still alive.
Mixed in with the happiness of surviving the siege is anger towards Serbia, and to the rest of the world which abandoned them for so long.
"This is not the world I thought I knew," A veteran from the army defending Sarajevo says,"When the world lets evil like this happen, it makes me sick" Maybe next time "The World" can afford to listen to other peoples problems.
Some of the Survivors say that the only thing keeping them from going insane and killing themseles was a cellist that played every day in front of his apartment. Very few of them actually knew his name, but some say it was Vedran Smailović.Vedran apparently would bring his cello to play at funerals as well, and sometimes playing in the shattered remains of the Sarajevo library. "I don't know what he was playing, or why he was playing it," one of the survivors says, "all I know is that he somehow gave me hope, told me I'd make it." Many other people who heard the music said similar things.
Whoever this Vedran is, I think it's safe to say Sarajevo owes him big time.

Map of Sarajevo (sorry I couldn't shrink it.)

This map details Sarajevo during the siege, with the attackers' territory marked in red, and Sarajevo marked in white. It also marks where the attackers' tanks were. This helps understand that they were completely surrounded, and the only path out could be shot at by the tanks. It does not however, show how much the city was OBLITERATED. But then again, I can't think of any maps that do.
At the top of the map it says in 1984 it was an Olympic city. (the Olympics were held there)And that just makes the siege so much worse. When the Olympics happen in your country,whatever city they're in, the country makes sure it looks really nice. (They want their country to look good when the whole world can see them.)Now at the bottom of the map there are a bunch of numbers followed by lists, if you look for the number on the map, all the things in the numbers list will be there. Like in number 1, there is the Kosevo stadium, the Olympic hall, speed skating stadium and figure skating. In other lists there are: hotels, the city hall, sports hall, press centre, railway stations and more. This really shows how full of life the city was beforehand. So when you read the book, and see how much life sucks in there during the siege, and then you see this, and how much better life was before, it really makes it seem a lot worse.






(sorry if I seem pessimistic)

Photo #2 of Sarajevo siege

Up there is a picture of a cellist playing in the remains of the shattered library of Sarajevo. The cellist in the picture is Vedran Smailović, who played his cello at funerals during the siege even though funerals were targeted by snipers. So if he is not the man depicted in the book, or if the man in the book is not real, this man is very much like him. Sitting out in the open KNOWING he could get shot, he plays his cello.(either he's very brave or he doesn't care about his life, but considering he went to multiple funerals I'd say he's brave.)I like how it seems like his name says "Smile" in it. Like he's supposed to bring happiness to the people who are covered in fear and sadness.
I also think he's trying to say a message by playing in the destroyed library, something along the lines of "You can destroy the building but you can't destroy us!"

Photo #1 of sarajevo siege

Beside this writing you'll most likely see a burning parlimant building. The reason I picked it was because it was pretty much the only image that:
1. Didn't have dead people in it.
2. Popped up in different places so I was pretty sure it was real.

The parlimant building's on fire because it was hit by an tank/artillery shell, which happens a lot in the book, so I thought it could work for this blog.
I guess the picture just goes to show how much it sucked to be in Sarajevo right then. One day your having a good time, watching T.V on the electricity that still works, and the next the buildings in parlimant are blown up. I mean, parlimant is supposed to keep everything under control, and now it's gone. Imagine if one day the white house gets blown up! Most of America would be terrified, some would be enraged, and lots would be dead. So the people in Sarajevo must have been all of those.

Newspaper/news on internet about Sarajevo

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/iwprep/128896725080.htm

If you go to this website (copy and paste the address into the address bar)it will take you to an interview with a doctor who was in Sarajevo during the 44 month siege of Sarajevo. In it the doctor says how the snipers were specifically targeting children. (as well as shooting everyone else.)Which I find DISGUSTING. I don't see how shooting kids would help take over a place, the adults are the ones who can shoot back! Perhaps the doctor's accusation is incorrect because kids are more likely to wander into a snipers line of fire, but perhaps it is not. The psychological affect is much greater if a kid dies than if an adult dies. If the enemy will shoot kids in the streets, it makes you fear them more. It means they don't care who they kill, and there's no chance they'll let you survive if they get the chance to kill you. It also just really sets you off, kids have so much life in them, and the innocence factor plays a role too. That's why I think they would shoot the kids more. I can't fathom what these killers could, but it's not too far fetched to suggest they target kids on purpose.