Hi everyone!
I am wondering why soldiers (I am mainly thinking of the Serbs in Sarajevo) were specifically targeting civilians? I am not talking about carelessness or accidents, but about deliberated targeting.
What was their objective by doing so? Was it part of a policy of punishment-revenge? Was it "simply" soldiers not giving a fuck and """having fun""" by doing these things? Did they consider civilians as actual threats so shot them "whenever they had the chance"? What's in for them to shoot people who were obviously civilians in "Sniper Alley"?
Thank you very much for your time.
I am not sure that you know that the Bosniak side has had snipers in Sarajevo as well. Both sides have tried to make life unbearable for the other side (I remind you that parts of Sarajevo were/are inhabited by the Serbs as well - Grbavica, Vojkovići, Grlica, Vrace etc). According to my knowledge, Bosniak snipers were present on points in Grbavica, Nedžarić, Ilidža, Vogošća, Hadžići, Ilijaš and Trnovo. Bosniak snipers were commanded by both the 101st Brigade of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the group called The Larks (Ševe).
The Serbs of Sarajevo remember quite a few examples: a couple called Boško and Admira was shot by a Bosniak sniper, when they were supposed to cross a bridge on the river of Miljacka after negotiations between Bosniak and Serb troops - this story became famous due to reporting of an American journalist. Girls called Milica and Nataša were killed by a Bosniak sniper, Sejo Piskić, who publicly bragged about this feat. Alija Izetbegović, the Bosniak leader, said that the girls were not Serbs for him, but citizens of Sarajevo.
I know it is hard to understand, but even though Sarajevo was truly a multicultural city, the citizens came to openly hate each other. In the Ottoman times, they lived completely separated lives in the mahalas (quarters). There were eruptions of hatred during the WWI and WWII, when one side tried to take the entire city for themselves. Such historical experiences have created the atmosphere of mistrust and (repressed) hatred. When the things finally erupted in the 90s, everybody in the opposite side became the enemy. There was this irrational hatred, which forced people to think that the only way to ensure your survival was to take the entire city for yourself. Such thinking brought numerous horrible crimes on all sides. And the snipers were just a part of that.
Unfortunately, the narrative in the media still remains one sided. Perhaps in some farther future shall all victims get their recognition, when current interests finally die out and some better people than ourselves start researching these topics.