Safe Area Goražde: The War in Eastern Bosnia, 1992-1995

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of graphic violence, death, religious discrimination, and substance use.

Joe Sacco sits in a bar called the Alkatraz, waiting with others for the declaration of peace expected at six o’clock. A man sits at his table and tells Sacco that though he lost a lot of money at the beginning of the conflict, he is not upset because he lives in a “town of heroes” (1). He wrote a book, The Real Truth About This Town, about Goražde. He invites Joe to visit him. Joe never visits the man, and the peace announcement does not come that night or the next morning.

In the fall of 1995, the future of the UN-designated safe area of Goražde is murky. It is the last surviving eastern Bosnian enclave, surrounded by Serb forces. After the UN abandoned the failed safe areas of Zepa and Srebrenica, British peacekeepers left Goražde. The people of Goražde worry for their safety because they are cut off. The Serbs only allow UN relief convoys into the town again after a NATO bombing campaign.

Peace talks in Dayton, Ohio, begin, and journalists wonder what will happen to Goražde.