Bosnian war, 20 years later, marked in Sarajevo with 11,541 red chairs: one for each dead

"A river of blood." 11,541 red chairs are pictured along Titova street in Sarajevo as the city marks the 20th anniversary of the start of the Bosnian war, April 6, 2012. One for each citizen of the city of Sarajevo killed during the war. The anniversary finds the Balkan country still deeply divided, power shared between Serbs, Croats and Muslims in a single state ruled by ethnic quotas and united by the weakest of central governments. More: Reuters.

(Photo: Reuters/Dado Ruvic)


    1. I think it’s a mistake to emphasise religious distinctions when many of the people you’re talking about are not religious. Though the term “Bosnian Muslims” is used frequently in English-language reporting, “Bosniaks” may be better.

  1. I think it’s very insulting in to say, “Serbians, Croats and Muslims” in that context.  Muslims indicate being a member of a much larger population of people around the world, and is based SOLELY on religious belief.  “Muslim” is not an ethnicity.  It would have been proper to have said Bosniak, which is the ethnicity of these victims… have we learned nothing?  It honestly sounds like because they are Muslim they aren’t deserving of an ethnic identity anymore – the entire problem there to begin with.

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