The Dobrinja-Butmir Tunnel
A Story of Survival

Enemy forces have your city surrounded. The "Jerusalem of the Balkans" has effectively become a concentration camp for scores of Muslim residents, as well as for the large numbers of Serbs and Croats who were brave enough -- or foolish enough -- to stay. A UN arms embargo keeps you from legally purchasing weapons to fight back. The situation in Iraq taking precedence, James Baker says that the United States "doesn't have a dog in this fight." The "hour of Europe" has not led to decisive action from your next door neighbors. Welcome to Sarajevo. It is July 1992.

When the UN strikes a deal with the men up in the hills, men who just a few months before had been your neighbors, it seems like a light may have emerged at the end of the tunnel. The Serbs have been bombarding your city with mortars, RPG's and anti-aircraft bullets -- aimed at human beings -- since April 5, but now, it appears there may be a way through the encirclement. Blue helmets will officially take control of the airport, to the north of the city, and to the south of free Bosnian territory.


But there's a problem with the UN: It has to be seen as neutral, by all sides. It is loath to condemn any side more than the other. "Everyone is guilty." It's a Catch .22.

Formed to prevent aggression by the strong against the weak, it needs the consent of the strong to be able to take action. Just pick up a newspaper and read about Darfur today. Just as Khartoum doesn't want to volunteer for an international force to come onto its sovereign territory and tell it what to do, so did the Serbs feel about UN action in Sarajevo.

The deal wasn't much of a deal at all -- not for the residents of the besieged city, at least. Sure, Serbs were no longer patrolling the runways of the airport. International forces were doing that. But the effect on the cordon was nonexistent. Any Bosnian caught trying to sneak across to free territory was sent back. That meant no escape; it meant no way to smuggle in weapons; it meant the UN's role was to make sure people in Sarajevo died on a full stomach, courtesy of the truckloads full of 'mmm good humanitarian aid it sent in throughout the conflict.

But even in trying to play the role of chef for the entire city of Sarajevo, the UN failed. Part of the deal in taking over the airport from the Serbs was that they would split all humanitarian aid down the middle: Residents of a city without an outlet to the outside world would get half, the soldiers shooting mortars and sniper fire at them would get half. Those were the terms of the deal. Take it or leave it. Catch .22.

So the UN took it. It was the best they could do -- and it's not like anyone else, namely NATO, was about to do anything about it. But it didn't solve the problem for the citizens of Sarajevo. There was no way for escape; there was no way to smuggle in food that didn't come in a UN wrapper; and most importantly, there was no way to smuggle in weapons that were needed to fight back. The light at the end of the tunnel, which had appeared upon the UN airport deal, had been put out. And so the Bosnian Army started to dig.

A new light appeared -- this time, at the end of a real tunnel.


It took exactly four months and four days to complete it. On July 30, 1993, Army soldiers commissioned to dig the tunnel that went directly underneath the UN-occupied airport met in the middle, underground, the new passage out of Sarajevo having been completed: An amazing feat considering the circumstances. The tunnel was 800m long, 1m wide, and a little over a meter and a half tall. It would turn out to be the lifeline of Sarajevo.


It's obvious where on the map the tunnel ran. And it was obvious to the Serbs that it existed, as well. I refuse to believe the line I heard from some Muslims who lived through it: "The Serbs didn't want to shut down the tunnel. They just wanted to kill people." That makes no sense. The Serbs clearly would have loved to shut down the tunnel, but unfortunately, a system of trenches and mountainous terrain in the area made it impossible. So they settled for Option B: To kill people.

Hundreds died while entering and exiting the tunnel, mostly because they had temporarily left the safe confines of a trench. And many died in the tunnel as well, which was perpetually flooded, and full of electric cables running above the water, so that it could be lit for the thousands of Sarajevans who made the trek every single day. Water and electric cables, not a good mixture.


The tunnel saved lives. It brought weapons; it brought food; it brought hope. Today, a small portion of it has been maintained -- the rest collapsed in the years after the fighting ended. It is a testament to the human will to survive, and it is evidence that mankind is capable of almost anything.