Savagery in The Safe Zone

By Bruce W. Nelan

THE FRESH, WHITE SNOW DREW THEM OUTside. A group of laughing children, the youngest 4 and the oldest 14, trooped out of their Sarajevo apartment building to play. It seemed safe enough; the Serb artillery batteries lining the hilltops around the city had been quiet for several days. Besides, the children were inside a U.N.-declared safe zone. As the Muslim boys and girls shouted and rode their sled, 120-mm mortar shells landed with a roar. The children dropped to the ground and then, when more explosions followed, ran for the beckoning safety of their building. Inside, fearful families rushed to the windows. As they watched, a shell exploded just behind the running children. The fresh snow instantly turned red: the blast and its shower of metal fragments killed five youngsters outright. A sixth died after arriving at a hospital. Two others were badly wounded. In this war there are no safe zones, even for children.

Postscript: a day later and 50 miles away, a mortar shell arced out of the surrounded Muslim enclave in Mostar and crashed into a playground in the Croat section of the city. The explosion killed three boys and a girl, all between 10 and 13.