For whom the bell tolls – The enchanting yet haunting memories of war are so uncanny that it is sickening to the bones. As I watched documentaries of the Lebanese civil war, I came across a heart-wrenching documentary on the Siege of Sarajevo. The documentary follows the lives of journalists covering the war from the Holiday Inn, a hotel in the middle of the hellfire.
At one point, journalists stopped wearing their press vests and helmets around civilians because they felt like it would be unfair to be protected while covering innocent and unprotected civilians who would most likely be shot at any moment.
One American journalist, Kurt Schork, captured the moment a couple died from bullets while hugging each other on a bridge. The couple is referred to now as Bosnia’s Romeo and Juliet, and the image of the couple haunted Schork until he died while covering conflicts in Sierra Leone.
The two bodies embracing on the streets of war and murder stirs the trauma, the agony, and the nightmares of many, including Schork, who had half of his cremated ashes buried next to the couple in Sarajevo as his wishes.
Bosko and Admira were childhood streets, dying in the embrace of one another nine years since they first fell in love. Bosko was a Serb, a Christian, and Admira was from Bosnia, a Muslim. Their family members either died in the conflict or fled away to safer zones, but Bosko and Admira decided to remain in Sarajevo until it got too much risky for both, and they both agreed it would be wise to escape the gunfires.
As agreed upon by both war parties, Bosko and Admira were to cross the Vrbanja Bridge, which was a No Man’s land, and no one will shoot until they cross safely.
As the Bosko and Admira crossed the bridge, a sniper opened fire, killing Bosko on the spot and fatally wounding Admira. Seeing her loved one lying dead, Admira crawled closer to Bosko, where she laid her head on his corpse and wait until death takes her away. Several days passed without anyone burying the body, as the bridge was considered a No Man’s Land until Schork was struck by the tragedy of two people lying dead next to each other on the same bridge that Suada and Olga died protesting the war before it started.