Anti-sectarian Assembly Plans - Romeo and Juliet in Sarajevo
Romeo and Juliet in Sarajevo
Aim:
To make pupils aware of the power of love and human relationships despite religious, political and national differences, even war. To make pupils consider their own values and that sometimes you can't just sit on the fence if you want to make the world a better place.
Required:
2 (or more) readers with appropriate copies of the script. Laptop computer, data projector and operator (if using the powerpoint).
PowerPoint file: Romeo and Juliet in Sarajevo
Time:
10 minutes.
Suitable for:
S2 onwards.
Notes:
Two of the slides show the bodies of Admira and Bosko and teachers should be aware that some pupils may be uncomfortable with this.
This assembly could be used at any time but may be particularly appropriate around Valentine's Day or if pupils are studying Romeo and Juliet.
Readers should ideally be given time to prepare their readings and may need help with some of the pronounciations.
It is best used with the powerpoint but this is not absolutely necessary.
A much longer article is available as background reading. Click here for more information. It does contradict some of the lesser details in a Reuters article but was written a year after the event and results from many interviews with those involved and may therefore be more accurate. This, however, does not detract from the lessons to be learnt from this true story.
Assembly: Romeo and Juliet in Sarajevo
(Mouse click - Powerpoint slide 1 - blank slide)
Reader 1:
Think of the world's greatest lovers and who comes to mind? In all probability, Romeo and Juliet.
(Mouse click - Powerpoint slide 2)
What is it about this couple that makes the world remember their story - even if we don't always know the details that well?
Could it be because their love was so innocent - they could not bear to be apart? Perhaps it is because of the opposition to their being in love?
Or is it because the story ends in the tragic death of the couple?
Reader 2:
Whatever the reason, William Shakespeare's play has captured the interest of millions since its first performance in 1594.
(Mouse click - Powerpoint slide 3)
Bosko and Admira have been called the 'Romeo and Juliet of Sarajevo.' Unlike Shakespeare's play, theirs is a true story. It demonstrates that love knows no religious, political or nationality boundaries.
From 5 April 1992 to 26 February 1996, 10,615 persons, of whom 1,601 were children, were killed in Sarajevo, a city of just over half a million people and capital of Bosnia. Many were killed because their religion made them different.
This edited news article, written by a Reuters journalist in 1993 during the Bosnian war, describes what happened to Bosko and Admira.
(Mouse click - Powerpoint slide 4)
Reader 1:
Two lovers lie dead on the banks of Sarajevo's Miljacka river, locked in a final embrace.
For four days they have sprawled near Vrbana bridge in a wasteland of shell-blasted rubble, downed tree branches and dangling power lines.
So dangerous is the area, no one has dared recover their bodies.
Bosko and Admira, both 25, were shot dead on Wednesday trying to escape the besieged Bosnian capital for Serbia.
Sweethearts since high school, he was a (Christian) Serb and she was a Moslem.
'They were shot at the same time, but he fell instantly and she was still alive,' recounts Dino, a soldier who saw the couple trying to cross from government territory to rebel Serb positions.
'She crawled over and hugged him and they died like that, in each other's arms.'
Bosko is face-down on the pavement, right arm bent awkwardly behind him. Admira lies next to her lover, left arm across his back.
The government side says Serb soldiers shot the couple, but Serb forces insist Bosnian Moslem-led government troops were responsible.
'I don't care who killed them, I just want their bodies so I can bury them,' says the dead girl's father. 'I don't want them to rot in no-man's land.'
Government and Serb authorities have discussed the matter, but so far are refusing a ceasefire to permit recovery of the couple.
'I'm an auto mechanic and I know a lot of people in this city,' says the girl's father. 'Everyone is washing their hands in this case, Bosnians and Serbs alike.'
(Mouse click - Powerpoint slide 5)
Reader 2:
In a country mad for war, Bosko and Admira were crazy for each other.
The university chemistry students dated for seven years before moving in to live together nine months ago.
With his father dead, no one would have blamed Bosko had he left Sarajevo when his mother and brother fled before war broke out last year.
Instead, he stayed in the city.
'He had no one here, just Admira,' explains the dead girl's mother.
'Bosko stayed in Sarajevo because of her. Admira wanted to repay him by travelling with him to Serbia.'
Mystery, and perhaps treachery, surrounds the couple's death. Government and Serb officials admit they agreed to let them pass through the lines last Wednesday afternoon at 4.00 pm. Bosko and Admira walked at least 500 meters along the north bank of the Miljacka river, fully exposed to soldiers on both sides.
(Mouse click - Powerpoint slide 6)
As they passed Bosnian lines and headed for the Serb-held neighbourhood, someone shot them.
The young couple had been dead two days before Admira's parents found out. Ham radio operators in Serbia contacted them trying to confirm rumours of Bosko's death. 'I spoke to his mother then and she gave me permission to bury them together in Sarajevo,' says Admira's father.
'We want them to lie together in the ground, just as they died together. Love took them to their deaths.'
'That's proof this is not a war between (Christian) Serbs and Moslems. It's a war between crazy people, between monsters. That's why their bodies are still out there.'
Reader 2:
It took almost a week to recover the bodies. The Serbs used Muslim prisoners to do this under cover of darkness and buried the bodies together in a military cemetery.
(Mouse click - Powerpoint slide 7)
Three years later and after the war, they were exhumed by Serbian friends for Admira's parents and reburied side by side in Sarajevo's Lion Cemetery, surrounded by thousands of other victims of the siege and within sight of the café where they courted.
Reader 1:
(Mouse click - Powerpoint slide 8)
Kurt Schork was the Reuters journalist who wrote the article.
A plaque reads: 'During 1,335 days of the siege, he showed the whole world the truth about the war, the heroism and the scale of the suffering of the citizens of Sarajevo.'
While reporting another war in Sierra Leone Kurt, already an honorary citizen of Bosnia, was shot dead in an ambush by rebels in May 2000. He was 53. Half of his ashes are now buried at Sarajevo's Lion cemetery because it was the wish of his family.
Admira's mother has good reason to remember him. 'When all the other journalists were besieging us in search of an exclusive story - and of course they were only doing their job - Kurt was the only one who really tried to help us recover their bodies and did not mention the story. He was buried next to my children and every time I go to the cemetery I bring him flowers as well. It was an honour to have known him,' she said.
(Mouse click - Powerpoint slide 9)
Reader 2:
What does all this show us? It shows that love can be stronger than any differences of religion, politics or nationality. It shows the futility of war. It shows what a tragedy religious intolerance, hatred and bigotry can bring. It shows how sectarianism is wrong. It also shows how someone doing their job can still show compassion for their fellow human beings.
In life we all have individual decisions to make about right and wrong. Often we simply can't afford to do nothing (Mouse click - Powerpoint slide 10) because as Edmund Burke once said 'The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.' Thank you for your attention.