Villain or hero? Sarajevo is split on archduke's assassin Gavrilo Princip
For one half of the city, he was the national hero who fought against imperial oppression and fully deserves a new park in his name. For the other half he is a villain who killed a pregnant woman and brought a flourishing epoque to an end.
Gavrilo Princip, the Bosnian-Serb radical who set in train a chain of events that led to the outbreak of the first world war will be the central figure in Sarajevo this weekend as the city marks 100 years since he assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914.
The anniversary is being marked by concerts, conferences and exhibitions, as the city projects itself as a beacon of peace following a century in which it has been associated with war. But stark divisions remain, both from the most recent war between 1992-1995, in which 100,000 people died and Sarajevo suffered a 1,425-day siege by Serb forces, and events 100 years ago. Princip remains a polarising figure, revered by many of Bosnia's Serbs, but derided as a murderer by the country's Muslims and Croats.
"For the past 100 years, the information that the world has received from here was about war and atrocities," says Ivo Komsic, Sarajevo's mayor. "Now we're sending a different message of peace, love and understanding."
This is Sarajevo's biggest international moment since the end of the Bosnian war almost 20 years ago. A range of international figures are attending ceremonies on Saturday, including a concert of the Vienna Philharmonic orchestra at the newly restored city hall, where Franz Ferdinand attended a reception shortly before the assassination, and which housed the city's library, destroyed by Serb artillery during the war. The presidents of several European countries are expected. The UK is sending Baroness Warsi. Just before midnight, a choir will sing on the Latin Bridge, beside which Franz Ferdinand and his pregnant wife Sophie were killed by Princip.
However, the ceremonies are being boycotted by the president and prime minister of Serbia, who claim that a plaque on the city hall commemorating the 1992 bombardment and the loss of almost 2m books denigrates the Serb people.
Despite his message of goodwill, Komsic presides over only a part of an ethnically divided city. Nineteen years after the war ended, Bosnia operates as two "entities", the predominantly Muslim and Croat Federation, and the overwhelmingly Serb-dominated Serb Republic (RS). The highly autonomous RS was recognised by the peace settlement. Many Muslims regard it as the product of ethnic cleansing, while for Serbs its existence is a guarantor of peace.
Swaths of the capital lie in the RS, where the administration of Istocno (east) Sarajevo operates separately, the two not even joined by public transport. In emergency cases, citizens of Istocno Sarajevo cannot be treated in the city centre's general hospital, Komsic notes, instead having to be taken 120 miles to Banja Luka, the capital of the RS.
In Istocno Sarajevo, Gavrilo Princip is still lauded by many as a national hero who fought against Austrian oppression. Milorad Dodik, the republic's strongman prime minister, is expected to open a new park and name it after the assassin. In the Communist Yugoslav era, Princip was regarded as a revolutionary hero who fought for the freedom of all southern Slavs, but now Bosnia is independent it is largely Serbs who cling to this view.
In a chic Italian restaurant on a Sarajevo boulevard still named after Communist dictator Tito, Asim Sarajlic, a senior MP of the Muslim-nationalist SDA party, says that for Muslims and Croats, Princip brought to an end a golden era of history under Austrian rule.
"When the Austrians first occupied in 1878, Bosnians refused to accept the empire, but in nearly 40 years, they did more for Bosnia than all the other rulers did in centuries – building railways, cities and institutions. The Austrians gave us a lot – modern systems of government, education and healthcare. For normal citizens of Sarajevo, it was a crime for Princip to kill an innocent pregnant lady and her husband who came to celebrate the accomplishments of Austria. We are strongly against the mythology of Princip as a fighter for freedom."
But sitting in the house he is building in Istocno Sarajevo amid meadows poignantly dotted with poppies, Nebojsa Grubac, who fought in the Serb army in the early 1990s, is incensed about the change in how Princip's actions are interpreted.
"They're trying to change history," he says. "I learned in school that he was a hero, and now they're trying to paint him as an aggressor – fuck that!"
He sees Princip, and Bosnia, as the innocent victim of Great Power politics that have led to repeated conflicts.
Despite differences over history – and having fought against Muslims less than two decades ago – Grubac feels no ill-will towards the other ethnic groups in Bosnia. He says that 80% of the work on his house was done by Muslims. He grew up in what is now the Muslim-dominated part of the city, and is still good friends with a Muslim he used to play with as a child, who fought for the Bosnian side during the war. Only one of his Muslim acquaintances refuses to greet him. But he adds there is still fear that prevents the united Bosnia he would like to see – and that another war is a real possibility, due to the machinations of nationalist politicians.
One of the few bright spots in recent years has been the Bosnian national football team's first World Cup, even though the team was eliminated in the group stages. In a bar in Sarajevo's Grbavica district, yards from what was the front line during the siege, young Bosnians decked out in the country's colours cheer on the side during its last match, an emphatic victory over Iran.
"To be honest, I don't really care about the anniversary," says Tarik, a 29-year-old web designer who works for a British company. "I think Princip was a coward who killed a pregnant woman." For him, there are more pressing concerns. Frustrated with a lack of opportunities in Bosnia, he is looking for work in Germany, where he fled with his family as refugees during the war.