Sarajevo Romeo & Juliet

The Romeo and Juliet of Sarajevo

(Admira Ismic and Bosko Brckic pose for a picture after their high school graduation in 1985.)

Admira Ismić (born May 13,1968) and Boško Brkić (Cyrillic: Бошко Бркић; born August 11, 1968).

They were Childhood Sweethearts.

She was a Bosniak Muslim and he was a Bosnian Serb Orthodox Christian.

For over 500 years Bosnia and Herzegovina – especially Sarajevo – was a Cosmopolitan Melting Pot where Jews, Muslims and Christians (Catholics and Orthodox) lived together, celebrated each other’s Holidays and Intermarried.

On May 19, 1993, during the Siege of Sarajevo (April 3, 1992 to February 29, 1996), they both decided to escape the City so they could live in peace together.

They had to cross the  Miljacka River via the Vrbanja Bridge and as soon as they stepped foot on the Bridge a shot rang out killing Bosko instantly.

Admira screamed and was hit by a second shot. Wounded she crawled over to Bosko’s body where she died in his arms 15 minutes after being shot.

They were both 25 years old.

(The bodies of Admira Ismic and Bosko Brkic near Vrbanja Bridge in Sarajevo in May 1993.)

Neither the Bosniak Army nor the Bosnian Serb Army admitted to killing the couple.

The bodies of Admira Ismić and Boško Brkić were left on the Bridge for days since no one wanted to risk going through Sniper Alley to remove them.

8 days later the Bosnian Serb Army forced Bosniak Prisoners of War to remove the bodies at night.

In 1996, when the Siege of Sarajevo and the Bosnian War were over, Admira Ismić and Boško Brkić were buried together in the same grave in Lav Cemetery.

(The gravestone of Admira Ismic and Bosko Brkic at Sarajevo’s Lav or Lion Cemetery.)

American War Correspondent, Kurt Schork, told the story to the world. When Schork died in 2000 (in an ambush in Sierra Leone) part of his ashes were buried in a grave beside Admira Ismić and Boško Brkić in Sarajevo – his other ashes were buried beside his Mother’s Grave in Washington DC.

In 1994, PBS aired the Documentary “Romeo and Juliet in Sarajevo” directed by John Zaritsky.

During the Siege of Sarajevo an average of 329 bombs fell on the City every single day.

11,541 Civilians (1,601 of them Children) were killed and 50,000 were wounded in Sarajevo.