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Europe

Hundreds gather in Sarajevo to rally for peace in Syria

Associated Press
Published | Updated
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    Foreign students in Bosnia hold toy dolls to symbolise dying infants of Aleppo, Syria, during a solidarity rally in Sarajevo, Bosnia on Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2016. Up to a thousand people gathered in Sarajevo, a city that became synonymous with civilian suffering during the Balkan wars of 1990s, to express solidarity with the civilian victims of Aleppo. (AP Photo/Amel Emric) (The Associated Press)

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    Image 2 of 2

    Foreign students in Bosnia hold toy dolls to symbolise dying infants of Aleppo, Syria, during a solidarity rally in Sarajevo, Bosnia on Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2016. Up to a thousand people gathered in Sarajevo, a city that became synonymous with civilian suffering during the Balkan wars of 1990s, to express solidarity with the civilian victims of Aleppo. (AP Photo/Amel Emric) (The Associated Press)

SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina – Up to a thousand people gathered Wednesday in Sarajevo — the Bosnian city that survived a brutal 44-month siege during the Balkan wars of the 1990s — to rally against the carnage in Syria.

Representatives of Bosnia's Muslim, Catholic, Orthodox Christian and Jewish communities said they felt a moral responsibility to voice outrage at the international failure to stop crimes against civilians in Aleppo and elsewhere in Syria.

"Here in Sarajevo, we must do everything in our power to show to (Syrian) people that we understand them and to call on humanity to wake up and raise their voices against war," Eli Tauber, the leader of Bosnia's small Jewish community, said.

Participants recalled their own suffering and the sense of having been abandoned by the rest of the world during the 1992-95 interethnic war that left 100,000 people dead and another 2 million homeless.

"I was born during the war in Sarajevo in a hospital that was under mortar fire," said Smirna Kulenovic, 22, a Bosnian Muslim student. "I am here today to raise my voice against all war crimes, equally those that were committed here 20 years ago and those that are now being committed in Syria."