Author: Peter Maass

I was born and raised in Los Angeles. In 1983, after graduating from the University of California at Berkeley, I went to Brussels as a copy editor for The Wall Street Journal/Europe. I left the Journal in 1985 to write for The New York Times and The International Herald Tribune, covering NATO and the European Union. In 1987 I moved to Seoul, South Korea, where I wrote primarily for The Washington Post. After three years in Asia I moved to Budapest to cover Eastern Europe and the Balkans. I spent most of 1992 and 1993 covering the war in Bosnia for the Post.

A Cry for Help from a Frozen Hell: Besieged Bosnian Town Uses Radio Link to Express Its Agony

The Washington Post
January 13, 1993

SARAJEVO – Through the static of a shortwave radio, Fadil Heljic made a frantic plea from hell.

“The town is like a big cemetery,” he shouted from the Muslim-held town of Zepa, which is surrounded by Serb forces and has had no food deliveries since ...  (Read more)

‘Don’t Cry, Darling, You’re Leaving’: U.N. Evacuates Elderly from Front-Line Sarajevo Nursing Home

The Washington Post
January 11, 1993

SARAJEVO – A British relief worker, seeing an old woman sob as she was being evacuated from her freezing nursing home near Sarajevo’s front line, spoke a few magic words into her ear: “Don’t cry, darling, you’re leaving.”

Nearby, ...  (Read more)

U.N. Cites ‘Errors’ in Killing; Inadequate Security for Bosnian Blamed

The Washington Post
January 10, 1993

SARAJEVO, Jan. 9 – The United Nations commander in Bosnia admitted today that his soldiers failed to provide adequate security for a top Bosnian politician who was assassinated while under U.N. protection, and he warned that the killing could provoke an escalation ...  (Read more)

Relief Supplies Won’t Prevent Bosnia Tragedy, U.N. Aide Says

The Washington Post
January 8, 1993

SARAJEVO, Jan. 7 – The United Nations relief effort for Bosnia is failing to save people from dying and must be dramatically reinforced in besieged Sarajevo, a top U.N. relief official said today.

Jose-Maria Mendiluce, special envoy here for the U.N. High Commissioner ...  (Read more)

Help Us, or We Will All Die,’ Aged Sarajevans Beseech U.N.

The Washington Post
January 7, 1993

SARAJEVO, Jan. 6 – At a nursing home that is becoming a tomb, the haggard face of death met the shamed face of the United Nations today.

Mustafa Dizdarovic, 82, who had seen enough of his friends die of cold to know that his time would come soon, shuffled through ...  (Read more)

Winter Begins Its Grisly Work in Sarajevo; 10 Residents of a Frigid Old-Age Home Have Died of Exposure in Past Three Days

The Washington Post
January 6, 1993

SARAJEVO – Just down the road from the United Nations headquarters here, 10 elderly Bosnians died from the cold in the past three days at a wretched nursing home that has almost no heating, few windows and more than 100 helpless oldsters waiting for their turn ...  (Read more)