Sarajevo barricades

Sarajevo Barricades Incident
Sarajevo Barricades Incident
Rat barikada ("War of the Barricades"); Part of the Bosnian War / Breakup of Yugoslavia
Date	March 1–3, 1992
Location	Sarajevo, Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina; 43°51′23″N 18°24′47″E / 43.8563°N 18.4131°E
Caused by	1992 Bosnian independence referendum; Sarajevo wedding attack (immediate trigger);
Goals	SDS: Partition of Sarajevo police and territory; halting independence recognition; Government: Restore state control and removing blockades;
Methods	Barricades, armed checkpoints, sniper fire, psychological intimidation
Resulted in	Barricades dismantled after political agreement; Establishment of "Mixed Patrols" (JNA and MUP); De facto partition of city security; Precursor to the Siege of Sarajevo;
Parties
SDS Crisis Staffs JNA (covert support)	MUP of SR BiH Patriotic League (Green Berets)
Lead figures
	Radovan Karadžić; Momčilo Krajišnik; Rajko Dukić; Alija Izetbegović; Dragan Vikić;
Casualties and losses
Unknown	Confirmed deaths: Ramo Biber; Kenan Demirović;
	Often referred to as the "General Rehearsal" for the Siege of Sarajevo.

The Sarajevo Barricades Incident (Rat barikada, "War of the Barricades") refers to the erection of roadblocks and the seizure of strategic points in Sarajevo by paramilitary forces of the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) between March 1 and March 3, 1992. Occurring immediately after the Bosnian independence referendum, the event paralyzed the capital of the Socialist Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

While the SDS leadership initially claimed the barricades were a spontaneous reaction to the shooting of a Serbian groom's father in Baščaršija, subsequent findings by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) described the event as a planned operation. The tribunal characterized the incident as a "general rehearsal" for the Siege of Sarajevo, designed to test the deployment of the SDS "Crisis Staffs" and the partition of the city's security apparatus.