Red Cross

The Red Cross enters the discussion of the siege of Sarajevo through Rony Brauman, who coordinated assistance to the city on the organization’s behalf. The book uses his account to examine how humanitarian relief and humanitarian language could intersect with, and sometimes conceal, political decisions about the conflict.

Role in the Siege of Sarajevo

During the three-year siege, Sarajevo’s population faced starvation, shelling, and sniper fire. The crisis was widely reported, yet the United Nations, NATO, and the United States did not impose a corridor through which people and provisions could move freely. Brauman’s role coordinating aid for the Red Cross places the organization within this humanitarian response, while his assessment directs attention to what the response’s framing left unaddressed.

Humanitarian Framing and Political Choice

Brauman argued that presenting Sarajevo’s crisis as humanitarian, rather than as a political-military conflict, was itself a political choice. In the book’s account, that reframing effectively took the Serb side: it displaced debate over the conflict while allowing inaction to continue. Humanitarian concern was therefore not treated as politically neutral simply because it concerned relief and suffering.

Significance in the Book’s Argument

The Red Cross’s relevance here is specific: it is the institutional setting for Brauman’s coordination of assistance and his criticism of humanitarian framing. The episode illustrates the book’s broader claim that apparently nonpolitical responses can carry political consequences. The organization is not described through its general structure or activities; instead, its appearance anchors an analysis of the distance between responding to suffering and confronting the political conditions that sustain it.