Sarakovar: the Capital City

Moderator: Shady

Post Reply
User avatar
Siege
Site Admin
Posts: 2563
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 7:03 pm
Location: The Netherlands

Sarakovar: the Capital City

Post by Siege »

Sarakovar is the capital and largest city of Vlasenica. It is home to between 300,000 and 400,000 people who live in the four municipalities that make up the city proper. Several additional tens of thousands of citizens live in smaller satellite towns surrounding the capital city. Sarakovar is located in the Sarakova valley, surrounded by the Neretva Massif and situated around the Saraka river (Sarakovar literally meaning 'the town on the river Saraka' in the local dialect).

The recent history of the city has been bloody and fraught with peril: during the latter fifteen years of dictator Aleksandar Radojević's rule the city was renamed Aleksandargrad by the god-president who ruled from a vast palace in the center of the Old City, on the banks of the Saraka. After the Radojević's assassination the interim government (which itself was little more than a junta with preciously little power outside the capital city) was quick to revert the 'Aleksandargrad' back to its old name. This however enraged Radojević's many supporters possibly even more than the slaying of the president itself, and the city (and its name) came to represent the bitter divisions in Vlasenica.

Siege of Sarakovar

During the brief civil war that was to follow the assassination Sarakovar came to symbolize the real power in the country: the capital city after all held most of the government ministries, the army and police headquarters and most of the nationwide TV and radio stations, so control of Sarakovar and its facilities was crucial to gaining control of the country itself. Thus it was that forces from all factions involved in the war sought to grab the capital and drive the others out, leading to the Siege of Sarakovar. During the Siege, which lasted 13 months, five major factions fought for control of Sarakovar. A number of temporary alliances and ad-hoc cease-fires were signed between these parties, all of which were as easily formed as they were broken. Key figures during the Siege of Sarakovar were:

Jelena Kežman, the businesswoman and assassin Aleksandar Radojević found herself at the head of the impromptu ruling council formed in the tumultuous wake of Radojević's passing. Her cadre of revolutionaries were very hard-pressed in the early stages of the Siege, possessing fewer heavy weapons and no air force in sharp contrast with several of the factions confronting them. However they started out with the advantage of surprise and, with Kežman's own fortune, managed to bring in a sizeable contingent of foreign PMCs later on. Through a combination of grit and sheer tenacity her troops managed to hold large areas of the city despite very heavy urban combat against numerically and technologically superior foes.

Marko Kovacevic, a general in the Vlasenican National Army (VNA) and leader of the ethnic Oravicak minority. His forces were amongst the first to enter the city limits mere days after the assassination, and though he was originally aiming to oust Kežman his loyalists not long thereafter forced into an uneasy alliance with her revolutionaries when III Corps under the infamous General Tahirovic arrived and began to besiege both loyalists and revolutionaries alike.

Zlatan Tahirovic, another officer of the VNA, Tahirovic was an Orthodox and a member of the ethnic Savar majority who leveraged this into a command position within their separatist militias. He was a brutal warlord, responsible for very heavy shelling of the capital city during the height of the Siege.

Istvan Goldstein, loosely affiliated with Tahirovic's militias, Goldstein was the leader of a mercenary band during the Siege as well as in the immediate aftermath. He is a highly elusive character: there are no recent pictures of Istvan Goldstein anywhere to be found, and only a handful of older photographs of a man said to be Goldstein, none of which more recent than ten years ago. A common rumor before, during and after the Siege is that Goldstein does not in fact exist, but is simply an invention by a foreign intelligence agency seeking to manipulate the Savar militias into doing their bidding.

Vuka Jašić, nicknamed the 'she-wolf', was the leader of the partisans and insurrectionists who fought for control of Vlasenica in order to establish a communist state much like the one Aleksandar Radojević originally overthrew. Although her rebels were never as powerful as any of the other four major factions they were a thorn in the side of everybody trying to gain control over the capital city. Specializing in hit-and-fade attacks and possessing large amounts of 'liberated' RPGs, automatic weapons and shoulder-fired anti-air missiles the communist fifth columnists were a permanent threat to any operation major or minor undertaken by the other factions. Unlike the others the insurrection used specially dug tunnels to infiltrate Sarakovar, carrying not just weapons but also food and medical supplies into the capital which gained them the sympathy of many of the inhabitants. The full extent of this tunnel network is still not known: many tunnels yet remain to be discovered.

Aftermath

Although the Siege was eventually lifted after the Savar militias were driven away from the capital city, Sarakovar was heavily damaged in over a year of heavy fighting. Much of this damage yet remains to be undone, and the scars of the war that raged here are still visible on nearly every street corner. The interim government does its best to hurry the reconstruction along, but with the civil war ready to light back up at any moment and many competing interests to satisfy there are not very many funds available, much to the chagrin and discontent of many of the inhabitants who have to make a home i nthe capital. There are some signs of progress however: the capital has been cleared of mines, and most of the devastated Old City near the river has been cleared and rebuilt.
"Nick Fury. Old-school cold warrior. The original black ops hardcase. Long before I stepped off a C-130 at Da Nang, Fury and his team had set fire to half of Asia." - Frank Castle

For, now De Ruyter's topsails
Off naked Chatham show,
We dare not meet him with our fleet -
And this the Dutchmen know!
Post Reply