Alsace-Sarajevo-Convoy

The Alsace-Sarajevo convoy was the biggest individual convoy to Bosnia and Herzegovina organized by an NGO in France during the war. 35 trucks and 25 smaller vehicles left Strasbourg in February 1993 and reached Sarajevo two weeks later, transporting 350 tons of material. The biggest part of the loads consisted of 10.000 standard food parcels which were designed to feed a family of four for eight days. Other transported material was printing paper for “Oslobođenje” and medical equipment for two hospitals.

In order to collect money for goods, trucks and travel expenses, the “coordination Alsace Sarajevo”, launched in autumn 1992 by citizens of Strasbourg, convinced the mayors of entire Alsace to open city halls on a Sunday in January so that interested citizens could come and make donations. All together, seven million Francs (equivalent of one million Euro) were collected in this initiative.

Except for one trucks’ accident on a slippery winter road in Bosnia and Herzegovina, all other trucks and vehicles safely reached their destination, Sarajevo. However, VRS soldiers forced convoy organizers to leave them the goods of six trucks before letting the convoy enter the city.

In Sarajevo, the convoy members were welcomed by Muhamed Kreševljaković, mayor of Sarajevo, and Ibrahim Spahić, “Alsace Sarajevo”’s cooperation partner in Sarajevo. The distribution of the parcels in the city was coordinated by the International Peace Centre.