sides patrol the streets and night for fear of Serb/Bosniak attack. Amid this atmosphere, Edin returns home from Sarajevo to protect his family. The first attack on the community is realized in 1992. Bosniaks are caught unaware, and many lose their family members and loved ones while escaping from the indiscriminate attack. In the joint offensive of Bosnian Army and Bosniak militias captured Goražde. They find their homes looted and burnt by Serbs. Bosniaks who couldn't escape and were caught by the Serbs were killed in horrendous manners and buried en masse, amongst them Edin's friends. Refugees who flocked from nearby towns of Višegrad and Foča testify their accounts of atrocities committed by Serbs, among them mass executions, rapes, etc. Residents of Goražde try to maintain life in the town, now sieged by Serb-dominated areas of Republika Srpska. They suffer from destruction of basic infrastructures, shortage of utilities such as electricity, and hunger. Food supplies airlifted by U.S. C-130s flown from Germany help relieve food shortages, but Bosniaks have to risk their lives in the long winter trail to reach the airdropped packages. In 1994, the town is subjected to a second major Serb offensive. This offensive, orchestrated by the Serb general Ratko Mladić, is in scale much larger than the first offensive, and causes massive destruction to the town. Edin and other Bosniak militiamen desperately try to defend Goražde from the enemy that outnumbers them. Meanwhile, the international society is blind to the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Goražde. Despite having designated Goražde a 'safe area', the United Nations and its military arm in former Yugoslavia, UNPROFOR, make no effort to stop the Serb advance for fear that UN could also be implicated in the conflict and compromise its neutrality. Only after pleas for intervention from the Bosnian president Alija Izetbegović, and the terrible situation in Goražde reaches media and sparks international indignation do the UN and the United States respond with bombings on major Serb military positions. The bombings stop the attack and the people of Goražde once again manage to defend their village at a heavy cost of 700 dead, most of them civilians. A contingent of British peacekeepers are stationed in Goražde thereafter to supervise the disarmament process of the militias. There were also a few Serbs whose loyalties stood with the Republic of Bosnia and chose to remain in Goražde throughout the war. They were despised