Store Opening Symbolizes Sarajevo’s Reawakening

Hundreds of this battered city’s young and fashionable pressed outside the sandbagged doors of the new United Colors of Benetton clothing store Tuesday, and others inside pored over the orange, pink and green T-shirts stacked six deep and selling for two weeks’ wages.

It was the grand opening of a rather incongruous addition to Titova Avenue, Sarajevo’s scarred downtown main street and site of last month’s marketplace massacre. The opening was a major event, drawing the mayor, crowds and what passes for a local television news crew (three youngsters and a hand-held video camera).

Two weeks after the North Atlantic Treaty Organization launched air strikes against the Bosnian Serbs who have besieged this capital for more than three years, there are small signs of reawakening life.

Normalcy cannot exist here, and the war is far from over. This remains a city of physical and spiritual ruin. But with a new sense of safety, people are filling outdoor cafes and crowding the suddenly well-stocked markets.

The air war has temporarily quieted, though not destroyed, the mortar and artillery pieces that Serbian forces use to shell the city. Nobody knows how long the lull will last, but for now people can be seen strolling outside with their babies. The government rolled a nightly curfew back from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. and lifted it altogether on Saturday.

About 1,000 tons of food, firewood and other consumer goods are entering Sarajevo daily since the United Nations, taking advantage of NATO air cover, opened a road into the city for the first time in six months. Prices have plummeted.

The Benetton store, officials say, is the first shop to open in Bosnia-Herzegovina with foreign investment since the war began in 1992, when Serbian gunmen rebelled against Bosnian independence and surrounded Sarajevo.

“Anyone can open a store after the war. We think it is nice to open this store during the war,” said manager Vesna Kapidzic. “People from Sarajevo used to shop in Italy. They would take two or three trips a year. Well, for four years, we have not had that possibility.”

It may seem in bad taste to erect such a den of consumerism a few yards from where nearly 40 people lay dead 16 days ago, in a city where destruction and horror are the norm. But many here saw the arrival of such a trendy boutique as a morale booster, even though most of the customers ogling Benetton’s goods could not afford them.

“Everyone has problems with money, but people will take a few [German] marks from one place or another, maybe not buy eggs one day and buy something from here,” said Kapidzic. “People from Sarajevo know quality. It helps start a return to normal life.”

In a city where people were too afraid to gather in public just days ago, lines of excited teen-agers, fascinated professionals and curious soldiers formed outside Benetton. Once inside, most were doing more looking than buying, although those with German marks, the only currency accepted, were snapping up tennis shoes and sweaters.

“I think this is the beginning of something, the spirit of Europe that we had before,” said Nikica, a waitress who was using her break to marvel at the kind of clothes most Sarajevans could only remember.