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Strife in Sarajevo Reopening ceremony for 1984 Olympic venue postponed
Posted: Monday March 29, 1999 05:29 PM
SARAJEVO (Reuters) -- A ceremony formally reopening Sarajevo's Zetra Olympic sports center, destroyed by Serb shelling during the Bosnian war, has been postponed because of the Yugoslav conflict, organizers said Monday. They said Olympic chief Juan Antonio Samaranch, who visited the Bosnian capital during the 1992-1995 war, had informed them that he was unable to attend the event scheduled for Tuesday. Because of the NATO air strikes on neighboring Yugoslavia, all civilian flight traffic to and from Bosnia has been cancelled. Zetra was the venue of the ice hockey and figure skating events during Sarajevo's 1984 Winter Olympic as well as of the closing ceremony. It burned down on May 21, 1992 -- the second month of the 43-month Serb siege of Sarajevo. The 1984 Olympic champions Katarina Witt, Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean had been due to perform at the reopening ceremony. Sarajevo authorities had also planned to use the event to formally launch a bid to host the 2010 Olympic Games.
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