In May 1993, Sally Becker went to Bosnia to help the innocent victims of war. She started by delivering humanitarian aid to the region and was soon hailed the Angel of Mostar for saving wounded children and their families from the besieged city. Sally continued her work throughout the conflict and is credited with saving many lives. When Milosevic ordered his troops into Kosovo, her missions continued, this time on foot across the mountains. While attempting to bring sick and wounded children and their families to safety she was captured by Serb paramilitaries, but neither this nor being shot by masked gunmen in Northern Albania could make her abandon her task. Sunflowers and Snipers reveals not only the suffering of the ordinary people and the bravery of those who helped them but also the systemic inertia and ineptitude of government institutions and the often sluggish, even hostile reactions of the United Nations. When the UN insisted they could have done it without Sally Becker, her response – ‘So why the hell didn’t they?’ – was typical of someone who acted while others merely talked.
