Izvor: N1 televizija, 03.Maj.2018, 21:30 (ažurirano 02.Apr.2020.)
War commemorations stir up divisions in Bosnia
Sarajevo and its nearby suburb of Miljevici have marked two separate anniversaries on Thursday, both in memory of victims of the May 2 and 3 events in 1992.
However, due to different interpretations of the events, the two anniversaries were held at separate locations for the last two years.
The controversy of the events refers to the pulling out of Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) soldiers, who had been stationed in Sarajevo barracks, and generally to the developments from >> Pročitaj celu vest na sajtu N1 televizija << the beginning of May the same year, soon after the siege of the city began.
A convoy of about 30 vehicles with the soldiers of the then Yugoslav Army (JNA) was supposed to leave Sarajevo on May 3, 1992. The departure was previously agreed in exchange for the release of the President of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Alija Izetbegovic, who had been detained by the JNA.
However, as the departing convoy was passing the Dobrovoljacka Street, skirmishes between the JNA and Bosnian Army units occurred, which led to seven killed and 14 injured, according to the Bosnian Prosecutor's Office.
The Serbian Prosecutor’s Office for War Crimes charged 19 Bosnian citizens for the attack on the barracks on May 2 and 3, in which, it said 42 JNA soldiers were killed.
The Bosnian Prosecutor's Office had halted the investigation into the Dobrovoljacka Street case in 2012. The former UN Hague Tribunal ruled the JNA convoy was a legitimate military target.
“It is a devastating fact that the anniversary ceremony cannot be held on the spot where the crime was committed,” said Nenad Vukovic, Mayor of Istocno Sarajevo, a city formed after the 1990s conflict, consisting of the suburban parts of Sarajevo, now part of the Serb-dominated entity Republika Srpska (RS).
Speaking at the commemoration in Miljevici on Thursday, Vukovic said the Serbs were “not an aggressor on the city located next to us.”
Head of the RS Association of Veterans Milomir Savcic said that every nation should be able to mark the suffering on the sites where it happened. He added that the allegations that the JNA tried to occupy Sarajevo on May 2 and 3, was “absurd and offensive”
Ethnic Serbs marked the anniversary in Miljevici for the second time this year after they said the security situation to mark the anniversary in Sarajevo “was not adequate.”
A few hours before the Miljevici commemoration on Thursday, Bosnian Army's war veterans gathered at Sarajevo's Drvenija Bridge, located in the former Dobrovoljacka Street, to lay wreaths in memory of their fallen comrades killed on May 3, 1992.
Head of the Association of War Veterans Green Berets Vahid Alic said this date was crucial in defence of Sarajevo and Bosnia.
According to him, this was the date when the JNA “took the side of aggressor” when it “conducted a fierce attack on crucial institutions of Sarajevo and Bosnia, the building of (Bosnia’s) Presidency, with an aim of carrying out a coup.”
Minister for Veteran Affairs of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) entity, Salko Bukvarevic, attended the ceremony and said that the gathering waas in honour of everyone who fought to defend Sarajevo and Bosnia.
“We all know that an act of aggression was carried out against our homeland. Marking these dates aims at conveying a message and our wish that a war, aggression, genocide, suffering of people, killing of children… never happen to anyone ever again,” said Bukvarevic.
According to the Sarajevo Canton’s Minister for Veteran Affairs, Muharem Fiso, Bosnian patriots did not allow the city to be destroyed on May 3, 1992.
“We are here today to mark a historic victory of the Bosnian Army, of the Interior Ministry, and of all patriotic forces,” he added.
The Bosnian war, an armed conflict initially between the JNA and then forces of the RS Army on one side and Bosnian Army on the other, escalated in early May in Sarajevo, with what Bosnian Army described as a JNA attempt to take over.
