Photo: Mirsad Behram, starmo.ba
The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic affected our work in the first half of 2020 when we had to cancel planned activities and try to find new ways of working and carrying out our activities. However, when in mid-May most countries of the former Yugoslavia relaxed lockdown measures, we continued our activities, while abiding by the relevant recommendations regarding the pandemic.
At the end of May, we joined the initiative of friends from Prijedor gathered around “Jer me se tiče” and in Sarajevo we joined activists who organised White Armband Day on 31 May. Families of victims from Prijedor and activists have been marking 31 May as a day of memory marking the start of persecution of non-Serbs in this city, while in Prijedor itself, a commemoration is organised for 102 killed children.
One of the main messages of this year’s White Armband Day was a call on local authorities in Prijedor to allow a monument to killed children to be built in the city centre. At the same time, in solidarity with all victims, activists called on local authorities elsewhere to approve monuments and give all victims the right to be remembered.
Together with citizens of Sarajevo gathered on Eiffel Bridge on 31 May this year, we sent a message of solidarity with activists and victims in Prijedor and with all other victims that face different obstructions to marking the suffering of their loved ones. Together with activists from Prijedor, we opted for this action in order to, among other things, highlight the unacceptability of various misuses of White Armband Day that we had witnessed in Sarajevo in the past. White Armband Day, the way it is marked in Prijedor itself, remains one of the few commemorations that call on all people of good will to join forces in fighting for the rights of all victims, where the victims are the only focus, and various attempts to politicise these events have been successfully avoided.
Commemoration of the killed children in Vitez
Another instance where children were the victims in the past war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is, unfortunately, less well-known took place in Vitez. On 10 June, we attended the commemoration at Osmica in Vitez, where in 1993 a shell fired from the position of the Army of BiH killed eight children. It was a touching and very communal commemoration attended by numerous residents of Vitez, especially the youth. The monument is located in a yard between the houses where the parents and relatives of the killed children still live today. The commemoration itself is organised by the families of the killed children. No politicians are invited to speak and apart from a mass, there are no other activities common to commemorative practice in BiH and the region.
Talking with the survivors of the shelling and members of the families of the killed children, we learned about their long-standing struggle to ensure dignified memory of their loved ones, a struggle to avoid any politicisation, the fact that those responsible have not been prosecuted to this day… We were warmly welcomed by all and the conversations we had with different people in Vitez once again showed how important these encounters are, how important it is to respect all victims and honour all victims in order to foster mutual understanding.
We feel duty bound to publicly thank the Garić and Grebenar families, families that lost four children on that tragic day, for their warm welcome, caring approach and words of encouragement. The pain these families feel cannot be lightened, but we are grateful for their generosity in allowing us to empathise with their pain. Within those few hours, we felt what we essentially are: that we are all together one big family and that each loss of life causes infinite pain even 27 years later. Familiarity with the context and current developments is crucial for rebuilding trust among people and communities. We were glad of the opportunity to meet and get to know young and courageous politicians, religious officials, reporters… We hope we will be able to come back to Vitez and pay our respects to the victims at Osmica in the years to come, with more people.
Unpunished crime in Uborak and Sutina
The crime at Uborak and Sutina near Mostar is another unpunished crime in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Speaking with Adnin Hasić during our June visit to Mostar, we found out about the difficult struggle to ensure prosecution of the perpetrators and the right to memory for loved ones killed at these sites. Hasić leads the Association of Families of Victims killed at Uborak and Sutina. In 1992, when he was an eleven-year-old boy, his father and mother were killed with another 114 Bosniak and Croat civilians.
Sutina and Uborak are notable as the first mass grave sites that were exhumed. Though the bodies were exhumed in June and August 1992, even all these years later, no one has been held responsible for these crimes. The warranted sense of injustice is strongest among the families of victims, but no one who hears the story of this crime can remain indifferent. It was important to see that the association of families of victims organising the commemoration takes into account all the people who want to come and pay their respects to the victims, making sure everyone feels welcome. Everyone was truly welcomed, including representatives of all three religious communities, people from the political scene in Mostar and Herzegovina, associations of veterans from the Army of BiH and HVO…
We wanted to attend this commemoration this year with a larger group of war veterans and peace activists, because we feel it is important to honour the victims of one of the gravest crimes in Herzegovina. If the measures imposed by the response to the pandemic allow, we plan to organise a visit by the group to sites of suffering in Mostar, something we have been preparing for a while now.
We are also looking forward to continuing our other planned activities for the rest of the year, including a mixed group of veterans attending commemorations in Briševo and Zecovi near Prijedor and at Korićanske stijene, a veterans’ visit to Mostar, Basic Training in Peacebuilding, etc.