Those present are only ever addressed by a parent of one of the killed children, no songs are performed – there is no song that is appropriate for such a tragedy.
The Day of Remembrance dedicated to the killed children of besieged Sarajevo 1992-1995 and the commemoration organised on 5 May 2023 could serve as an example to illustrate everything that is wrong with current memory policies in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The three separate (ethno)policies of memory are practically identical when it comes to building memorials, official commemorations dedicated to own victims and one-sided narratives about the war that are imposed wherever any of the three (ethno)policies has political dominance.
The current culture of memory in Bosnia and Herzegovina has been the subject of various analyses, but the study on the Culture of Memory in Local Communities in BiH published by the Peace Academy Foundation in 2017 is particularly valuable. Focusing on Velika Kladuša, Kiseljak, Konjic and Foča, it uses a case study approach to illustrate all the similarities of the three memory policies, while of course noting individual differences due to local context. The publication War of Memories by the Centre for Nonviolent Action Sarajevo-Belgrade from 2016 focuses on monuments and provides clear criticism of such policies from the point of view of constructive dealing with the past and peacebuilding, its title perhaps giving the best definition of the current state of affairs.
Publicly proclaimed values and goals, things you will hear repeated many times over in speeches by various officials when they talk about the culture of memory, can mostly be summed up as justice (for us), importance of (our) victims, solidarity with (our) victims, while the ultimate goal is generally identified as remembrance for a wide range of purposes, from honouring (our) victims to remembrance having a preventative function (to make sure we never endure such suffering again). However, in reality, when you look at concrete examples, you will find a staggering amount of hypocrisy and deliberately detrimental activities, where not only is there no move towards universal respect for all victims, there isn’t even respect, solidarity or a meaningful relationship towards own victims.
BUREAUCRATIC CHOICE OF DATE
The date for the Day of Remembrance devoted to the killed children of Sarajevo was selected arbitrarily. Since 2009, when the memorial dedicated to the memory of killed children was inaugurated in the centre of Sarajevo, 9 May – Victory Day was marked as the Day of Killed Children of Besieged Sarajevo 1992-1995. This was mostly a decision of the City of Sarajevo authorities at the time and Mayor Alija Behmen (SDP). However, in 2019, the Government of the Sarajevo Canton asked the Association of Parents of Killed Children of Besieged Sarajevo 92-95 to select a new date in the interval between 2 and 9 May, the period when Sarajevo Canton Days are marked. The intention, as explained at the time, was to set a special date to commemorate the killed children. This led to the selection of 5 May, which has no symbolic relationship with the children killed in besieged Sarajevo. What is more, as demonstrated by Zilha Mastalić-Košuta from the Institute for Research on Crimes Against Humanity and International Law at the University of Sarajevo, during all the years of the siege of Sarajevo, no single child was killed on that date. Dr Mastalić-Košuta, whose research focuses on this area, noted the problematic nature of the decision and referred to a number of other dates that would be symbolically far more meaningful, such as the day when the first child was killed, the date of the shelling of the maternity ward when newborns were killed, and dates when children made up of most of the victims of individual shelling attacks.
At the time when the monument commemorating children killed in Sarajevo was being planned, there were heated debates about whether the memorial should include all children, meaning also those killed in areas under the control of the Army of Republika Srpska. Even though the reductionist position to include only children killed in besieged Sarajevo was ultimately successful, it is important to note that in the mid 2000s this kind of debate was possible and that a significant number of public figures and citizens believed a more inclusive solution should be sought. Today, this kind of debate is beyond the pale, there are two separate commemorations, two monuments – one in Sarajevo, the other in Istočno Sarajevo – and memory of killed children is completely divided along ethnic, or entity lines. However, paradoxically, this reductionist approach – to include only children killed in the besieged part of Sarajevo – excludes not just the unwanted victims from the enemy side (children killed by actions of ARBiH), but also children killed by members of VRS in areas of the city under occupation. In May 1993, for example, in Semizovac (Vogošća), members of VRS killed the entire family of Hasib ef. Ramić, including his four underage children who, if we blindly stick to the position of only including children killed in besieged Sarajevo, should be excluded from memory since they were killed in territory under VRS control and not the area of besieged Sarajevo. The same applies to children killed by VRS in occupied Grbavica.
PERFORMANCE IN THE FOREGROUND
The commemoration that was held on 5 May 2023 illustrates the amateurish attitude of the authorities towards the memory of killed children. Institutionally, the commemoration was supported by the Government of the Sarajevo Canton (SDP, Narod i pravda, Naša stranka), the Centar Municipality (Naša stranka), and the Association of Parents of Killed Children of Besieged Sarajevo 92-95, while the most prominent individuals were Benjamin Isović, composer and son of the sevdah legend Safet Isović, and conductor Mehmed Bajraktarević, former principal of the Ilidža Music School, who designed the programme. Focusing on justice in the sense of demands for prosecution of those responsible for killing the children, the commemoration included dozens of quotes on justice, ranging from Che Guevara and Alija Izetbegović to Pascal, Hugo, Disraeli, and including verses from the Bible and the Qur’an. Then a children’s choir made up of 1601 schoolchildren, who attended the commemoration based on an instruction from the Sarajevo Canton Ministry of Education sent to their schools, performed a selection of songs including “Down with Force and Injustice”, which ends with cries of “Charge! Charge!”, and “Bella, Ciao”. The performance included a recitation, and perhaps the most shameful part of the commemoration was when Miloš Crnjanski’s poem “Our Elegy” was Bosnicized by replacing Gračanica with Srebrenica, the graveyards of Takovo with Bosnian graveyards, and the name Marko with a more appropriate name. All the while, the official programme did not see fit to pay respects to the killed children with a moment of silence, Al-Fatiha prayer or in some other suitable manner. To make the performance complete, sounds of automatic gunfire and shelling were played from the loudspeakers and the performing children imitated their killed peers seeking shelter to survive. This re-traumatization was subsequently criticised by some associations of civilian war victims that were present at the commemoration and characterised this as irresponsible and not well conceived.
In addition to the fact that the hour-long programme did not include paying respects to the killed children in any appropriate form, throughout the commemoration not a single full name of any of the killed children was heard. Last year’s debate about the number of children killed in Sarajevo and the salvos of insults directed at all those who called for responsible handling of the number of victims resulted in having that debate shut down by continuing to insist on the figure of 1601 children, with any attempt to reopen this debate being nipped in the bud, with accusations that those reopening the issue are trying reduce the killed children to numbers. For lack of space here, I will not go into detail regarding this issue, but I do want to point out that it is precisely this insistence on the figure of 1601 that reduces the killed children to a number, and not the other way around. To maintain this as the official figure, reading out the names of the killed children is avoided, and paradoxically even the memorial to the killed children is becoming unwanted because it does not support the 1601 figure. The memorial contains around 600 names of killed children based on a list verified at the time of the memorial’s construction by the Association of Parents of Killed Children of Besieged Sarajevo 92-95, city and cantonal authorities, with the caveat that some of the parents did not want the names of their children to be inscribed on the memorial and further work on the list was announced at the time to make sure it was accurate. No progress has been made in that respect since 2008, which is shameful and unjustifiable for a canton that has research institutes dedicated to this topic, a university, millions of marks in the budget…. Returnees to Prijedor, who have none of these, have managed to collect all the relevant data and compile lists of not just the killed children, but also civilians, and to publish three editions, each time further refining the data. Unfortunately, this was a commemoration for children where the killed children were kept in the background, their names were not read out, there was no attempt to keep at least some of their stories from being forgotten, to say who they were, what they liked, what they left behind, how their loved ones remember them today. Behind each name is a whole world, as shown in the film Lakonoga about little Aida Kučuk who was killed on 3 May 1992 in the Sarajevo neighbourhood of Grbavica.
EXAMPLES OF BETTER PRACTICES
Can it be done differently? Of course it can, and there are readily available examples from Vitez and Prijedor, for instance. The commemoration for the 102 children killed in Prijedor is an example how even performances can be meaningful and send an important message, such as those organised in Prijedor by artist Elma Selman. In Prijedor, instead of senseless cries of Charge! Charge! what you hear are the names and ages of the killed children… Hopovac Adis, 5 years old. Hopovac Ibrahim, 7 years old. Horozović Nermin, 11 years old. Horozović Nermina, 15 years old. Hrnić Zlata, 15 years old… Everyone who attends the commemoration is included because they can take a rose and after the parents and families of the killed children, they too can place their rose in the central square, which forges a deep emotional bond between all the participants, something that is made impossible when you have an audience and performers. Those present are only ever addressed by a parent of one of the killed children, no songs are performed – there is no song that is appropriate for such a tragedy. Sounds of automatic gunfire and shelling are not played over loudspeakers. Instead, the names and ages of the children are read out and this touches hearts, it is painful enough to serve as a warning, but causes no harm. Another example is the commemoration for eight children killed in Vitez that is organised by the families of the children alone. There is a religious service, but there are no speeches at all, all those present lay flowers at the memorial on the site where the children were killed, in the yards of their homes. There is no protocol, no officials called to the stage, everyone is welcome… After the mass, the parents and families of the killed children invite you to be guests in their yards, not 10 meters from where the children were killed. Their warm words as they squeeze your hand, invite you to have coffee, but also their tears, their pain that is so visible can show you not just what death is, but just as importantly, what life is.