War veterans from Croatia, Serbia and BiH visited Daruvar. They visited the sites where civilians and soldiers were killed in the past war, irrespective of which side they were on. This was the first visit of a mixed group of war veterans on a peace mission in the Daruvar area.
For a number of years, we have been gathering veterans from former war zones to work on dealing with the past, establishing dialogue. Most of our work was in Bosnia, where we paid respects to victims irrespective of which side they belonged to, because we can show empathy and strengthen mutual trust. All of the veterans are people who have felt the war keenly on their own skin. We may not agree on everything, but we respect each other and we understand each other very well. By paying our respects to the victims, we send a message to society that better times are ahead, that we should not remain buried in the past, but instead help each other discover the truth,” said one of the initiators of the visit to Croatia, Adnan Hasanbegović, a member of the Centre for Nonviolent Action from Sarajevo.
Never Again
In Daruvar, the veterans visited the Memorial Room in the Castle of Count Janković, and they also paid their respects to the dead at the central Memorial to Fallen Defenders of Daruvar.
This visit left an impression on all of us. We all had some knowledge about the war in this area, but when you hear about it from people who were there at the time, it’s quite a different thing,” said Zdenko Šupuković, an HVO veteran from Žepče, BiH, who, apart from fighting in the war, was also imprisoned for nine months in the Maglaj camp
Right beside him is a disabled veteran of the Army of Yugoslavia, Veroljub Smiljković from Kruševac, who fought in Kosovo.
I fully support this programme. I believe we can and should set an example that it’s possible to sit down and talk about what happened, and to make sure that what happened in our former country never happens again,” said Smiljković.
The oldest among the visitors was Hamdija Karić from Vitez, a veteran of the Army of BiH and recipient of the highest state medal, the Golden Lilly, for rescuing 80 civilians imprisoned in a burning building.
All victims are the same, there are no differences and it doesn’t matter who’s who. I want to send a message to young people that we can sit together, because if we who have gone through all those traumas can sit down and talk, why can’t those who pushed us into the war? We will never go to war again,” said Karić.
The team also included Đoko Pupčević, a veteran of the Republika Srpska Army from Šamac.
One Side Is Missing
My wish is for politics to never make the decisions, but only sober-minded people. This war brought nothing good, we all went through this area and saw a mass of empty factories, none of the politicians care about this, and it’s the same in all of our countries. The friendships made in these kinds of places last, and that is valuable.
A co-organiser of this peace initiative, along with the Centre for Nonviolent Action from Sarajevo, is Željko Špelić, President of the Pakrac-Lipik Croatian Officers Corps.
I am pleased with how the visit went. Apart from sites of suffering of Croats, we also visited Marino Selo, a site of suffering of Serbs. This is a dark spot, but we don’t shy away from these things,” he added.
In Daruvar, they were greeted by Krešimir Ivančić and his fellow veterans, a person with a special fate, a war veteran and member of HVIDR.
I am glad to have been part of this story. Some were sceptical about all this, perhaps they will now call us traitors, but we won’t burden ourselves with that. Here are veterans from different armies, only one side is missing, the Army of the Republic of Serb Krajina, those were our direct enemies. I would like us to hear their story, especially in relation to our Memorial Room, to hear their take on how it all went down. I hope there will be more visits such as this one. The aim is to get closer to people we don’t know, to have people who have been through the war sit down and talk about it, and not the way it usually is with the war being discussed most by those who were never in it,” said Krešimir Ivančić
Snježana Sabo
Published in Bjelovarski list on 19 September 2016