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.<\/p>\n
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,\u201d said one of the initiators of the visit to Croatia, Adnan Hasanbegovi\u0107, a member of the Centre for Nonviolent Action from Sarajevo.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Never Again<\/strong><\/p>\n
In Daruvar, the veterans visited the Memorial Room in the Castle of Count Jankovi\u0107, and they also paid their respects to the dead at the central Memorial to Fallen Defenders of Daruvar.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s quite a different thing,\u201d said Zdenko \u0160upukovi\u0107, an HVO veteran from \u017dep\u010de, BiH, who, apart from fighting in the war, was also imprisoned for nine months in the Maglaj camp<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Right beside him is a disabled veteran of the Army of Yugoslavia, Veroljub Smiljkovi\u0107 from Kru\u0161evac, who fought in Kosovo.<\/p>\n
I fully support this programme. I believe we can and should set an example that it\u2019s possible to sit down and talk about what happened, and to make sure that what happened in our former country never happens again,\u201d said Smiljkovi\u0107.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The oldest among the visitors was Hamdija Kari\u0107 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.<\/p>\n
All victims are the same, there are no differences and it doesn\u2019t matter who\u2019s 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\u2019t those who pushed us into the war? We will never go to war again,\u201d said Kari\u0107.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The team also included \u0110oko Pup\u010devi\u0107, a veteran of the Republika Srpska Army from \u0160amac.<\/p>\n
One Side Is Missing<\/strong><\/p>\n
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\u2019s the same in all of our countries. The friendships made in these kinds of places last, and that is valuable.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
A co-organiser of this peace initiative, along with the Centre for Nonviolent Action from Sarajevo, is \u017deljko \u0160peli\u0107, President of the Pakrac-Lipik Croatian Officers Corps.<\/p>\n
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\u2019t shy away from these things,\u201d he added.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
In Daruvar, they were greeted by Kre\u0161imir Ivan\u010di\u0107 and his fellow veterans, a person with a special fate, a war veteran and member of HVIDR.<\/p>\n
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\u2019t 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\u2019t 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,\u201d said Kre\u0161imir Ivan\u010di\u0107<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Snje\u017eana Sabo<\/p>\n
Published in Bjelovarski list on 19 September 2016<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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