{"id":224205,"date":"2019-04-05T13:16:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-05T11:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/2019\/joint-visit-by-war-veterans-to-the-city-of-nis-and-participation-at-the-commemoration-in-aleksinac\/"},"modified":"2019-12-03T12:37:29","modified_gmt":"2019-12-03T11:37:29","slug":"joint-visit-by-war-veterans-to-the-city-of-nis-and-participation-at-the-commemoration-in-aleksinac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/joint-visit-by-war-veterans-to-the-city-of-nis-and-participation-at-the-commemoration-in-aleksinac\/","title":{"rendered":"Joint Visit by War Veterans to the City of Ni\u0161 and Participation at the Commemoration in Aleksinac"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Thursday, 4 April 2019, in cooperation with the City of Ni\u0161 Disabled Veterans Association and the Peacebuilders Association from Kru\u0161evac, representatives of the Centre for Nonviolent Action Sarajevo\/Belgrade and a group of veterans from the region, former members of the RBiH Army, HVO, VRS, HV, VJ and JNA<\/strong>, visited Ni\u0161 and sites of memory in the city and took part in the commemoration for victims of the NATO bombing in Aleksinac on Friday, 5 April 2019.<\/p>\n

As a social group, war veterans, often those who fought on opposite sides in the war, have a high degree of credibility and capacity for peacebuilding, both in their own communities and in the region as a whole. Their direct and often brutal personal experience of war can become a strong motivating factor for becoming actively involved in peacebuilding. This was what brought together the mixed group of war veterans, who were joined by members of the Centre for Nonviolent Action on 4 April 2019, to pay their respects to the victims and lay flowers at memorials to citizens of Ni\u0161<\/strong> killed in the bombing (Ni\u0161 was bombed for 29 days, which resulted in 26 civilians killed and 60 severely wounded)<\/strong>, civilians and soldiers, from the 1991-1999 period.<\/strong> This not just sent a message, but also provided a model example of what can and should be done in terms of reconciliation in the region.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cWe sat down together at the same table. There were misgivings at first, but from day to day, we grew to trust each other. I would like to use this opportunity to send a message to the politicians that we want to and we can live together,\u201d said Hamdija Kari\u0107, a war veteran from Vitez in central Bosnia, a former member of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, adding that \u201cthanks to the Centre for Nonviolent Action that brings together war veterans from the region, we have done what no politician in the Balkans has managed to do.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dra\u017een Horvat from Croatia, a former member of the Croatian Army pointed out that \u201cthe hardest moments are when you come to a site of an atrocity and face the horrors of war. That feeling is incredibly intense. People often forget this and allow hatred to take over, but I think the most important thing is to show compassion both for the suffering of your own people and for others.\u201d Horvat added that the joint visits of war veterans can serve as an example<\/strong> to show that the conflicts that had erupted and the reasons behind them can be overcome and that we can start moving towards reconciliation.<\/p>\n

Aleksandar Sokolovi\u0107 from Kru\u0161evac, a member of the Peacebuilders Association and a veteran from 1999, described feeling heartened by the fact that Bosniaks and Croats accepted the invitation to come to Ni\u0161.<\/p>\n

The hosts also took the group to visit the Army Museum and Memorial Room<\/strong> at the Serbian Army building.<\/p>\n

The group also visited Islam-aga\u2019s Mosque<\/strong> in downtown Ni\u0161. The chairman of the jamaat committee, effendi Ragib Dobreva briefly presented the history of the mosque and the life of the Islamic community in Ni\u0161. The mosque had been set on fire in the night of 17 March 2004 by hooligans reacting to the destruction of churches and monasteries in Kosovo and Metohija.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The veterans visited the City Hall<\/strong> where they were received by Ni\u0161 City Councillor Mirko Ze\u010devi\u0107 on behalf of the mayor. In pleasant conversation and a good atmosphere, Mr Ze\u010devi\u0107 expressed his pleasure with the visit and added he was very pleased to receive a group that works towards reconciliation among all our peoples.<\/p>\n

After the meeting, the war veterans visited cultural and historical heritage sites in the City of Ni\u0161, the site of the Second World War Concentration Camp<\/strong> \u201c12th February\u201d<\/strong> at the Red Cross and the Skull Tower.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since 2008, the Centre for Nonviolent Action, with offices in Sarajevo and Belgrade, has been organising visits by groups of war veterans from Croatia, Serbia and BiH to sites of atrocities against civilians and soldiers committed in the recent war and to official commemorations honouring victims, organised by local and state authorities and victims associations. <\/strong><\/p>\n

On Friday, 5 April 2019, the Centre for Nonviolent Action and the group of war veterans attended the commemoration to victims of the NATO bombing in Aleksinac, they paid their respects to the victims and laid a wreath at the memorial to citizens of Aleksinac killed in the bombing<\/strong>. During the NATO bombing of SRY, the town of Aleksinac was bombed twice. The worst of the bombing took place on 5 April 1999, when 11 citizens were killed and 50 were wounded. Some 700 residential buildings were destroyed, as well as health clinics and commercial buildings. Aleksinac was bombed again in the night between 27 and 28 May 1999. Three people were killed in this bombing.<\/p>\n

Following the commemoration at the Aleksinac Culture Centre, a meeting was held with the representatives of the Aleksinac Veterans Movement. The meeting was also attended by the Deputy Mayor of Aleksinac \u010cedomir Raki\u0107.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Under the organisation of the Centre for Nonviolent Action, veterans from the region have attended commemorations in BiH in Gornji Vakuf, at Site 715 and in Stog (Vozu\u0107a) near Zavidovi\u0107i, in Novi Grad\/Bosanski Novi, Sanski Most (Hrastova glavica), Sijekovac near Brod, Lani\u0161ta near Br\u010dko, Trusina near Konjic, Stupni Do near Vare\u0161, and in Serbia in Grdeli\u010dka klisura near Leskovac, Varvarin near Kru\u0161evac, Aleksinac, as well as in Croatia in Pakrac, Varivode and Go\u0161i\u0107 in Kistanje Municipality near Knin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since 2008, the Centre for Nonviolent Action, with offices in Sarajevo and Belgrade, has been organising visits by groups of war veterans from Croatia, Serbia and BiH to sites of atrocities against civilians and soldiers committed in the recent war and to official commemorations honouring victims, organised by local and state authorities and victims associations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224079,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,78,72],"tags":[1838,2268,1904,238],"class_list":["post-224205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-activities","category-news","category-excomb","tag-commemoration-en","tag-culture-of-remembrance","tag-war-veterans-in-peacebuilding","tag-war-veterans"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224205"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":226496,"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224205\/revisions\/226496"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}