{"id":224263,"date":"2019-04-16T14:48:53","date_gmt":"2019-04-16T12:48:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/2019\/war-veterans-from-the-region-at-the-commemoration-in-ahmici-we-need-to-remember-all-victims\/"},"modified":"2020-10-07T16:42:54","modified_gmt":"2020-10-07T14:42:54","slug":"war-veterans-from-the-region-at-the-commemoration-in-ahmici-we-need-to-remember-all-victims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/war-veterans-from-the-region-at-the-commemoration-in-ahmici-we-need-to-remember-all-victims\/","title":{"rendered":"War Veterans from the Region at the Commemoration in Ahmi\u0107i: We Need to Remember All Victims"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the invitation of the Organising Committee for marking 26 years since the massacre of Bosniaks in Ahmi\u0107i and Vitez<\/strong>, war veterans with the region, together with activists from the Centre for Nonviolent Action Sarajevo\/Belgrade, thirty-two people in all, took part in the commemoration for the victims in Ahmi\u0107i and Vitez<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

According to the evidence in the Kordi\u0107 and \u010cerkez case at the Hague Tribunal, 116 civilians were killed in Ahmi\u0107i in the early morning on 16 April 1993, including 32 women and 11 children. Families of the victims are still searching for the remains of 29 people killed in Ahmi\u0107i.<\/p>\n

Since 2008, the peace organisation Centre for Nonviolent Action<\/strong>, with offices in Sarajevo and Belgrade, has been organising visits by groups of war veterans from Croatia, Serbia and BiH, former members of the Army of RBiH, HVO, VRS, HV, and VJ<\/strong>, to sites of atrocities against civilians and soldiers from the past war and to official commemorations organised by local and state authorities and victims\u2019 associations.<\/p>\n

On 15 April, the group of thirty-two war veterans and peace activists were welcomed on behalf of the commemoration organisers by Mahir ef. Husi\u0107 and Ned\u017ead Abdi\u0107. At the memorial to the killed civilians of Ahmi\u0107i, by Donja Mosque, they were briefly introduced to live in Ahmi\u0107i before and after the war, and with the details of the war itself and the massacre of 16 April 1993. The group also visited the memorial room and held a meeting with the commemoration organisers at the nearby primary school.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

At the meeting, the war veterans and peace activists thanked their hosts for inviting them to attend the commemoration, and the commemoration organisers thanked to group for accepting the invitation and acknowledged their courage and act of empathy in coming to the site of the atrocity as such a mixed group.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea is for war veterans, who were enemies yesterday, to pay their respects to the victims, to join the victims\u2019 families and together lay flowers at the memorial. We believe that with this act we will improve the general atmosphere and help regain some of the lost trust, because we are sending a different message. Veterans have direct experience of war and have witnessed its horrors, but they can also be active participants in building peace and trust,\u201d said Adnan Hasanbegovi\u0107, former member of ARBiH and a peace activist with CNA.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The next day, on 16 April, the group joined a peace walk called the \u201cPath of Truth and Memory\u201d from the shahid cemetery in Vitez, and laid wreaths at the Cisterna memorial to pay their respects to the victims. After that, at noon, together with the other delegations, the mixed group of veterans laid a wreath at the memorial by Donja Mosque.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are here to show by our presence that we can and must show compassion and respect not just for victims from our own people, but for others too. To show that there is another way. Then we can set the foundations for peace and coexistence in this region, which is our goal. So that our children never have to go through what we went through,\u201d said Kre\u0161imir Ivan\u010di\u0107, a veteran of the Croatian Army.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

By attending the commemoration, war veterans and peace activists paid their respects to those killed in Ahi\u0107i and showed that former fighters are a social group with a high degree of credibility and potential for peacebuilding work, precisely because they have directly, and often brutally, experienced war themselves. Also, by attending the commemoration, veterans of HV, HVO, the Army of RBiH, VRS, VJ, and JNA<\/strong> appealed to the competent authorities to make sure that those responsible for the crimes are prosecutors and to make additional effort to find the remains of their victims.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need ordinary people to try to find a common path to reconciliation and the truth. We should honour all victims, meet with people who have lost their loved ones and try to find solutions among the people,\u201d said Ivo An\u0111elovi\u0107, a veteran of HVO from Br\u010dko.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Under the organisation of the Centra for Nonviolent Action, veterans from the region have attended commemorations in BiH in Gornji Vakuf, at Site 715 near Zavidovi\u0107i, in Stog near Vozu\u0107a, in Novi Grad\/Bosanski<\/p>\n

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 near Knin.<\/p>\n

The photo gallery is available HERE.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe are here to show by our presence that we can and must show compassion and respect not just for victims from our own people, but for others too. To show that there is another way. Then we can set the foundations for peace and coexistence in this region, which is our goal. So that our children never have to go through what we went through,\u201d said Kre\u0161imir Ivan\u010di\u0107, a veteran of the Croatian Army.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224247,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,72],"tags":[337,1838,1904],"class_list":["post-224263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-activities","category-excomb","tag-combatants","tag-commemoration-en","tag-war-veterans-in-peacebuilding"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224263","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=224263"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":229638,"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224263\/revisions\/229638"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}