Spanish soldier Salvador Andres Pelaez, who was on a peacekeeping mission in Mostar during the 1993 and 1994 wars, posted on Facebook a series of photos of children he photographed with at that time with a desire to find them via social media.
“I was stationed in the SPABAT (Spanish Battalion) of the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) from September 1993 to April 1994 in the detachments of Dracevo, Mostar, and Jablanica,” noted Spanish soldier Andres Pelaez.
He pointed out that the photos show the children with whom he spent his free time playing and having fun during the war, and he asks all those who know something about them to let him know.
“I was in Mostar in 2018, 25 years after the mission, but I couldn’t find them. I wish I could see them. If anyone recognizes them, let them know,” said a Spanish soldier who was on a peacekeeping mission in our country.
Also, he reminded that Spain supported the UNPROFOR mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), and the main city square in Mostar has a name of that country, where there is a monument to the 21 killed Spanish members of the UN peacekeeping force in BiH.
The restored Spanish Square in Mostar was inaugurated on March 29th, 2012, when King Juan Carlos I of Spain visited the city, and that was his second visit to Mostar since 1998 when he visited Spanish troops stationed in the area.
Immediately after the end of the war in October 1995, the Mostar city authorities decided to rename the city’s main square Spanish Square, in memory of the 21 soldiers killed in the UN and NATO peacekeeping mission in the war in BiH.
Spanish troops were part of a multinational UN and later NATO force in BiH from the start of the 1992 war to 2010, and it is estimated that 46.000 Spanish soldiers passed through BiH during that period.
According to the data available from the Mostar city administration at the time, the reconstruction of the square cost 960.000 BAM, in which the Spanish government participated with more than 102.000 BAM, the UN Development Program(UNDP) allocated more than 523.000 BAM and the city of Mostar 250.000 BAM.
E.Dz.
Source: Klix.ba
