Every beginning of May in Goražde reminds of the war. On May 1992, when the first shells were fired on the city, editor of Radio Goražde – later the war radio – Anka Ćurovac could not go to work. All hopes she had while following negotiations between SDA and SDS fell into the water. Uncertainty and fear ruled the city full of refugees.
Prior to the attack on Goražde, people still naively believed that there will be no war. In fact, the war started in April already. After the attack on Foča, the surrounding cities were falling one after another. Those who did not escape were killed or detained in camps.
All negotiations between SDS and SDA Goražde were terminated on May 2. The Serbs demanded control over the entire city so it was only a matter of hour when the first shells will be fired.
“We were following the negotiations, trying to encourage people. Just before May 1, Slavko Topalović from the Citizens’ Forum was in negotiations. President of the Municipality Hadžo Efendić requested that the President of SDS Dr. Milosava Herin is present in negotiations. Promises were made that there will be no war, but that was just playing for time. The Serbs have already prepared the siege of the city, their women and children had already left. We were practically left to the mercy,” Anka said.
Despite the promises, the final scouting was performed in the night between May 3 and 4. In the morning of May 4, the first shell was fired, marking the beginning of the barbarian siege of the city on the Drina River, which lasted for three and a half years.
“At that time, there were around 70.000 residents in Goražde and around 25.000 children up to 14 years of age. They were in a very difficult position, accommodated in collective centers, schools, halls, the Red Cross, they practically had nothing,” Anka Ćurovac said.
Two months after the beginning of war, the War Radio started operating. Anka was the editor-in-chief, but at the same time, as a mother of four girls, she was trying to design programs which would bring hope for a better life to the children, at least for a moment. Together with children from the neighborhood, she directed the play “In the Dreamland”, in which the entire neighborhood participated.
“It was important for us to give at least few moments of joy to those children in that despair,” Anka remembered.
(Source: klix.ba)
