Organized by the Tuzla City Administration, the 31st anniversary of the city’s defense against aggression on May 15th, 1992 was marked yesterday.
On that Friday in 1992, a column of the Yugoslav People’s Army, which had already transformed into the Yugoslav Army of the State Union of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), was retreating from the Husinska Buna barracks, but at the Brcanska Malta intersection there was a conflict with the defenders of Tuzla, legal formations Public Security Service Tuzla, which prevented the plan to occupy part of the city and the commission of crimes that had already been committed in Podrinje.
“On May 15th, 1992, the freedom of Tuzla and Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) was defended. I am here today as a member of the BiH Presidency to express my deep respect for the heroes and defenders of Tuzla and BiH. We will never allow those who defended the state of BiH and those who attacked Tuzla and BiHto be equated. Among other things, there is a civilizational difference between those who defended and those who attacked BiH,” said Denis Becirovic, a member of the Presidency of BiH, who yesterday laid lilies on the monument to the defenders of Tuzla.
The direct actor of the events on May 15th, 1992 was Selim Beslagic, the mayor of Tuzla, who had an offer from the commanders of the Yugoslav People’s Army to declare “certain autonomy”, but he refused such an offer saying that “there is no other state but BiH“. The years go by, 31 have followed, the people who defended, but also reported on the event in Brcanska Malta are leaving, and Selim Beslagic tells the young generations:
In the period May 15th, 1992 – November 16th, 1995, Tuzla was targeted with more than 1,500 missiles of various calibers, among them surface-to-surface rockets of the “Volkhov” type. In the shelling of Tuzla, 223 civilians were killed, while 391 civilians were seriously and lightly wounded. No one was ever held accountable for the crimes committed.
Those who defended Tuzla point out that the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH has put an end to the case of Brcanska Malta when it comes to the leading members of the defense. However, they insist that those responsible for the human victims be prosecuted.
