An international conference entitled “30 Years Later – Sarajevo” was held in the Sarajevo City Hall yesterday, organized on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the siege of Sarajevo in cooperation with the Information Center of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in Sarajevo, Post-Conflict Research Center, Memory Module and Memorial Center Srebrenica.
During her address, the Mayor of Sarajevo, Benjamina Karic, the host of yesterday’s conference, reminded us that 30 years have passed since the attack aimed at destroying the soul of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Federalna writes.
”It is quite clear that it was not just a desire to destroy one country and one city but to destroy the diversity that has made that country and that city recognizable for centuries. We are talking about an attack on urban civilization which, unfortunately, and which we are witnessing today, hinted a threat to cities around the world. What was not stopped at the time of the 1990s in BiH is now becoming more visible throughout Europe and the world,” Karic stated.
Brammertz: 30 years ago the soul of Sarajevo was attacked
”The siege of Sarajevo is one of the darkest moments in modern history,” are the words with which Serge Brammertz, Chief Prosecutor of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, began his address.
”As a young prosecutor, all these images of suffering reminded me of the stories which my father and grandfather told me about World War II and I always thought it was a thing of the past, but it happened again in Sarajevo and now it is happening in Ukraine,” said Brammertz.
He added that on this day 30 years ago, the soul of Sarajevo was attacked and that the people of Sarajevo were inflicted with extreme fear and psychological suffering. Children, men, and women of all ages were killed and wounded in their homes, there were thousands of them.
”The siege of Sarajevo is the first case to come before the tribunal aimed at violating the law of war. Such an investigation has not been seen before, so it required the involvement of many experts. It was clear from our investigation that the Bosnian Serb forces intended to impose on every citizen of Sarajevo the idea of living at risk of death which they could not escape. Our prosecutors have shown that the suffering of civilians was not an accidental by-product of the armed conflict in Sarajevo, but that it was an intention. The terrible truth about what this city and its inhabitants have experienced has been documented on tens of thousands of pages of court documents. Even today, 30 years later, there are those who relativize and minimize these established facts. Politicians are setting up pseudo-scientific commissions to rewrite the history of the siege for political gain. Sarajevo residents are being told that they attacked themselves, the celebration of convicted war criminals is now growing stronger, and that is unacceptable,” Brammertz concluded.
Suljagic: Today is the day of our triumph, our victory
Emir Suljagic, director of the Srebrenica Memorial Center, stressed that the siege of Sarajevo and the defense of Sarajevo are the most underestimated events in the breakup of the former Yugoslavia.
”Nobody gave Sarajevo any prospects, but there are no historical monographs about Sarajevo, there are no historical monographs about its defenders like there are about Leningrad, about Stalingrad. If there was no siege of Sarajevo there would be no genocide in and around Srebrenica, if there was no siege of Sarajevo there would be no camp in Bosnian Krajina, if there was no siege of Sarajevo there would be no Croatian Defence Council (HVO) massacres in central Bosnia, if there was no siege of Sarajevo this war would not have ended the way it did and it would not have had the course it had. The siege of Sarajevo is a key event, a key process in the attack on BiH. Had it not been for the siege of Sarajevo and had all the human, material, and creative potential of Sarajevo been liberated at any time between 1992 and 1995, this war would have ended much differently. There would be no Srebrenica, there would be no Tuzla massacre (The Kapija Massacre), many people would be alive today,” Suljagic expressed.
The opening of the conference was attended by High Representative for BiH Christian Schmidt, numerous representatives of the Association of War Victims, ambassadors, as well as many other guests.
E.Dz.
