“You cannot go under the ground alive, not at all. You must live. My son Predrag Salipur (27), soldier of the Army of BiH, was killed by his best friend Musan Topalovic Caco, in which command he was, on the 18th of October 1993. He shot him even though he fought bravely for this country… I do not know why Caco, who spent more time in my house than his own, left this grandfather to suffer over the loss of his only son,” said Momcilo Salipur, father of one of the victims from Kazani.
He said that his heart was full when he heard that Izetbegovic visited the place where these innocent people were killed.
He says that it shows that in this country, despite of everything that’s happened, we should continue to live, and to forgive the same way he has forgiven the killers, despite the loss of his child. Without hatred and anger he says that he would only like to look Caco in the eyes, to see if he repented for what he did!
The last time he saw his son was on the 4th of April 1992, when he left Sarajevo and went to live in the village Bulozi, where Predrag had summer house, with his then 6-year-old daughter, Ivana. The day he’ll never forget is the 27th of January 1994, when he received a letter from his brother that Predrag was killed. Therefore, he keeps a photo of him on the wall opposite the bed, to look at him every day.
“I’ve seen my son after 14 years, in the morgue. His bones. I recognized him immediately, although it was only a skull, I knew it was him. He had a front tooth knocked out in the car accident. It was the most difficult moment in my life. However, I am happy that my child was a soldier for this country and that I have buried him, all the bones, in the city for which he breathed, in Sarajevo, at the cemetery Bare. My son defended Sarajevo, his city, and only there he could find his peace,” said Momo.
He said that after the war, when the shooting stopped and after the signing of the Dayton Agreement, he went to, as he says, his friend Alija Izetbegovic, to ask him what happened.
“I asked Alija face to face if he knew what Caco was doing, and Alija told me that Caco was out of the control. Nobody had the command, everyone was doing what they wanted. I know that this is true and Alija would never lie to me,” said Salipur with certainty.
Momcilo testified several times in proceedings against Predrag’s killers.
“At the trial to Samir Bejtic, who was the one that took him out of the apartment, I said that he was just an ordinary executor, who had to kill my Predrag because otherwise Caco would kill him. I told the judge to let him go home, to his children and wife. Because, in the Bible and the Qur’an is said that if I do not forgive him, he will not forgive me either. This is widely known. And he should go to his house, because if the others have not been punished for what they did, why would he,” says Momcilo.
(Source: A. NUHANOVIC/avaz.ba)
