Students of elementary school “Fatima Gunić” from Sarajevo made a performance in front of the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Sarajevo with which they wanted to remind all citizens of BiH and the world of 102 students from Prijedor whose lives were brutally terminated during the war in BiH. The school bell marked the beginning of class, but the desks remained empty because these children are long gone.
They were buds who were not allowed to flourish, the buds of Prijedor who would be doctors, professors, athletes. Today, 102 chairs were empty, just like they were empty in Prijedor between 1992 and 1995. Students of the elementary school “Fatima Gunić” were sitting on their peers’ chairs while the teacher read names of students who were killed. One by one, every student stood up and wrapped a white armband around their arm, thus paying tribute to the children of Prijedor who were not given an opportunity to finish school grow up and be mature and successful citizens of BiH.
“Many people will wonder why we mark the killing of 102 children here in Sarajevo. Fatima Gunić was a teacher from Prijedor who taught the children of Sarajevo and lost her life during a lesson. Vedad, Feđa and Adis were killed, and 18 students were wounded. That is why we are doing this. We have a memorial room in the school through which hundreds of students passed, because a lesson about everything that has happened is not included in the curriculum. It is our duty to tell them,” said the Director of this school, Hajrudin Ćuprija.
These children were also marked with white armbands. They were marked because they were different from those who broke their dreams forever and took them from the arms of their parents.
“We will not allow someone else to write our history and the present with oblivion. We will write it with the memory, and with a bright perspective. We teach the children not to be those who repeat and that our grandchildren do not experience what the children of Prijedor, Sarajevo, Bijeljina, Goražde, Višegrad, Srebrenica and all other BiH cities did. Children, spread love, the richness is in diversity,” Ćuprija said.
The youngest child killed in Prijedor was the two-month-old Velid Softić and the oldest children were not yet 17 years old. Most of them were killed in the period from May 24 until August 6, 1992. Remains of the killed children in the settlements Čarakovo and Zecovi have not been found yet.
(Source: klix.ba/photo: radiosarajevo.ba)
