At the session of the Assembly of Prijedor, the construction of a monument for the children killed in the past war was discussed, and the initiative goes in the direction of building a monument for all the children killed, in all previous wars. Such an idea would significantly diminish the memory of the crime against Bosniak children killed in the period 1992-1995.
The parents of the killed children in Prijedor have been insisting for years on the construction of a monument on the city land. The international community, which understands the importance of the culture of remembrance and the correct addressing of crimes, also helps them significantly in this, but the consensus of the Assembly of Prijedor is also needed for the construction.
At the last session held on Tuesday, May 25th, a kind of free discussion was held on further steps for the construction of the monument. As the chairman of the City Assembly, Mirsad Duratovic, points out, no official agreement has been reached, but the idea does exist.
However, the idea is to build a monument to all the killed children from the First and Second World Wars, and the past war. Duratovic offered SNSD’s Sasa Bursac a blank signature on such a monument, which would contain thousands of names in which the names of 102 killed children from the past war could easily be drowned.
He points out that the parents of the killed children agree with this idea of building a monument, but some believe that it is only Duratovic’s way of trading with the SNSD in order to remain in the position he is in now.
Human rights activist from Prijedor Edin Ramulic believes that such an initiative for construction and Duratovic’s move is unacceptable and scandalous.
”The role of Mirsad Duratovic is the most controversial here. He pledged everything, all his credibility, in order to make a consession to his coalition partners from the SNSD, who keep him in the office. They chose him and they have control over him. He refuses to meet with a representative of the parents, talk about it, and, refuses to put on the session the necessary steps for construction,” Ramulic stated.
In an interview, Duratovic said that he had written confirmation from the representative of the parent of the murdered children, Fikret Bacic, that a joint monument is exactly what the parents of the murdered children want.
Playing with numbers instead of preserving the memory of murdered children
The idea of building a joint monument is controversial for several reasons. It seems that such an initiative is only a compensation for what the families of the victims and the international community insist on, and if implemented, it could permanently damage the character of what happened in Prijedor from 1992 to 1995.
”In order to reduce the pressure of the international community, they agreed to do it this way, but that idea is unacceptable,”Ramulic emphasized.
He explains that the plan of the SNSD councilor in Prijedor is to have tens of thousands of names on the monument in which the number of 102 Bosniak children would ‘drown’ and diminish the significance of their suffering.
”Although the number of children killed in the Second World War in this area is less than 1.000, Sasa Bursac states that it is tens of thousands. So it is planned to include all those victims from other countries and areas. These are the numbers for Jasenovac and the like. The basic idea is to show in the numbers game that there are only 102 children from Prijedor alone in relation to the 30.000 total casualties as planned on the monument,” Ramulic added.
He especially emphasizes the segment in which it is very unrealistic to build a monument of 30.000 names in the area of the city center, where the memorial is planned.
”It is clear here that the intention is to obstruct the construction. Firstly, it takes many years to collect these names. Secondly, even if that happened, it is impossible to put 30.000 names in that area. This requires a huge amount of space to put all the names,” Ramulic said.
In addition to this idea, the SNSD has another proposal for the construction of a monument, and that is a joint monument to all the children killed without listing their names. Something like this would be easier to implement, but the meaning of the project would be completely lost.
”That would be a practical solution – to erect a monument to all the children in all wars, without names, but this would avoid the request of parents to have their children’s names written in the city,” Ramulic concluded, Klix.ba writes.
E.Dz.
