On this day, May 3, 1992, in the former Dobrovoljačka Street in Sarajevo, during the withdrawal of a convoy of Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) soldiers from the barracks in Bistrik, where the command of the then Second Military District was located, a firefight broke out between the Territorial Defense of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (RBiH) and the JNA.
On that day, according to the testimony of Milutin Kukanjac, then commander of the Second Military District of the JNA, six were killed in Dobrovoljačka, while a total of 261 JNA members were in the convoy.
According to data from the Ministry of Labor and Veterans’ and Disabled Protection of the Republika Srpska, 42 JNA members were killed in the clashes. Organized by the Government of the Republika Srpska, today, as in previous years, this date will be marked by laying flowers and lighting candles.
The day before, on May 2, 1992, JNA units attempted to seize the building of the Presidency of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but failed.
The departure of the JNA column from Sarajevo was agreed upon in exchange for the release of the President of the Presidency of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Alija Izetbegović, who was captured by JNA members at Sarajevo Airport on May 2 while returning from peace negotiations in Lisbon.
A convoy of JNA vehicles, escorted by UNPROFOR units, set off on May 3 from the command of the Second Military District in Bistrik towards Lukavica, but was stopped at Drvenija, in Dobrovoljačka, today Hamdije Kreševljakovića Street.
The Hague Tribunal established in the “Dobrovoljačka” case that the JNA column was a legitimate military target.
In 2022, the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina filed an indictment against ten individuals in this case, on suspicion of committing war crimes against members of the JNA. The collected evidence, the Prosecutor’s Office stated, relates to the deaths of eight persons with established identities and the injury of 24 persons.
The indictment was filed ten years after the same Prosecutor’s Office suspended its investigation into the case.
