The 32nd anniversary of the killing of JNA members was marked with a memorial service in the Church of the Holy Great Martyr Georgi in East Novi Sarajevo, followed by a peaceful walk, laying of flowers and a religious memorial in Hamdije Kreševljakovića Street, formerly Dobrovoljačka Street, in Sarajevo.
The commemoration was attended by members of the victims’ families, the Minister of Labor and Veterans-Disabled Protection of the Republika Srpska Danijel Egić, the representative of the member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina from the Serbian people Boško Tomić, members of the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska and representatives of the RS in the institutions of BiH.
Also present were representatives of associations stemming from the last war and mayors of municipalities within the city of East Sarajevo.
On May 3, 1992, during the withdrawal of JNA members from the barracks in Bistrik, there was an exchange of fire between the Territorial Defense of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA).
On that occasion, members of the JNA were killed.
A column of military vehicles of the JNA, leaving Sarajevo on May 3, 1992, left the barracks in Bistrik where the command of the then Second Military District of the JNA was located, when the column was attacked.
The departure of the convoy from the city was previously agreed upon in exchange for the release, a day earlier, of the President of the Presidency of the Republic of BiH, Alija Izetbegović, who was captured at the airport in Sarajevo, who was captured by the JNA while returning from the peace talks in Lisbon.
When the convoy with 261 people was stopped, shots were fired.
In this conflict on May 3, seven JNA members were killed, according to the testimony of JNA General Milutin Kukanjec. According to the data of the Republic Center for Research on War, War Crimes and Searching for the Missing, on May 2 and 3, 1992, at least 28 members of the JNA were killed.
On October 27, 2022, the twice-postponed trial of Ejup Ganić and nine other former high-ranking military and police officials accused of crimes committed against members of the JNA on May 3, 1992 in Dobrovoljačka Street began in the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
They are accused of having on May 3, 1992 in Sarajevo attacked an undefended mixed column of soldiers and civilians employed in the former JNA, which was under the escort of UN peacekeeping forces.
The Prosecution accuses them of having planned, instigated and carried out an attack on an undefended mixed column of soldiers and civilians employed in the former JNA, under the escort of UN peacekeeping forces, within the framework of their functions and powers in the military, police and civil structures, together with their subordinates.
They were also accused of not preventing the murders and injuries of soldiers and civilians, of failing to punish the perpetrators of the murders and injuries, of torturing and inhumane treatment of captured soldiers, and of helping the perpetrators after the crime had been committed, BHRT writes.
Photo: BHRT/Dario Drmać
