Every May 5 – a painful memory of the murdered children of Sarajevo. During the siege that lasted 1,425 days, 1,601 children were killed. Children were most often killed on playgrounds, in lines for water and food.
In 2019, the Government of Sarajevo Canton made a decision to mark May 5 as the Day of Remembrance for the Murdered Children of Sarajevo, and since last year this day has been declared the Day of Mourning in Sarajevo Canton.
The culture of memory is extremely important for several reasons – for parents not to forget any murdered child, and for today’s and future generations of young people to know, not to forget and to be careful because evil is still lurking – emphasized Fikret Grabovica, president of the Association of Parents of Murdered Children of besieged Sarajevo 1992-1995, guesting in Dnevnik 2 of Federal Television.
He added that it is important to promote and preserve the truth about the martyred children and the siege of the city of Sarajevo, because if that truth is not preserved then it will be the truth that others want and promote, the one that suits them.
Many times he optimistically announced that he believed there would be an indictment before the local court for the murdered children of Sarajevo. He says that he received promises from the chief prosecutors, including from the chief prosecutor of the Hague Tribunal, Serge Bramertz. However, he says, obviously those promises from some were false, and some did not have enough knowledge, so they gave them lightly.
“We still believe that justice will reach at least some of the criminals, the most responsible ones. Time passes, many parents have gone to another world and did not receive the justice that meant so much to them. That justice would be a great satisfaction for us. We hope that something will change in the coming period. I have a feeling that it’s a Pandora’s box that they don’t open for some significant reason. What it is – I can guess, however, I have no knowledge and would not like to speculate. It is unbelievable that in 30 years there is not a single indictment”, said Grabovica.
He adds that at the same time indictments are being filed for some crimes that are incomparably smaller than the crime of killing the children of Sarajevo. All crimes should be prosecuted, but parents are still waiting for indictments for killing their children, he stressed.
He also explained the reason for moving the commemoration of the Day of Remembrance for the Murdered Children of Sarajevo this year from May 5 to May 7. The organization, he points out, was taken over this year by the Sarajevo Canton Ministry of Education. Given that a large number of primary and secondary school students will participate in the demonstration – at least a thousand, and that today and tomorrow are non-school days due to a holiday, for practical reasons it was decided to hold it on Tuesday.
