Josip Pejakovic, along with the cult monodrama “On meni nema Bosne” (To him, Bosnia doesn’t exist), will also be remembered for the words “We won’t give up Bosnia”, spoken at a peace protest held in 1992 before the aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).
Several thousand citizens protested in front of the Assembly, calling for peace, and one of the speakers at the gathering was Josip Pejakovic, whose words, “We won’t give up Bosnia,” remain etched in history.
“Come to the Assembly, don’t be afraid, everyone to the streets, all of Sarajevo, miners from Breza, from Zenica, come out hungry. We won’t give up Bosnia!”, Pejakovic shouted on April 5th, 1992.
Embraced by Rade Serbedzija, who was also at the mentioned protest, he wanted to send a message of peace.
Years later, Pejakovic spoke about how he even came to speak at the protest.
“How I found myself at Marijin Dvor, I don’t even know, but I know I was meant to be there. I think it was Ivica or Jan Beran who threw me the microphone from the broadcast van on the roof, and that’s how I screamed somewhere into the sky,” said Pejakovic.
It should be recalled that Pejakovic’s son Dejan, announced that the BiH actor passed away at the age of 78. Numerous cultural workers, such as Nihad Kresevljakovic, Lana Zablocki, and others, are saying their goodbyes to him on social media.
In the past decade, he battled a series of illnesses and underwent as many as 17 surgeries. In 2019, he even said that he had been written off, but managed to recover.
