May 2, 1992: The Day the BiH Presidency Was Defended and the State Was Saved

(Patria) - In the modern history of independent Bosnia and Herzegovina, today, May 2, is one of the most important dates in the fight for its defense. 

On May 2, 1992, a crucial battle for the defense of Sarajevo took place at Skenderija, when units of the then Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) attempted to seize the building of the Presidency of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (RBiH).

The battle in which Sarajevo was defended on May 2, 1992, better known as the Battle for the RBiH Presidency, was decisive for the defense of the capital city, as well as for the defense of the independence and integrity of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Tanks and armored personnel carriers of the then JNA were stopped by the efforts of defenders gathered in the Territorial Defense of RBiH and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of RBiH, at Skenderija, about a hundred meters from the building of the RBiH Presidency. The seizure of the Presidency building was prevented, but the siege of Sarajevo, before the eyes of the whole world, lasted for more than 1,400 days, during which citizens were killed by mortar shells, sniper fire, anti-aircraft weapons, and were without water, electricity, gas, and food, as confirmed by the rulings of the Hague Tribunal.

On the same day, May 2, 1992, the JNA captured the then President of the RBiH Presidency, Alija Izetbegović, and his delegation at Sarajevo Airport as they were returning from negotiations in Lisbon. They were then taken to Lukavica.

This event was a prelude to what would happen the next day, May 3, when the JNA began withdrawing its units from the barracks in Bistrik. After negotiations, an exchange of Izetbegović was agreed upon.

On May 2, 1992, television footage was broadcast worldwide showing President Izetbegović announcing in a program that he had been abducted and was not allowed to reach the BiH Presidency building.

Photographs and footage of burning trams at Skenderija, in the center of Sarajevo, as well as the explosion of a shell at the corner of Dalmatinska and Titova streets, across from the building of the Central Bank of BiH, also circulated worldwide.

On the same day, the Main Post Office in Sarajevo was also set on fire, rendering 45,600 telephone lines inoperable.

For one of the longest sieges in history and the terrorization of the population of the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, among others, former President of Republika Srpska (RS) Radovan Karadžić, as well as the commander of the Army of RS Ratko Mladić, and former commander of the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps of the Army of RS Stanislav Galić, were definitively sentenced to life imprisonment by the ICTY, while Dragomir Milošević, who took command of the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps of the Army of RS in 1994, was sentenced to 29 years.

Former President of Serbia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milošević, was also indicted at the Hague Tribunal for crimes committed in Sarajevo, but he died during the trial in March 2006, after which the proceedings were suspended.

Biljana Plavšić, former president of RS, pleaded guilty to involvement, among other things, in crimes in Sarajevo, after which she was sentenced to 11 years in prison.