Director of the Memorial Fund Kulanić: Those Serbs who left Sarajevo obeyed Karadžić and Krajišnik

(Patria) - Director of the Memorial Fund of Sarajevo Canton, Dr. Ahmed Kulanić sent a public response to the Mayor of East Sarajevo, Ljubiša Ćosić, after signs were placed at the entrance and exit of this "city", bearing untrue historical facts, and told him that it is hardest to face the truth and confirmed historical facts in proceedings conducted before international and domestic courts.

"All documentation, evidence, and archival materials available, shown, and included in court cases speak of the siege of Sarajevo which lasted 1,425 days. Everything written on the sign of East Sarajevo is untrue, unfounded, and inflammatory", states Director Kulanić at the beginning of his response.

As the first argument, he points out that pre-war Sarajevo consisted of the municipalities of Centar, Ilidža, Novi Grad, Novo Sarajevo, Stari Grad, Hadžići, Ilijaš, Pale, Trnovo, and Vogošća.

"Today, as a result of the aggression and the Dayton Peace Agreement, parts of the municipalities of Novi Grad, Novo Sarajevo, Stari Grad, Ilidža, Trnovo, and Pale have been torn away from the city of Sarajevo, to which only the pre-war Sokolac was added, forming the city of Istočno, and formerly Srpsko Sarajevo.

Second, in pre-war Sarajevo, in the part that was not forcibly torn away, lived about 133,000 Bosnian Serbs; today, there are about 13,000 in Sarajevo.

Third, Bosnian Serbs did not 'have to' leave Sarajevo because of the policy of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian leadership, but because of the direct order of Krajišnik and Karadžić, and the media pressure and propaganda they carried out.

Fourth, East Sarajevo did not become a 'city' of displaced Serbs, but became an exclusively ethnically monolithic space by expelling the non-Serb population from the pre-war Sarajevo municipalities", argues Director Kulanić.

He tells the Mayor of East Sarajevo that it would be good to explain to his fellow citizens why in the entire "city" today there are just over 2,000 Bosniaks, while in Pale alone, before the aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina, over 3,000 lived.

"And fifth, the Mayor, if he is going to put up signs, would be better off considering putting factually established data on the signs, so that it reads 'Welcome to RS, whose authorities indiscriminately killed all non-Serbs, raped and tortured women and children. An entity created on ethnic cleansing, genocide, and mass crimes, whose entire military-political leadership has been convicted of crimes'", concludes Director Kulanić in his response.