Second promotion of Elvir Jahić's book 'Crnotina pokraj Sarajeva – Crimes and Victims of Ahatovići and its Surroundings Throughout History'

(Patria) - After the book by author Elvir Jahić, 'Crnotina pokraj Sarajeva – Crimes and Victims of Ahatovići and its Surroundings Throughout History', was promoted in the multimedia hall of the Municipality of Novi Grad Sarajevo in December last year, due to great public interest, a second promotion of this valuable historical document was recently held in the multimedia hall of the Sarajevo Memorial Center.



Elvir Jahić, our neighbor, a resident of the settlement of Ahatovići in the municipality of Novi Grad, as a 19-year-old young man, survived one of the greatest crimes against Bosniak Muslims committed by the aggressor Serbian army on June 14, 1992, in the village of Sokolina near Ilijaš. Elvir Jahić was one of 56 men who were allegedly taken for exchange and boarded a bus, and then taken to the inaccessible place of Sokolina near Srednje, where they were massacred in that bus with various types of weapons.

Elvir is one of eight survivors of that terrible crime. He remained alive, but with a severe spinal injury, he remained to testify and convey the truth to future generations about the crimes committed by his neighbors of Serbian nationality.
The promoters of the book were Dr. sc. Zilha Mastalić Košuta, Avdo Huseinović, Semir Spahić, and Alma Rizvanović-Kovačević, and the moderator was Elvira Kokor.

Alma Rizvanović – Kovačević said that she met Elvir last year when he provided her with data he possessed about martyrs and fallen soldiers for the project of mapping the graves of martyrs and fallen soldiers.

“That’s when I learned that Elvir is a surviving witness of the 'bus of death', and after that, Elvir and I became friends. I must say that I empathize with Elvir. Elvir has become an inspiration to all of us since that day. He is living proof of how much the human spirit can endure, how unbreakable it is. Despite everything he has been through, Elvir continues to fight for all the murdered. Although he is disabled, he is still fighting today, he does not give up, there are no limits for him, he fights to the maximum so that the truth is not forgotten,” said Rizvanović – Kovačević.

Fight for Justice

Dr. Zilha Mastalić Košuta, the book's reviewer and research associate at the Institute for Research of Crimes Against Humanity and International Law of the University of Sarajevo, stated in her presentation that the book is an important testimony and a relevant document from the recent war history of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In this autobiographical work, the author described a personal, very poignant testimony about the suffering, hardship, and survival of the inhabitants of the Sarajevo settlements of Dobroševići, Ahatovići, and Bojnik during the aggression against BiH in the period 1992-1995.

“An important segment of this work is also the description of Elvir's fight for justice and a dignified punishment for the perpetrators of this grave crime. His courage, persistence, and fight for the truth can serve as a motive and guide for numerous other victims to testify in courts and to record everything they have seen and experienced, and to leave the truth about the period of aggression against RBiH as a legacy for present and future generations. Elvir Jahić's book leaves a strong impression on the reader, and therefore I warmly recommend it, as it deserves to be known to a wider reading public,” stated Dr. Mastalić Košuta.

Seizure of Bosniak Property

The book's reviewer, publicist, journalist, and above all a director of documentary films with historical and cultural memory themes from the period 1992-1995, Avdo Huseinović, particularly emphasized the importance of the fact that Elvir did not only deal with the execution in Sokolina near Srednje on June 14, 1992, nor did he only deal with his personal testimony and his tragedy that the Bosniaks of Ahatovići and surrounding settlements experienced during the aggression against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“A very important segment is that, in addition to his testimony, he also engaged in research, and perhaps the most important segment of all this is that he entered numerous archives and delved into the deeper past, and in that deeper past, an important factor is the story of the time when Austria-Hungary arrived, who lived in that area, who were the owners of a large number of land properties in the Sarajevo Field area, and then the story of how Bosniaks, as exclusive landowners, in the time of the Kingdom of SHS, from 1921 onwards, lost most of that land, which was taken from them by agrarian reform, and then distributed to the Serbian Orthodox population who had actually only been settled in these areas perhaps about 50 years earlier, most often from the area of Montenegro.

The decisions of that new government of the Kingdom of SHS turned Bosniaks into quite poor people overnight,” stated Avdo Huseinović.

Thanks to Elvir's research approach, we have today a picture of everything that happened a little over a hundred years ago, and that precisely in '92 the siege of Sarajevo was carried out in those locations, which were Bosniak expropriated property from 1921 and then in some subsequent times after that.

What is also very important for Elvir's book, Huseinović stated, is that in addition to the general story of the great unpunished crime against the Bosniaks of Ahatovići and its surroundings, he also deals with the individual fates of his relatives, friends, and neighbors.

Tragic Story of the Family of the Late Edin Bešić

“The story of the former young footballer of the Football Club 'Željezničar', Edin Bešić, who was killed in the bus of death, is particularly striking. It is one of the most tragic stories I have heard. The entire Bešić family did not survive June '92, including his father, mother, and his sister, who was a minor. It is a difficult story about Edin's mother and sister who were in a group of women who committed suicide rather than fall into enemy hands, rather than suffer the most dishonorable acts that could have happened to them then.

They were surrounded and tried to break through towards Visoko, and then, choosing between honor and death, they chose death,” emphasizes Huseinović.

He also mentioned the unpunished crime and that most of the perpetrators live in Serbia, and that we have the great misfortune that in 2013 we signed an Agreement with Serbia, i.e., the then head of the BiH Prosecutor's Office, Goran Salihović, signed with the Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor, Vladimir Vukčević, according to which Serbia has all rights to prosecute any Serb, regardless of whether they have Serbian citizenship or not, if they are considered a suspect for eventual crimes on the territory of BiH.

“They use this extensively, and what I am pessimistic about is the question of whether anyone will be held accountable for Ahatovići, because most of them live in Serbia, at least the most responsible ones, and those we believe were the executioners, for whom we have some evidence, so we live in a time when, and this is unfortunately possible, if a member of the family of the murdered from Ahatovići finds themselves in Serbia, they can even accuse him of committing alleged crimes on the territory of BiH and Serbia will arrest him, but will not prosecute such a large war crime as the execution of people in a bus in Sokolina in 1992,” concludes Huseinović.

One of the book's promoters was Semir Spahić, the book's graphic editor. In his presentation, he said that he is emotionally attached to this book, to every page of it, aware of the importance of this book, like any other that talks about what happened during the past aggression against our country.

“Nevertheless, I was happy because it is a testimony of everything that happened in the period from 1991 to 1995. I truly believe that this is one of the best books published in BiH after the war that talks about the crimes we experienced, but in a truly special way. Elvir conceived it in a special way, starting from the seizure of land and the humiliation of the people who lived in the areas of the former Crnotina and through everything that was being prepared, and we were not aware of what was being prepared, which eventually happened.

The story of the author of this book is chilling when he recounts that he wanted to kill himself in a stream, severely wounded, when he hit himself with a stone and did not succeed in his intention, and then he saw a beige-colored Stojadin coming, from which a woman and a man got out, then he got out of the car and went to the crime scene to see if anyone among the massacred was moving, and he finished off anyone who showed signs of life.

Only when they started to leave the crime scene did Elvir realize that it would be great if he signaled them to end his suffering too, but he didn't have the strength to call them.

Anyone who does not read this book is at a great loss,” said Spahić.

The author, Elvir Jahić, greeted the attendees and thanked them for coming to the promotion, as well as the people who participated in the realization of this very important educational written work. The book is not commercial and is not for sale. Printed copies will be distributed while supplies last. The sponsor of the second edition of the book is the Sarajevo Memorial Center, while the printing of the first edition of the book was supported by the Municipality of Novi Grad Sarajevo and the Municipality of Ilijaš and the Association of Veterans of the War of Novi Grad Sarajevo.