How Belgrade Media Perceive the Igman Event: Provocative Parade of ARBiH Units

Belgrade's Blic newspaper continuously publishes articles labeling the only official and legitimate military force of the independent state of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the aggression, the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH) and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (MUP RBiH) as the "so-called" army, reports the Patria News Agency.

The latest article they published was about the traditional event "Defense of BiH - Igman 2016".

We are reprinting the article in its entirety without corrections.

"Veterans of the so-called Army and MUP of the Republic of BiH lined up last weekend on Igman, dressed in military uniforms, with war flags in their hands.

As part of the event "Defense of BiH - Igman 2016", veterans, accompanied by younger generations, recalled the days when they "did not allow aggressor units to conquer Sarajevo, and other parts of BiH". The event, the 16th in a row, began the day before at the Sarajevo cemetery Kovači.

The highlight of the event was the parade on Igman's Veliko Polje, where many things recalled wartime days. The president of the Organizing Committee was the federal minister for veterans' affairs, Salko Bukvarević," end of the article from Belgrade's Blic.

What is the problem if soldiers who defended the state of BiH gather once a year? What is the problem if history is not allowed to be forgotten and if future generations are to know on which locations the state and the capital city were defended, especially when they learn nothing from history textbooks?

Should we forget that 15,000 soldiers of The Hague convict Ratko Mladić launched a major military operation in 1993 to cut the Corridor across Igman, which was the only path of salvation and hope for Sarajevans, as food and medicine were supplied to the city through that route? Should we forget how many soldiers lost their lives on Igman defending the capital city?

The gathering of veterans of the ARBiH and MUP RBiH is "rattling sabers" for Belgrade's Blic, but the gathering of members of the Ravna Gora Chetnik Movement in Draževina near Višegrad is merely "paying tribute to the Chetnik duke Draža Mihailović and rehabilitating the Chetnik ideology" and an event portrayed positively in media like Blic. Although the rehabilitation of fascist ideologies is condemned everywhere in the world, it is considered normal, even desirable, in this part of the Balkans.

Moreover, not a single word is mentioned about the Ravna Gora members arriving in Višegrad armed to the teeth and in uniforms with cockades like those worn by the very people who committed genocide against Bosniaks in eastern Bosnia in the summer of 1992. No, these Chetniks are peacemakers, while for the members of the only legitimate military force in the independent state of BiH, gatherings recalling difficult days are described as "the war is still ongoing", as Blic writes.

Who, 16 years later (since this event has been organized continuously), in Serbian media suddenly needs the narrative that "for some, the war is still ongoing"? When Chetniks gather in Draževina, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Republika Srpska "claims that these Chetniks are not a threat to anyone." Who are the veterans of the ARBiH, MUP RBiH, mothers of martyrs, and youth who come to Igman to hear the truth about the heroic struggle and about the crimes and genocide convicted at the Hague Tribunal and before domestic courts from living participants of the battles for the defense of Sarajevo a threat to?