30th anniversary of the massacre in Oslobodilaca Sarajeva Street in Dobrinja marked

(Patria) - A delegation from the Canton of Sarajevo, led by the Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, Zejna Avdić, laid flowers and paid tribute today at the site of the massacre in Oslobodilaca Sarajeva Street behind number 3, in the Dobrinja settlement. Thirty years ago, nine of our fellow citizens were killed at this location, while 16 were seriously or lightly wounded. On that fateful day, the following were killed: Saida Baličevac, Osman Hebibović, Emin Kolar, Enver Mustagrudić, Muškija Pribinja, Mirsad Spahić, Selma Spahić, Aiša Šito, and Jadranka Tenžera.

In addition to the delegation from the Canton of Sarajevo, family members of the murdered, delegations from the city and municipal levels, representatives of victims' associations, and students from the Dobrinja Gymnasium and the "Ćamil Sijarić" Elementary School attended the commemoration.

Addressing the attendees, Avdić reminded that UNPROFOR experts confirmed that these shells were fired from the positions of the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps of the Army of Republika Srpska from the Lukavica settlement, specifically from the Energoinvest building complex. As she stated, immediately after their announcement, NATO planes flew over the mentioned positions, which, ironically, led to a more neutral UNPROFOR report the next day, when the Markale massacre occurred.



As she added, it is important to remember the thousand-day siege of Sarajevo, during which its citizens endured great suffering, hunger, thirst, and cold...

“As if that wasn't enough, constant shelling and sniper fire from aggressor positions killed more than 12,000 citizens of Sarajevo, including 1,601 children. I do not recognize divisions among people other than good and bad, but I feel compelled to mention that the enemy artillery did not discriminate by age, gender, religious, or ethnic affiliation. Everyone who lived in Sarajevo at the time was a daily target of the Army of Republika Srpska,” Avdić stated.

Recalling the verdicts for the crimes committed in Sarajevo, she stated that it is too little to convict only a few individuals for the suffering of all Sarajevo citizens during four years of siege, let alone for more than 12,000 murdered citizens and children, and over 60,000 wounded.

“However, regardless of the past, our future must be built on the equality of all peoples and citizens. We must persevere in the ideas on which Bosnia and Herzegovina can and must survive, and those are the ideas of coexistence, mutual respect, and tolerance. For this to happen, justice must be served, and the perpetrators of these terrible crimes, including the one we are commemorating today, must be adequately punished,” Avdić concluded.

The president of the Association of Parents of Murdered Children of Besieged Sarajevo 1992-1995, Fikret Grabovica, emphasized today that the perpetrators did not choose the place or time to kill innocent citizens of Sarajevo.

“Proof of this is that citizens were in line here to receive humanitarian aid. Crimes were also committed in many other places against innocent citizens while they were carrying out their daily needs. The message from this place is that we must not forget, that we should cultivate a culture of remembrance, especially for the sake of young people, so they know what happened in the nineties during the siege of the city,” Grabovica said.

The Secretary-General of the Union of Civilian War Victims of KS, Muzafer Teskeredžić, stressed that the culture of remembrance is very important, and that we must not forget what happened during the aggression against BiH, both for the sake of the victims and to prevent it from happening again.

Derviš Šito, whose wife was killed in this massacre, said today that 30 years later he reflects on that event, and that such crimes must not be forgotten.