IT IS SHAMEFUL TO RESPOND TO KOVAČEVIĆ AND ALL OTHERS: No, 'Dobrovoljačka' was not a war crime

By: Amina Čorbo-Zećo

Insulting messages directed at Bosniaks too often come from the ranks of SNSD. Almost without exception, these are politicians who follow the rhetoric of Milorad Dodik, a rhetoric that has systematically relativized crimes, insulted victims, and produced hatred for years. Unfortunately, the media are increasingly failing to take a clear stance – it mostly boils down to simply reporting these catastrophic statements, without context, without criticism, and without resistance.

SNSD spokesperson Radovan Kovačević went a step further, comparing one of the greatest criminals in human history, Adolf Hitler, to the first president of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Alija Izetbegović. Only Federal Television offered institutional and professional resistance to such anti-civilizational discourse, thematically and responsibly addressing this phenomenon.

However, the essence of Kovačević's statement lies not only in the insult but in the question he posed: “Do you think a crime did not happen in Dobrovoljačka?”

And it doesn't matter who the question was addressed to. It is important that it is answered loudly and clearly – no, it did not.

This claim is not based on the author's subjective opinion but on years of international investigations, legal analyses, and court decisions. The Hague Prosecutor's Office determined that no war crime was committed in Dobrovoljačka Street.

Courts in Vienna and London, examining the cases of Ejup Ganić and Jovan Divjak, concluded that these were politically motivated prosecutions, not substantiated criminal proceedings.

So how is it possible that this case is being reopened before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina?

The answer is simple: because Dobrovoljačka is not a judicial but a political case. It is a reflection of what the BiH judiciary has become – a system without courage, without consistency, and without a true sense of the victim. And the victim in this case is – the truth.

The BiH Prosecutor's Office has long ceased to be an independent institution. It is a space where national, international, and personal agendas are turned into indictments, “opinions,” and – silence. And silence is the most common instrument of the Prosecutor's Office's action in the Dobrovoljačka case.

They remained silent when Milanko Kajganić and Mladen Vukojičić, almost literally, copied the indictment from Serbia, prosecuting people who defended Sarajevo. Injustice here is not an incident; it is systematically produced.

Defending Sarajevo in 1992 meant standing in front of tanks, shells, and military force, and saying we will not give up the city. Today, these people walk the world with arrest warrants behind them. They are detained at airports, interrogated, forced to prove they are not criminals. And they are not. Prosecutors, judges, and politicians who ordered these warrants know this.

If they were guilty, they would have been convicted at The Hague. But they were not. They were not even formally accused. They were not even formally suspected. Moreover, this case was never on the list of cases that The Hague forwarded to the BiH judiciary.

Nevertheless, the BiH Prosecutor's Office today holds them hostage to a process that serves revisionism. It keeps them in courtrooms so that politicians like Radovan Kovačević have the space to incite hatred from parliamentary benches and equate the aggressor with the victim.

The goal is clear: to show that “everyone is the same,” that there is no difference between those who attacked and those who defended themselves.

The JNA column was a legitimate military target – The Hague also determined this. Today, however, the BiH judiciary tells us the opposite: that a foreign, enemy army on the territory of the internationally recognized Republic of BiH could not be a military target, and that Alija Izetbegović was a free man.

At the same time, witnesses claim that Alija Izetbegović was extracted and taken under duress to Lukavica in May 1992 precisely to be saved!? Do you know what it's like to hear this, even from those who admit they shot at the city?

The Dobrovoljačka case is a tool. It is used to maintain false narratives, balance political negotiations, and score cheap points – all at the expense of the truth. At the expense of those who defended Bosnia and Herzegovina. At the expense of children who grew up without parents, women who were left without husbands, fighters who were left without health, and today, without dignity.

Dobrovoljačka is a paradigmatic example of how defense turns into accusation, how the state abandons those who created it, and how institutions betray the citizens they are supposed to protect.

There are United Nations documents. There are statements from international officers. There are recordings. There is a legal context. Everything exists except the political will to speak the truth clearly, loudly, and forever:

No war crime was committed in Dobrovoljačka.

But the judiciary, by acting as it does, is committing another crime – a crime against the truth.