Sarajevo, are you ashamed of Prijedor?

Written by: Rasim Belko

Yesterday, in Kamičani, the coffins of seven identified bodies were lowered. Seven names. Seven people. Seven lives, cut short violently, treacherously, heartlessly. And seven families who finally got a place to shed a tear. And Sarajevo? Sarajevo yesterday – was silent. Sunday. Non-working. Peaceful. Relaxed. Coffee, a walk, sunshine. The city that likes to call itself the heart of Bosnia was pulseless yesterday.

In Prijedor and the Sana valley – the whisper of the dead through the call to prayer, silence among the graves, mothers' sobs. And in the capital city – nothing. Neither a day of mourning, nor flags at half-mast, nor a symbolic gesture of solidarity. There is no sound, no image. There are no questions, no answers. There is no Sarajevo.

And no, this is not the first time. This is a pattern. Sarajevo's forgetfulness that begins as soon as the cameras turn off in Potočari. As if there is a calendar of piety in which only July 11 counts as a day worthy of remembrance. And what about July 20? With every day when someone in this country lowers a coffin into the ground three decades after the crime?

In the Una-Sana Canton yesterday was a day of mourning. USK, which for years welcomes, consoles, remembers. And Sarajevo? The city of embassies, offices, non-governmental organizations and self-proclaimed "guardians of memory"? In dead silence. As if Kamičani does not concern them. As if Prijedor is not part of the same wound that has been bleeding from 1992 until today.

Let's be clear – this is not just an institutional problem. This is a moral chasm. Because when the capital city is silent, when the media are silent, when cultural institutions do not have even a symbolic gesture of solidarity – that is not forgetfulness, that is a message. A message to the families that Sarajevo does not see their dead. A message that some victims are more important, and others – silenced.

Is Sarajevo tired of piety? Has it spent its tears on Potočari and decided to "take a break" until September? Or is the truth simpler and more painful – Sarajevo ignores victims that are far from its borders and the amplified media narrative, those that do not fit into the narrative of "its" suffering?

No one is asking for parades. And no, this is not a critique of everything related to July 11, this is a cry because in Bosnia and Herzegovina that July 11 is replicated every month, only in a different city, municipality. But a day of mourning? Flags at half-mast? A minute of silence? An exhibition? A panel, even a student one? Anything? Even a word? Even one hashtag?

Nothing. Sarajevo had nothing to say yesterday. But it should have. Because when seven victims of genocide are lowered into the ground – the land should stop. And the heart of the state should beat deeper, slower, more painfully.

How then can the victims from the Sana valley and the Prijedor area expect a fight for justice? And the Grand Mufti Husein ef. Kavazović said yesterday in Kamičani: "Let us become aware of the gravity of the crime committed in Prijedor. Let us show compassion for the pain that parents, children and spouses carry within themselves. As people, let us ease their pain and suffering. Let us show our perseverance in the search for the truth. We have a right to it and to make the whole world aware of it. We must not stop demanding justice for the criminals, because in their punishment, as the Qur'an says, is life for the survivors and hope that a similar crime will not be repeated."

Only Sarajevo does not hear anyone when the message does not come from Baščaršija or Marijin Dvor.

That Sarajevo yesterday had no heart.

And that is why I ask myself: Sarajevo, are you ashamed of Prijedor?