SARAJEVO, MAY 2 (ONASA) – Representatives of various levels of government, including delegations from the Assembly and Government of Sarajevo Canton, the City of Sarajevo, representatives of Sarajevo municipalities, veterans and other organizations marked the 31st anniversary of the battle for the defense of the Presidency of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina by laying flowers on Šehidsko to the Kovača memorial cemetery.
The program at Kovači started with the singing of the national anthem of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The representative of the office of the member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denis Bećirović, paid tribute to the martyrs from the past war in Bosnia and Herzegovina and to the first president of the Presidency of the Republic of BiH, Alija Izetbegović, in an appropriate manner.
KS Minister of Veteran Affairs Omer Osmanović pointed out that it is very important to mark such dates and pay tribute to all the veterans who gave their lives for the defense of Sarajevo and the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
He underlined how one of the most significant battles took place on this day.
“On the second of May, the city of Sarajevo was defended, Bosnia and Herzegovina was defended. We knew the goals that were set at that time, which was to seize the Presidency and RTV. I believe that this is the place from which we must say today that the 1,503 lives that were laid here in the foundations of the state must not be in vain. The culture of memory must overcome the culture of forgetting, and in this way we are sending the message that there will always be Bosnia”, said Osmanović at the “Kovači” martyrs’ cemetery in Sarajevo.
He added that they also significantly emphasized that the RBiH Army defended the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“We defended ourselves, we didn’t go anywhere. We defended our doorsteps, our families, our country. And that’s why today we are sending a message from this place: No matter how many attacks are against us, we will endure and Bosnia will always be,” concluded Osmanović.
Many war veterans, fighters of the RBiH Army, including Mirsad Kurtagić, were also present at Kovači today.
He said that today’s revolutionary day is ours as well as May 1st.
“We who have remained alive must remember in a dignified way in order to provide and create preconditions for the future of the younger generations. Unfortunately, world trends also reflect on Bosnia and Herzegovina, so they hit us like this even after this unjust Dayton peace, after two aggressions that were perpetrated on sovereign Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is no one’s fault. The path of Bosnians and the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina is honorable, and we should persevere and fight for our intellectuals, write as much as possible, that would be my message, that all witnesses to the event write only the truth in order to create the most compact existence of Bosnia”, he concluded. Kurtagić.
After the Kovača cemetery, flowers were also placed on the memorial to the murdered children of besieged Sarajevo. During the day, the delegations will lay flowers at the “Lion” cemetery, the “Stadion” cemetery, and at the central memorial to the martyrs and fallen fighters of the municipality of Novi Grad, as well as the Alley of Veterans at the “Vlakovo” cemetery.
On May 2, 1992, special units of the then Yugoslav People’s Army, with the help of numerous paramilitary units, tried to occupy the building of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the center of Sarajevo in a coordinated and well-planned military operation.
The main battle was fought on Skenderija, about 150 meters from the State Presidency building.
The seizure of the building of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina was prevented.
However, especially since that day, in full view of the whole world, the citizens of Sarajevo under siege were killed by mortar shells, sniper shots, anti-aircraft weapons… but they were also tortured and exhausted by interruptions in the supply of water, electricity and natural gas, starved…
However, the persistence to defend the city and the desire to survive won and Sarajevo never fell into the hands of the aggressors of Bosnia and Herzegovina.