34 YEARS SINCE THE KILLING OF NIKOLA GARDOVIĆ

ISTOČNO SARAJEVO, MARCH 1 /SRNA/ - Thirty-four years ago, Nikola Gardović was murdered at Sarajevo’s Baščaršija, Orthodox priest Radenko Mirović was wounded, while the perpetrators, whom the Muslim authorities in Sarajevo did not even attempt to punish justly, burned the Serbian flag.

Only in early 2006 did the Sarajevo Cantonal Prosecutor’s Office initiate legal proceedings against Ramiz Delalić Ćelo, who killed Nikola Gardović, but the trial was never concluded because the perpetrator was killed in Sarajevo in 2008. In addition to Delalić, who later admitted to killing Gardović, witnesses also identified Suad Šabanović from Zvornik and Muhamed Švrakić from Sarajevo, the son of Emin Švrakić, founder of the notorious "Green Berets", as attackers. The fourth attacker was Taib Torlaković, who, like Ćelo, was killed in a mafia-related confrontation in Sarajevo after the war. Immediately after the outbreak of the war in Sarajevo, Delalić became commander of the Ninth Muslim Mountain Brigade of the so-called Army of BiH, and for his "merits", he was presented with a pistol bearing a dedication by Alija Izetbegović, then president of the so-called wartime Presidency of BiH. On March 1, 1992, Serb wedding guests gathered in Sarajevo’s Alipašino Polje neighborhood, and the hosts, the Gardović family, displayed the Serbian tricolor on the balcony of their apartment in accordance with tradition. However, even then they noticed hostility among neighbors and heard inappropriate and malicious comments. About ten bandits, though not neighbors, attempted even then to reach and remove the Serbian flag, but the wedding guests and hosts prevented them from doing so. That same day, at 2:30 p.m., Milan Gardović and Dijana Tambur were married at the Church of the Holy Transfiguration in Novo Sarajevo. The wedding reception was organized at the Hall of Saint Tekla, located at the Old Orthodox Church in Baščaršija. After the ceremony, about one hundred wedding guests headed toward the hall by car, which was located about seven kilometers away. Since there is no parking in front of the Old Church, the convoy stopped 150–200 meters away, near the City Hall, where the vehicles were left, and the guests continued on foot. According to testimony from wedding guests and eyewitnesses in the pedestrian zone at Baščaršija, a white Golf carrying four Sarajevo criminals, including the notorious Ćelo, approached the group. They exited the vehicle and attempted to seize Serbian flags from the standard-bearers. A scuffle ensued, after which two of the attackers opened fire, wounding Serb wedding guests Mirović and Gardović. Several minutes later, Gardović died in an ambulance. Following the killing at Baščaršija, the Gardović family was forced to leave Sarajevo.