DOCUMENTARY CHALLENGING BOSNIAK NARRATIVES ABOUT WARTIME SARAJEVO TO AIR IN SEPTEMBER

BELGRADE, JUNE 28 /SRNA/ – A documentary series on wartime Sarajevo will begin airing in Republika Srpska in September with the aim of showing that Serb responsibility for the events in the city is far less than what Bosniaks have, for years, presented as the absolute truth, BiH Ambassador to Serbia Aleksandar Vranješ told SRNA.

Vranješ, who is a member of the documentary's production team, said the series was made to demonstrate that claims of Serb responsibility for key wartime events in Sarajevo are not as well-founded as they have long been portrayed by the Bosniak political leadership. "Our goal is to show that these contemporary political myths can be easily deconstructed as they are unfounded," Vranješ said, adding that work on the project had lasted for more than a year and that filming had now been completed. He explained that each political narrative about the war in Sarajevo promoted by the Bosniak side over the years was examined from a professional perspective to determine whether it was accurate or not. "Based on interviews with experts, historians, ballistics specialists, physicists, and witnesses who can speak on these issues, we asked whether what they have presented for years as unquestionable truth is actually true," Vranješ said. He added that the issues ranging from shelling incidents and alleged "Serb snipers" to the siege of Sarajevo and other well-known contemporary political narratives that have long been presented as indisputable facts, arise. "This time we are taking a multidisciplinary approach to determine whether these narratives are accurate. We examine, from the standpoint of ballistics, whether a shell could have been fired from a particular position to reach a specific location and cause the reported damage. In doing so, we use documentation that was also accepted as valid by the Hague Tribunal," Vranješ stressed. The team also interviewed people seeking to determine whether certain events could physically have occurred in the way Bosniak representatives have portrayed them for years. Referring to the killing of civilians waiting in line for bread in Vase Miskina Street, Vranješ said the team began by asking why prosecutors at the Hague Tribunal had removed that incident from the indictments against Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić. If Sarajevo has for years presented the incident as indisputable proof of Serb responsibility, Vranješ asked why the Hague prosecution had dropped that charge against Karadžić, while his defence had requested that it be reinstated in order to demonstrate that it had no connection with Serb responsibility. Vranješ said there are also highly specific indicators suggesting that the explosion could not have been caused by an artillery shell but rather by an explosive device. "Who planted it remains a matter in which certain names have been mentioned. This brings us to a serious documentary that, from the perspective of historical facts, forensic science, and criminal investigation, argues that some of the narratives Sarajevo has built and promoted for years as absolute truths do not do," Vranješ said. He added that the six-part documentary series will be broadcast by RTRS, that it was initiated and sponsored by President Milorad Dodik, and that it was produced entirely by a domestic production team from Republika Srpska.