GARDOVIĆS SURVIVED SHOT IN SARAJEVO

BELGRADE, MARCH 1 /SRNA/ - Dragan Gardović, the son of Nikola Gardović, who was brutally murdered on March 1, 1992 in Sarajevo, tells SRNA that today is a sad day to commemorate and remember for both the Gardovićs and all Serbs in Republika Srpska, and that it being celebrated as some kind of holiday in the Federation of BiH is unfortunate.

Dragan emphasizes that the Gardović family will not go to Sarajevo's Bare cemetery today to light candles for his father's soul, but will do it all over the world, where the life has scattered them. "Mother Jelena lives in Belgrade, as does brother Jovan. Sister Nada is in Bijeljina, Arsenije is in Stockholm, and youngest Milan is in Malmo. It's sad that we can't visit the cemetery on that day as you never know what kind of people you may come across even though 32 years have passed," said Dragan, who lives in Zvornik. He visited father's grave last year in July, and his daughter and son were with him for the first time to light a candle for their grandfather. "Nikola is survived by five children, 17 grandchildren and 21 great-grandchildren. The Gardovićs survived the shot in Sarajevo," said Dragan, who is a war invalid and works in "Mlin" in Zvornik. Recalling the fatal March 1, 1992, Dragan stated that his father's killers were actually shooting at him because he was holding the Serb flag. "Later they said it was an SDS flag. They lied, it was a church flag with a cross and four letters ‘S’. The first two shots were fired at me because I was holding the flag. I don't know where the bullets ended. Rasim Delalić Ćelo shot and killed my father, Šabović wounded my late brother-in-law in the leg, the third was only an accomplice," testified Dragan Gardović. He emphasized that the Serbs in Sarajevo were upset because they knew that the Muslims were preparing a referendum. On March 1, 1992, the Serb wedding guest Nikola Gardović was killed and the Orthodox priest Radenko Mirović was wounded in Sarajevo, while the murderers, whom the Muslim authorities in Sarajevo did not even try to punish lawfully, burned the Serb flag. Only at the beginning of 2006, the Sarajevo Cantonal Prosecutor's Office initiated court proceedings against Nikola's killer, Rasim Delalić Ćelo, which has never been completed, because the criminal was killed in 2008 in that city. In addition to Delalić, who later admitted to killing Gardović, the witnesses also recognized Suad Šabanović from Zvornik and Muhamed Švrakić from Sarajevo, who is the son of the founder of the infamous "Green Berets" Emin Švrakić, as the attackers. The fourth attacker was Taib Torlaković, who, like Ćelo, was killed in a mafia showdown in Sarajevo after the war. In the part of the Federation of BiH with a majority Bosniak population, March 1 is celebrated as the so-called Independence Day of BiH, because an illegal referendum on the independence and secession of BiH from the SFRY was held then. Serbs in Republika Srpska remember March 1 for the murder of a Serb wedding guest in Sarajevo, which was also the trigger for the beginning of the war. This tragic date is not celebrated in Republika Srpska, but November 21 - the day when the General Framework Agreement for Peace in BiH, which marked the end of the civil war in BiH, was initialed at the US Wright Peterson Air Force base near Dayton.