IT IS DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND THAT SOMEONE CELEBRATES THE DAY WHEN WAR OFFICIALLY STARTED

BANJA LUKA, FEBRUARY 28 /SRNA/ - In Republika Srpska, on March 1, the public is reminded of the tragic event in Baščaršija from 1992, when Muslim extremists killed Nikola Gardović during his son's wedding celebration, and it is difficult to understand that someone is celebrating the date when the war in BiH was officially started, said Georgije Vulić from the Institute of Historical Sciences of the University of Istočno Sarajevo.

He emphasized that it is difficult to understand that any nation celebrates "independence day" on the date when the beginning of the war in its living space was officially announced. "Nevertheless, it seems that every year the Bosniak people mark this day with increasing media fanfare and with increasingly intense messages, which testify to the desire to fulfill the dream of living in a `civil BiH,`" Vulić, senior research associate at the Institute, told SRNA. He reminded that the majority of the Serbian public in Bosnia and Herzegovina associated the beginning of the war with March 1, 1992, the day when Muslim extremists led by prominent criminal Ramiz Delalić Ćelo killed Nikola Gardović in Baščaršija during the wedding celebration of his son Milan. "In those events, the Orthodox priest Radenko Mirović was also wounded. On the same day, the voting on the referendum on the independence of BiH, that is, the exit of this socialist republic from the Yugoslav state, ended. The Serbs boycotted the referendum, not wanting to give up their lives in the Yugoslav community. Such a tense situation caused the installation of barricades in Sarajevo, which served to separate the population on ethnic grounds," said Vulić. He emphasized that Srpska celebrates the day when the Dayton Peace Accords was signed, which ended the war in BiH. "This situation, in which the Serb side celebrates the day of the establishment of peace, and the Bosnian side celebrates the day of the beginning of the war, sends a strong symbolic message to other countries. A significant part of the world public, despite this situation, accused the Serbian side of almost all the accidents that befell this area during the nineties of the 20th century," Vulić noted. He stated that there remains hope that the new political circumstances on the global level will lead to the opportunity to hear the voice of Republika Srpska on these issues. According to him, Serbian historiography should play the most important role in raising the awareness of Serbs about the events from the beginning of the war in BiH, whose duty is to present the beginning of the Yugoslav crisis to the public on a scientific basis, as well as the further course of events during the Defense-Patriotic War. "Therefore, historiography would take its rightful place in elucidating the truth about the events that were primarily dealt with by politicians and courts, which are certainly not places where history should be written, although, unfortunately, this was most often the case when it came to the war in BiH," emphasized Vulić. 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, while this date is not celebrated in Republika Srpska.