SLAĐANA KOBAS - THE THIRTEENTH “STAR” OF THE BANJA LUKA BABIES

BIJELJINA, FEBRUARY 8 /SRNA/ – Slađana Kobas, one of the babies who survived from the Banja Luka maternity ward in 1992, when 12 newborns died due to the closed corridor and the inability to deliver oxygen from Serbia for incubators, passed away on February 9, 2006.

Slađana was the 13th little star among the prematurely born babies from Banja Luka. The other 12 Banja Luka babies died during the spring of 1992, because the transport routes between Republika Srpska and the FR Yugoslavia had been cut by Croatian and Muslim military units, while the western parts of Republika Srpska and Republika Srpska Krajina found themselves under siege. Two babies survived, Slađana Kobas and Marko Medaković, but both had developmental difficulties. Thus, Slađana Kobas died on February 9, 2006, in Prijedor, where she was laid to rest. It was precisely this lack of oxygen and the death of the babies that prompted the command of the First Krajina Corps of the Republika Srpska Army to launch the operation named “Corridor 92,” which was successfully completed on June 26, 1992, after which, following nearly two months, a connection with Serbia was finally reestablished. Seven days after the death of the last baby, the Republika Srpska Army, together with units of the Army of Republika Srpska Krajina, established the corridor with Serbia, through which oxygen could thereafter be regularly delivered.