THE MURDER OF NIKOLA GARDOVIĆ WAS MESSAGE TO SERBS OF WHAT AWAITED THEM IN "INDEPENDENT AND SOVEREIGN" BiH

ISTOČNO SARAJEVO, FEBRUARY 25 /SRNA/ - Sunday, March 1, marks 34 years since the murder of Nikola Gardović in Sarajevo's Baščaršija, and through this act, the Muslim leadership in Sarajevo unambiguously demonstrated what awaited the Serb people in the so-called "independent and sovereign" BiH, which had only just been proclaimed by the leading figures of the coalition of aligned flags of the Party of Democratic Action /SDA/ and the Croatian Democratic Union /HDZ/.

Nikola Gardović, the father of the groom and host of the Serb wedding party, was killed on March 1, 1992, in Baščaršija, in a parking lot near the Old Orthodox Church; Orthodox priest Radenko Miković was wounded; and the Serbian flag was seized and burned. "This was not merely a shot fired at Nikola Gardović, but the most direct shot fired at the entire Serbian people and their symbols," Blagoje Kovačević, president of the Assembly of Senior Officers of the Republika Srpska Army, told SRNA. He noted that on that day, the hope that peace in BiH could be preserved was fundamentally shaken by the pistol shots fired at Gardović by a criminal from Priboj residing in Sarajevo, Ramiz Delalić Ćelo, a member of the notorious Green Berets. Kovačević pointed out that at the time the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of BiH did not issue any statement, nor did the public RTV service, and that rumors spread that the "Green Berets," together with units of the Muslim paramilitary formation known as the Patriotic League, would attack Serb parts of Sarajevo and carry out mass crimes, as had occurred in 1914 and 1941. According to him, out of fear that this might occur, there was a spontaneous gathering of the Serb population and the erection of barricades on the main roads leading to neighborhoods with a majority Serb population, after which a crisis headquarters was formed with the aim of preventing an escalation of the conflict. ILLEGAL REFERENDUM It should be reminded that on that fateful March 1, 1992, it was the second and final day of an illegal referendum on the unitarization of BiH and the outvoting of Serbs, and that across BiH, especially in parts of Sarajevo where Muslims and Croats constituted the majority, there was infernal gunfire from small arms. "Through this act, they sought to make it clear to the Serbs that they were armed and that nothing would prevent them from achieving their proclaimed wartime objectives. The general euphoria that swept broad segments of the Muslim and Croat population was likely also fueled by a statement made by the then Muslim leader Alija Izetbegović in the BiH Parliament that he would `sacrifice peace for a sovereign and independent BiH,` thereby directly contributing to the outbreak of armed conflict," Kovačević emphasizes. Following the idea of independence, the leaderships of the SDA and the HDZ, against the will of the Serbs and their leadership, organized a referendum on the independence of the so-called Republic of BiH, which was conducted on February 29 and March 1, 1992. "The Serb people boycotted this illegal referendum, which was not even held in areas where authority was in Serb hands," recalls Kovačević, who is also an honorary general of the Republika Srpska Army. He stated that Muslims and Croats turned out for that referendum and voted for a "sovereign and independent BiH," that is, for secession from the then Yugoslavia. According to published data, a total of 2,073,568 voters, or 63.6 percent, participated in that illegal plebiscite conducted by members of only two constituent peoples in BiH, of whom 99.7 percent voted "in favor", and just 0.3 percent voted "against". MUSLIM WARTIME LEADERSHIP TURNED DEAF EAR TO DEMANDS OF SERB CRISIS HEADQUARTERS After the murder of the Serb wedding guest, the Serb Crisis Headquarters demanded that citizens be informed as soon as possible, via the public RTV service, about what had happened in front of the Old Orthodox Church, and requested that the then Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of BiH immediately arrest the perpetrators of Gardović's murder. It also called for the urgent suspension of the campaign for the "independence and sovereignty of BiH" and its international recognition until a satisfactory solution was reached for all three constituent peoples. "Of course, none of this was accepted by the leadership of the so-called Republic of BiH, after which events in Sarajevo began to unfold at cinematic speed. Although it had been agreed during the division of power that all three sides would be equally represented in the Ministry of the Interior, radio and television, and the security services, and that all decisions would be made by consensus, none of that materialized," Kovačević stated. He reminded that as early as March 6, 1992, the so-called Presidency of BiH, without a Serb representative, proclaimed March 1, 1992 as "Independence Day" and sought international recognition of their state, which the United States recognized the very next day, followed in turn by all Western member states of NATO, whose actions significantly contributed to the dismantling of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Even then, the scandalous intentions and moves of the SDA were clear, as it infiltrated the notorious Patriotic League with a large number of highly dubious individuals of security concern from Sarajevo’s criminal milieu, such as Juka Prazina, Mušan Topalović Caco, Ismet Bajramović Ćelo, and Ramiz Delalić Ćelo. INSTEAD OF VERDICT, MURDERER RECEIVED PISTOL WITH DEDICATION Proceedings against Ramiz Delalić Ćelo, who killed Nikola Gardović, were initiated by the Sarajevo Cantonal Prosecutor’s Office only in early 2006; they were never concluded because this criminal 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 as attackers; Švrakić is the son of Emin Švrakić, the founder of the notorious Green Berets. The fourth attacker was Taib Torlaković, who, like Ćelo, was killed after the war in a mafia-style settling of accounts in Sarajevo. Immediately after the outbreak of the war in Sarajevo, Delalić became commander of the 9th Muslim Mountain Brigade of the so-called Army of BiH, and received a pistol with a dedication as a "reward for merits" from the then president of the so-called wartime Presidency of BiH, Alija Izetbegović. The Gardović family was forced to leave Sarajevo immediately after the fateful March 1, 1992.