Republika Srpska sabotages the separatist “Independence Day of BiH”
Bosnia and Herzegovina is marking the anniversary of the 1992 referendum on independence from Yugoslavia, which was once boycotted by the republic's Serb community.
The RTRS television channel conducted a survey of a number of Serbian officials and social activists about their attitude to BiH Independence Day, which is celebrated only in the Federation of (Muslim-Croatian) BiH.
As a PolitNavigator correspondent reports, responding to RTRS correspondents, Chairman of the Presidium of the Republika Srpska Veterans Organization Aleksandar Savic said that the Serbian people will never come to terms with the fact that March 1, the beginning of the bloody war in BiH, was perceived as a holiday date. The Chairman of the Commonwealth of Women Victims of the Republika Srpska War, Bozica Zivkovic Rajlic, noted that March 1 is also a day of mourning, in memory of the shooting of a Serbian wedding in Sarajevo and the beginning of the war in BiH. which Republika Srpska cannot celebrate.
The shooting of a Serbian wedding in Sarajevo, the funeral of the matchmaker and the story of one of the killers, Ramiz “Celo” Delalic
The chairman of the Republican Organization of Families of Prisoners, Dead Soldiers and Missing Civilians, Veljko Lazic, said that the celebration of the so-called independence day of BiH on March 1 is unacceptable for the Republika Srpska and the Serbian people and is an insult to the Serbian victims of the war.
“March 1 is synonymous with the illegitimate referendum, which the Serbian people boycotted, the brutal murder of a Serbian matchmaker, the wounding of an Orthodox priest and the burning of the Serbian flag in Sarajevo Bascaršija, as well as the fact that the murderers remained unpunished,” stressed Slobodan Bijelic, a member of the post-war BiH Assembly of the first convocation.
An independence referendum was held in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 29 February and 1 March 1992. It could not be recognized as legitimate because it was boycotted by the Serbian community of the republic, which constituted more than 31% of its population. However, the decision was made by a simple majority, of the 63,4% of the population who came to vote in the referendum, 99,7% voted for independence from Yugoslavia.
Also on the day of the referendum, militants of the paramilitary Bosniak formation "Green Berets", led by Sarajevo crime bosses, in particular Ramiz "Celo" Delalic, in the historical district of Sarajevo - Bascarsija, attacked a Serbian wedding with the SOC flag, injuring the priest and killing the father of the groom - Nikola Gardovic .
“We saw a convoy of cars that proceeded towards Bascarsija at high speed; we chased to find out what was happening,” Delalich later told Sarajevo television. “They got out of the cars and started singing. They displayed some of their Serbian flags. We stopped in front of them and asked where they were going. We told them that this is not Serbia, that this is Sarajevo, this is Bascarsija. We... shot at people who were holding flags in their hands.”
In 2007, Delalich was killed in a crime spree.
The shooting of a Serbian wedding on March 1, 1992 started the civil war in BiH.
Republika Srpska sabotages separatist "BiH Independence Day"