KOŠARAC: MARCH 1 SYMBOLIZES SERB BLOODSHED, HATRED AND HORROR

ISTOČNO SARAJEVO, MARCH 1 /SRNA/ - Deputy Chairperson of the Council of Ministers Staša Košarac has stressed that it is incomprehensible and shameful that anyone today celebrates March 1 as a holiday, as that date is associated with Serb blood shed, hatred, and the brutalities that followed.

"Today, with pain and sorrow, we remember the tragic March 1, the day when Serb wedding guest Nikola Gardović was brutally killed in Baščaršija - solely because he was a Serb. That crime was not accidental, but a clear signal of what awaited the Serb people in BiH shaped by those who sought to outvote, humiliate, and expel them," Košarac stated on the social network X.

He stressed that the killing of Nikola Gardović was the trigger for the horrific civil war and a symbol of the beginning of the suffering and persecution of Serbs.

"For the Serb people and Republika Srpska, that date is not a holiday, but a Day of Mourning and remembrance of innocent victims. March 1 remains permanently recorded as a day of sorrow, warning, and remembrance of Nikola Gardović and all Serbs who suffered simply because of who they were," Košarac said.

In parts of the Federation of BiH with a Bosniak majority, March 1 is marked as the so-called Independence Day of BiH, as an illegal referendum on BiH’s independence and secession from the SFRY was held on that date.

Serbs in Republika Srpska remember March 1 for the killing of a Serb wedding guest in Sarajevo, which was also the trigger for the outbreak of war.

The Government of Republika Srpska proclaimed March 1 a Day of Mourning due to the tragic events that took place on that date in 1992, which prompted the outbreak of conflict in BiH.

This tragic date is not celebrated in Republika Srpska; instead, November 21 - the day when the General Framework Agreement for Peace in BiH was initialed at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, is observed, marking the end of the civil war in BiH.