THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY, ALIJA IZETBEGOVIĆ, EJUP GANIĆ, JUSUF PUŠINA... THEY ALL KNEW WHAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN TO MEMBERS OF JNA

EAST SARAJEVO, MAY 31 /SRNA/ - It was dawn on May 3, 1992 - Alija Izetbegović was in Lukavica, negotiations for the eviction of JNA members from Bistrik had been going on since the early morning hours.

In the afternoon, Alija Izetbegović arrived at the headquarters of the 2nd Military District Command in Bistrik together with General MacKenzie. Jusuf Pušina, Deputy Minister of the Interior of BiH, was already in General Kukanjac's office.

His alleged role was to escort Izetbegović to the Presidency. From 14:00, the people who were in the Command circle were already preparing for the departure planned for 18:00.

According to witness statements, the column consisted of 36 vehicles. In the first transporter, which was at the head of the column, was General MacKenzie, and immediately behind him in the second were General Kukanjac, Alija Izetbegović, his daughter Sabina and the commander of the local so-called Territorial Defense of BiH.

The other vehicles continued in the order in which they left the Command building, because there were no specific instructions when forming the column. At the moment when the first part of the column reached the Drvenija Bridge, the column was cut into two parts by members of the so-called Territorial Defense.

NOT EVEN AMBULANCE VEHICLE WAS SPARED IN THE BLOODY MASSACRE OF MUSLIMS

The rear of the column, whose end was parallel to the main gate of the Command, was attacked, and an ambulance was located near the Drvenija bridge, which was visibly marked with a red cross. Several armed men approached the ambulance and, holding a rifle to the head of the driver, Dragan Ćućilo, ordered everyone to get out.

After Colonel Budimir Radulović, Chief of the Medical Service of the 2nd Military District, opened the door and demanded an explanation of the situation, one of the members of the aforementioned formation approached him and fired several shots from an automatic rifle into his head, as a result of which the colonel died.

Afterwards, attackers with "Patriotic League" and "Green Berets" insignia went around the van, opened the back door and opened a burst of automatic weapons fire in the direction of the passengers in the van. Miro Sokić was then killed, and Mićo Pantelić was also wounded in the head.

On the way to the Military Hospital, Normela Šuko was killed, while Dušan and Dragan Kovačević were wounded. Only the driver, Dragan Ćućilo, escaped unharmed, his life saved by his helmet.

Not far from this ambulance, in a "TAM" truck, were soldiers Slobodan Bojanić and Miodrag Đukić, Captain Laslo Pravda, Lieutenant Colonel Boško Jovanić and Captain Dragan Stanković. The vehicle was surrounded by members of the Territorial Defense, who ordered them to get out, surrender their weapons and lie down on the asphalt.

"BRAVE" MUSLIMS SHOT AT JNA MEMBERS WHILE THEY LAY DISARMED ON THE ASPHALT

While they were lying on the asphalt, one of the members of this paramilitary formation shot at them from a distance of one meter. Miodrag Đukić and Boško Jovanić were mortally wounded, and Captain Dragan Stanković, Captain Laslo Pravda and Private Slobodan Bojanić were wounded, as well as Zvezdan Arsić, who was lying on the sidewalk next to them.

At the end of the column, in a military vehicle, were Ratko Katalina, Milan Legen, Slavoljub Belošević, Boško Mihajlović, Tomislav Dejanović, Ivan Miljanović and others. After members of the so-called Territorial Defense fired a volley of bullets at a truck in front of them in the column, their vehicle was surrounded by members of the "Green Berets," who ordered them to leave the vehicle disarmed, take off all their clothes and lie down on the ground.

At the very rear of the column, in an Opel car, were Colonels Enes Taso and Josip Ivanović, as well as the soldier-driver Zdravko Tomović and civilian Ivanka Stankov. When the column was blocked, attackers approached their vehicle from the direction of the Car Dušan's Park.

A huge crowd, mostly civilians, but also people in camouflage uniforms, most of whom were armed, was coming from the direction of the park. At that moment, shots from automatic rifles were heard from several sides, and one of those bursts hit this vehicle as well. Zdravko Tomović was killed by those bursts, while the other passengers were wounded.

Ivanka Stankov, who joined the column at the last moment, stated in her testimony that the vehicles left the Command yard one by one.

"We were practically the last vehicle to leave the yard. Immediately after leaving the Command yard, right on the ramp, we saw a large group of `Green Berets` members running from Bistrik from a building that was in our immediate vicinity. All the guns were pointed at us, but we had no choice.

At the very bend, at the turnoff to Dobrovoljačka Street, there were several vehicles and UNPROFOR soldiers. The vehicle I was in joined the column, and behind us were UNPROFOR vehicles. Immediately after leaving the yard, the car stopped, we did not know what was happening ahead. We were approximately under the stairs at the main entrance to the Command building.

The Command was immediately invaded by members of the `Green Berets`. All the roofs of the surrounding buildings were full of Muslim snipers, and there was such a mass of `scum` around us that the column stood still. We sat quietly in the car, watching what was happening around us and hoping that we would be able to move at any moment.

An enraged crowd with `green berets` on their heads and `lilies` rushed at us. They shouted to us to hand over our weapons. We all threw our rifles out the window, which didn't even fall to the ground, but they took them out the window. At that moment we noticed something happening ahead and saw some of our people with their hands raised above their heads, in their underwear, walking forward.

Suddenly, a burst of gunfire began at our car. The first to fall over the wheel was soldier Zdravko Tomović. General Taso started shouting not to shoot, that they had killed a soldier, but this only made them even more angry, so a burst of gunfire was opened at the car from the automatic rifles they had taken from us.

Then General Taso was also hit by a burst of fire, and the two of us sitting in the back noticed blood everywhere. One of the members of the `Green Berets` climbed onto the hood of the car and fired several more bursts at us. There was glass everywhere.

Someone opened the door, General Taso fell out on one side, the murdered soldier Tomović on the other, and the two of us who were sitting in the back were pulled out of the vehicle. I lay on the sidewalk thinking I was dead, probably out of fear. I saw several of them approach us, take the pistols we had on our belts, take off our camouflage uniforms, tear off our ranks and throw them at us, put our berets and helmets on their heads, only instead of our insignia they put their own 'lilies'.

The three of us were taken from the vehicle to the hospital, and soldier Tomović was left dead on the street. After about ten days, with the help of UNPROFOR, they took us out of the city," Ivanka said.

VARIOUS CRIMINALS PARTICIPATED IN THE SLAUGHTER OF JNA MEMBERS: "CACE", "ČELE", "ŠEVE", "BOSNIA", MUSLIM POLICE...

Colonel Ratko Katalina said that they all participated in the slaughter of innocent soldiers. In the narrow Dobrovoljačka Street, she says, a mass of attackers appeared, in addition to the Territorial Defense of Bosnia and Herzegovina, there were also the "Patriotic League," MUP officers, the "Green Berets," some "Bosna" and a mass of various "free shooters" such as "Juke", "Cace", "Ševe", "Ćele" and others.

They were simply competing to see who would inflict more harm on the members of the Second Military District. Jovan Divjak and Pušina were also there, and Alija Izetbegović's son-in-law also appeared.

The international community, together with UNPROFOR, was the guarantor of the safe exit of the 2nd Military District Command from Sarajevo to Lukavica. General Lewis MacKenzie, who as the Chief of Staff of UNPROFOR for the former Yugoslavia was a direct participant in the evacuation of the 2nd Military District Command and the subsequent events in Dobrovoljačka Street itself, also gave his opinion on the event. He expressed his view of the attack on the JNA column in his book:

"At the appointed time, we left Kukanj's office and headed towards the convoy that had formed, in the broadest sense of the word, right next to the main gate. I was halfway there when I received a call from headquarters: `Ejup Ganić reported that the agreement had been canceled.` `What the hell are you talking about?` I shouted. `The president of Bosnia is with me and his commander of all `Territorial Defense` forces is here and they guarantee the safe passage of the convoy - I can't achieve anything better than that. Let me talk to them again.`

I ran to the president and explained the situation to him. I asked him whether I should listen to him or Ganić? He said I had his word and that of his commander. I returned to the radio and reported to headquarters: We are moving. Tell Ganić. We will keep the two most important participants in the same vehicle until we reach a place not far from the Presidency where Izetbegović and his daughter will transfer to another vehicle that will take them to safety, the last 300 meters.

We had gone about a kilometer when I thought I heard a shot... I jumped out of the car and ran towards the car from which shots were coming, no longer single shots but a burst of fire. The heaviest shooting was about fifty meters away from us. I saw soldiers of the so-called `Territorial Defense` sticking their rifle barrels out the windows of civilian cars that were part of the convoy and shooting at the passengers.

I saw blood splattered on the windshields of cars. A group of about twenty soldiers of the so-called `Territorial Defense` took their cars out into the street to cut off the convoy. The JNA soldiers sat helplessly in their trucks. One of the soldiers of the so-called `Territorial Defense,` with two hand grenades in his teeth, had just threatened to throw a third bomb into a truck full of JNA soldiers if they did not immediately surrender their weapons.

Weapons and equipment were flying out of the trucks and falling all around the soldiers of the `Territorial Defense`. I approached the soldier with bombs in his teeth and put my hand on his shoulder. When he suddenly turned towards me, I saw that he was either drunk or full of adrenaline. His pupils were dilated and he looked so frantic that I seriously considered what to do next...

I returned to the vehicle that Izetbegović was in. I stuck my head in through the back door of the vehicle and told President Izetbegović that his forces had broken the promise he had made and had ambushed the JNA convoy.

General Kukanjac looked shocked and desolate. Izetbegović retained his composure, however; I told him to open the top hatch of the vehicle and stand up. He did so and turned to the members of the so-called `Territorial Defense`. After five minutes of talking with Alija, his soldiers returned to their troops along the convoy, but the damage had already been done," MacKenzie wrote in his book titled "Peacekeeper: the road to Sarajevo".

All the people from the second part of the column that was cut off were captured. A large number of the prisoners experienced brutal physical and mental torture. All this took place in the premises of the Central Prison, the building of the Presidency of BiH, and especially in the Partisan Gymnasium where the captured people from Dobrovoljačka Street were taken after being registered in front of the city's police building. There, the mistreatment of the soldiers continued.

The next day, May 4, at the insistence of the international community, the Muslim authorities released most of the captured JNA members, who were transferred to Lukavica by buses in the presence of UNPROFOR. However, several years later it was learned that a number of JNA soldiers, at the moment when they were supposed to leave the FIS building and get on the buses, were hidden in the basements of those same buildings to continue being tortured and abused for another month, while others were dislocated from the building and transferred to the premises of the "Sarajka" department store /today's BBI shopping mall/, which was located in the immediate vicinity.

They were beaten all the time by members of Muslim paramilitary formations, who, as they arrived, vented their anger on them by hitting and insulting them. We were all bruised - with bruises and lumps. We ate soup with a piece of bread in the morning and evening, just like in prison. They spent about two months in the basement of "Sarajka," they used them for advertising how humanely they treated prisoners. They filmed how they treated them nicely, they had to make statements that they felt nice, that they were grateful, and they recorded all of it with a photo camera and a video camera. They said that it was for one of their radio studios, but they were not allowed to say that they were captured members of the JNA.

The last group of prisoners was released on July 20, 1992, a month and a half after being captured on Dobrovoljačka Street.

EPILOGUE OF THE CRIME - 28 DEAD, 27 WOUNDED, MORE THAN 200 CAPTURED AND TORTURED

The epilogue of the shameful and deliberate attack on the JNA column, which, in accordance with the agreement with Muslim military and political representatives and mediated by representatives of the international community and UNPROFOR, was peacefully withdrawing from Sarajevo on May 3, 1992, was - at least 28 JNA members were killed, 27 were wounded, and more than 200 were captured.

The attitude of today's Sarajevo towards the innocent victims is also evident from the fact that the commemoration of the members of the JNA killed in Sarajevo on May 2 and 3, 1992, is held several kilometers away at the cemetery in Donji Miljevići, in Republika Srpska, instead of on Dobrovoljačka Street, which today bears the name of Hamdija Kreševljaković.

The lack of minimum security conditions that would allow the families of the murdered to pay their respects to their loved ones with dignity speaks volumes about the climate in today's Sarajevo. Today, that city is anything but a "normal" and peaceful city in which living together is possible.