COMMEMORATION OF CHILD VICTIMS FROM SERBIAN SARAJEVO

ISTOČNO NOVO SARAJEVO, MARCH 9 /SRNA/ - The Saint Sava Elementary School in Istočno Novo Sarajevo will, over the next two days, mark the remembrance of children from Serbian Sarajevo who were killed, including pupils Nataša Učur and Milica Lalović, who were killed on March 11, 1995, while playing in front of their apartment building.

School principal Željka Topalić told SRNA today that tomorrow at 11:00, they will visit the graves of Nataša and Milica at the Miljevići cemetery, together with members of the school's Student Council, religious education teachers, and priests, and lay flowers.

A memorial service will be held on Wednesday, March 11, at 12:00, in the presence of the families of the victims, guests, pupils and teachers, after which wreaths will be laid at the memorial to the children of Serbian Sarajevo killed between 1992 and 1995, in remembrance of the prematurely taken lives of 118 children, six of whom were pupils of this school.

Topalić stressed that they continuously teach students how valuable human life is, how important it is to be honest and upright, and how important it is for every member of society to value peace highly, to show love for those who live for Republika Srpska and the well-being of the Serbian people, and to sympathize with Serbian victims.

She stressed that it is important for them to know that the freedom and dignity of the Serbian people are a Saint Sava covenant.

March 11 has been proclaimed the Day of Remembrance for the killed and deceased children of Serbian Sarajevo, the day when the girls Nataša Učur /10/ and Milica Lalović /11/ were killed, whose tragic fates have become a symbol of the suffering of children in the Sarajevo-Romanija region.

In 2018, a memorial dedicated to the youngest victims was erected in the courtyard of the Saint Sava Elementary School in Istočno Novo Sarajevo.

According to testimonies of residents of Grbavica at the time, there were no combat operations when the girls were killed, as a ceasefire agreement had been concluded, which was monitored by French and Russian members of international military forces.

A sniper from the Loris building at the then Pera Kosorić Square killed Milica and Nataša, who were playing elastic jump rope in Rave Janković Street, in front of building number 59, in a neighborhood that was under Serbian control at the time.

Serb children were killed and seriously wounded not only in Grbavica but also in other parts of Sarajevo that were under Serb control during the war - Vojkovići, Grlica, and Vraca.

During the war, six pupils of the “Saint Sava” Elementary School were killed, while many others were wounded.

Verses from the poem "Twilight" by poet Goran Vračar, dedicated to the killed children, are engraved on the memorial to children killed in Serbian Sarajevo between 1992 and 1995.

The memorial was erected at the initiative of the School Board and the Organization of Families of Captured and Killed Soldiers and Missing Civilians of Istočno Sarajevo, to preserve the memory of the children killed in Srpsko Sarajevo.