CRIMES AGAINST MEMBERS OF JNA IN DOBROVOLJAČKA STREET STILL WITHOUT JUIDICAL OUTCOME

EAST SARAJEVO, MAY 24 /SRNA/ - The beginning of May marked 33 years since the crime against members of the Yugoslav People's Army /JNA/ in Dobrovoljačka Street in Sarajevo, which still has no judicial epilogue.

"`The Dobrovoljačka Case` is colloquially called as the crime against members of the JNA in Sarajevo in May 1992 and it is unknown to the general public. More than three decades after this tragic event, those responsible have not been brought to justice, that is, `The Dobrovoljačka Case` has not received a judicial epilogue," states, among other things, the Atlas of Crimes, authored and published by the Republic Center for the Research of War, War Crimes and the Search for Missing Persons.

In order to understand the crime in Sarajevo on May 2 and 3, 1992, it is necessary to provide a brief chronological overview of the socio-political situation in the then SR BiH.

The first multi-party elections were held in BiH on November 18, 1990. They symbolically represented the end of a socio-political order embodied in the institution of the Communist Party, and the birth of a new social reality based on the possibility of political association and representation, the text explains.

In a time of complex international relations that marked the end of the bipolar division of the world, and ousted the US as the world's sole superpower, BiH got its first democratically elected government composed of three parties with a strong national identity.

The Party of Democratic Action /SDA/, the Serbian Democratic Party /SDS/ and the Croatian Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina /HDZ BiH/ won 84 percent of the parliamentary seats in the republican parliament. Based on these results, it was difficult to expect harmonious relations in the representative bodies of the SR BiH, which were composed of representatives of three peoples with diametrically opposed positions on the future position of the SR BiH within the SFRY.

Although Fikret Abdić received the largest number of individual votes for the Presidency, he, by internal agreement within the SDA, ceded the Presidency of the SR BiH to Alija Izetbegović.

Already burdened by the war events in Slovenia and Croatia that began due to the way in which the aforementioned countries embarked on the path to independence, and with the aim of preserving peace in BiH and the security of its citizens, and preventing violence between potentially opposing sides, JNA began a new reorganization at the end of 1991.

Following this reorganization, Sarajevo became the headquarters of the 2nd Military District, under whose command was almost the entire territory of BiH. Thus, in the circumstances when it abandoned Slovenia and Croatia, the JNA concentrated most of its forces in BiH.

The decision to have the headquarters of the 2nd Military District in Sarajevo was not to the liking of the members of the Presidency of the SR of BiH from the Muslim and Croat peoples, who considered the presence of the JNA in BiH unnecessary and burdensome. In their opinion, the Territorial Defense, as a constituent body of the People's Army, was capable of responding to all the demands of the situation in BiH.

The attitude of the Muslim-Croat representatives towards the joint army is best illustrated by the testimony of Milutin Kukanjac when, on January 20, 1992, as the newly appointed commander of the 2nd Military District, he and his collegium went to a meeting at the Presidency of BiH to get to know and introduce themselves better:

"During the meeting in the Presidency building, all members of the Presidency were present, namely: Chairman Alija Izetbegović, and members Fikret Abdić, Ejup Ganić, Franjo Boras, Stjepan Kljujić, Biljana Plavšić and Nikola Koljević. Bogić Bogićević, a member of the Presidency of the SFRY from BiH, was also there. He didn't say anything the whole time, he just kept quiet and I couldn't stand it so I asked him why he was sitting there and not at his workplace in Belgrade. He didn't answer me."

The formation of the 2nd Military District was met with hostility by members of the Croatian-Muslim part of the Presidency, with Alija Izetbegović and Stjepan Kljujić being strongly opposed to the JNA.

Alija Izetbegović said that the formation of the 2nd Military District on the territory of BiH was not necessary, and that no one had consulted them about it, as the legal leadership of that republic.

Stjepan Kljujić was the most vocal. He said that "the JNA is the Serbian army and that it is an occupying army"... As the crowning proof that the JNA is an occupying army, Kljujić said: "Even you here are all Serbs," although that was not true.

The Serbian part of the Presidency was inferior to the other members of the Presidency and only two of them defended and approved the formation of the 2nd Military District.

In The Minutes of the Hearing of Witness Kukanjac Milutin No. 651/93 of 12 January 1995, at the Military Court in Belgrade, it was stated that it was clear that the formation of the 2nd Military District was not accepted by the legal authorities and that everything that was already happening in Croatia and Slovenia should be expected, including armed conflicts, and that the members of his collegium were depressed by such a reception in the Presidency.

The justification for the decision to establish the headquarters of the 2nd Military District in Sarajevo was already evident in the first months of 1992, when Muslim-Croat political elites were already working hard to spread the armed conflict from Croatia to BiH. This is also evident from the Information that the Command of the 2nd Military District compiled in mid-April 1992.

By then, a large number of incidents had already been registered targeting the structures of the JNA, which was then the only legal and legitimate military force in BiH. These incidents were reflected in killings and injuries, looting of personal and military property of JNA members, as well as all other forms of psychological pressure exerted by members of the Muslim-Croat coalition on the people's army.

The goal of all these actions, it should be clear to everyone by now, is to provoke a civil war in BiH and, in particular, to cut off communications, disable the JNA's ties with Bosnian Krajina, prevent the arrival of UN peacekeeping forces in protected areas, and prevent the implementation of the UN Peacekeeping Operation as a whole.

This is also evidenced by the fact that the official authorities of BiH are not taking all necessary measures to prevent bloody events and prevent further escalation, but are instead demanding that the JNA withdraw from the area, even though it was not involved in the conflicts at all...

In the period from March 5 to April 14, 1992, there were 25 attacks on JNA units, 21 attacks on JNA members and 18 attacks on JNA property and facilities on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina... /to be continued/