CVIJANOVIĆ: SARAJEVO SERBS PAID HIGH PRICE IN WAR, BUT ALSO IN PEACE

ISTOČNO SARAJEVO, MARCH 16 /SRNA/ - The Serb member of the Presidency of BiH Željka Cvijanović stated that the Serbs of Sarajevo paid a high price during the war, but that unfortunately peace also did not come without a great and immeasurable sacrifice.

"Today we mark the day when more than 100,000 people left their homes in one of the saddest columns in modern Serbian history. Most of them began their new lives in Republika Srpska, the entity they had fought for," Cvijanović wrote on the social network X.

She emphasized that this sacrifice, embedded in the foundations of Republika Srpska and the freedom of the Serb people, must never be forgotten.

The mass exodus of Sarajevo Serbs officially began on February 17, 1996, from Serb-held municipalities of Sarajevo that, after the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement, were transferred to the FBiH, and it lasted almost until the end of March.

It is estimated that between 120,000 and 150,000 Serbs left their homes in the municipalities of Ilidža, Ilijaš, Vogošća, Hadžići, Rajlovac, Grbavica, and Novo Sarajevo. One of the most distressing aspects of the exodus was the exhumation and transfer of the remains of the deceased to the territory of Republika Srpska.