SPOMENKO GOSTIĆ - YOUNGEST REPUBLIKA SRPSKA ARMY’S DECORATED SOLDIER

BIJELJINA, AUGUST 14 /SRNA/ - Spomenko Gostić, the youngest decorated soldier of the Republika Srpska Army, was born on August 15, 1978, in Doboj.

Spomenko, a member of the Republika Srpska Army, was killed by a mortar shell fired from the Muslim side on March 20, 1993, near his village of Jovići on Mount Ozren. Five other Serb soldiers were killed alongside him.

He was buried at the local cemetery in Gornji Ulišnjak, where his mother and grandmother are also buried. Like Spomenko's village of Jovići, the cemetery is now located in the FBiH.

After being left alone during the war, Spomenko joined the Republika Srpska Army, initially serving as a courier and later delivering food to soldiers.

Several months before his death, he stepped on a mine while transporting food along the front line by horse-drawn cart and suffered minor injuries. He later joined an artillery unit, where his young life came to an end.

The greatness of Spomenko Gostić is reflected not only in the fact that he was the youngest decorated soldier, but above all in the example he managed to leave during his less than 15 years of life.

The story of the boy-soldier became known to the public during the war, and wealthy Serbs from across the region and Europe offered Spomenko a home and a safe haven. Without much hesitation, he rejected such offers.

However, one of them, humanitarian Predrag Simikić from Paris, came directly to the Ozren front to personally try to persuade Spomenko to go with him.

The meeting was recorded by a war correspondent. Spomenko politely thanked him and declined Predrag's offer, saying: "As long as the war continues, I am not leaving here. I cannot leave this place until everything is liberated."

The young hero from Ozren was honoured with a memorial bust in Doboj, which was erected on March 20, 2014, in the courtyard of the Memorial Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God.

In 2017, members of the "Nasljeđe" Association of Children of Fallen Soldiers of Republika Srpska from Bijeljina restored the tombstone at the Gornji Ulišnjak local cemetery, while Doboj artist Deni Božić painted a mural depicting Gostić on Vojvode Stepe Street in Doboj.

A monument to Spomenko Gostić was erected on August 24, 2021, in the courtyard of the Monastery of St. Nicholas in Petrovo.

A 45-minute documentary film, "Spomenko on Eternal Guard," was made about Spomenko, and a book entitled "Spomenko and Ozren," written by Mile Savić, was published.

The Republika Srpska Association of Comic Book Authors and Fans "Deveta dimenzija" from Banja Luka published the comic album "Spomenko - The Story of a Childhood".

Spomenko was also posthumously awarded the Miloš Obilić Medal for Bravery by Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vučić.