#dobrovoljacka

BiH: Memorial service to victims of crime in Dobrovoljacka

SARAJEVO – The members of the victims’ families, the survivors of the crime and officials of the Republic of Srpska have paid respects to the soldiers of the former Yugoslav People’s Army, killed in 1992 in the Dobrovoljacka Street in Sarajevo.

On the scene of that heinous crime the olive branches and roses were laid, and the candles lit, while for the first time the priests of the Serbian…

On May 3, the convoy of the Yugoslav National Army (JNA) withdrawing from Sarajevo in accord with the agreement with the local Bosnian Muslim authorities, was ambushed in the Dobrovoljačka Street (''Street of the Volunteers'') by the members of Bosnian Muslim paramilitaries. Forty two soldiers were killed, 73 were wounded and 215 were captured in the attack. 

The Dobrovoljačka massacre was the last in the series of attack against the Yugoslav Army that began on May 2. Starting with the attack of the Bosnian Muslim paramilitaries on the JNA Clubhouse, the various factions loyal to the Sarajevo government and Alija Izetbegović killed 6 soldiers in the Đuro Đaković street ambush and 14 others in the trolley station ambush. In the attack on a food delivery vehicle, an officer was killed and a soldier wounded. 

Following these attacks, general Milutin Kukanjac, the commander of the Second Army Region of JNA, negotiated a withdrawal plan with Canadian general Lewis MacKenzie, the commander of the UN troops in Bosnia, and Izetbegović, who guaranteed the safe passage out of the city to the entire Region headquarters staff. Despite the guarantees, the Izetbegović government set up an ambush in the Dobrovoljačka street and the JNA convoy of 40 vehicles was destroyed. Bosnian paramilitaries fired from roofs, windows, using snipers, automatic weapons, infantry grenades, but also executed soldiers from the close range pulling them out of vehicles. General MacKenzie, who has since been an outspoken critic of the Bosnian government's actions, testified in his book that even the members of Bosnia's territorial defense corpse, which was supposed to secure the safe passage, shot at the withdrawing troops, admitting that the Dobrovoljačka massacre was definitely the worst day in his life.

The ICTY in Hague has never indicted anyone for this crime. The evidence in possession of Serbia's authorities indicated the direct involvement of top people in the Sarajevo government and the Army of BiH, Ejub Ganić, Haris Silajdžić, Jovan Divjak, Sefer Halilović, Hasan Efendić, as well as some notorious underground figures like Jusuf Prazina, Ismet Bajramović and others.