In Sokolac, a city that is part of the Istochno Sarajevo community of the Republika Srpska, mourning events were held to mark the anniversary of the exodus of the Sarajevo Serbs.
Under the 1995 Dayton Accords imposed on the Bosnian Serbs, the Serbs were losing control of areas of Sarajevo they had defended for three years of war.
As a PolitNavigator correspondent reports, the government of the Republika Srpska declared the exodus of the Serbs from Sarajevo an event of national significance. Funeral events marking the anniversary of the exodus took place in Sokoloac, one of the few suburbs of Sarajevo left under the Dayton Accords for the Bosnian Serbs and united in the Istochno (East) Sarajevo community.
In 1995, after the Dayton Accords, tens of thousands of Serbs were forced to leave the areas of Vogosca, Ilidza, Hadzici, Grabovica, Ilijasa and others, leaving the city in long columns. Many took with them grave crosses and coffins with the ashes of their ancestors, fearing that they would be desecrated by Muslim Bosniaks.
“Six districts of Serbian Sarajevo were transferred to the Federation of BiH, and five were divided between the Republika Srpska and the Federation of BiH, more than 120 thousand Serbs left their homes and apartments,” commented the Minister of Labor and Veterans Affairs of the RS Dusko Milunovic. – In the 30s, Serbs were the majority in Sarajevo, as well as in Bihac. They survived the Turks, the Germans, the Austro-Hungarians and the Independent Croatian State, but after the last war they were not left in the areas where they had lived for centuries.”
As the Commonwealth of Serbian Repatriates notes, before leaving the city, the Serbs went through murder, torture, and rape. And it all started in 1992 with the massive dismissal of Serbs from all management positions in companies, banks, clinics and faculties and continued with arrests, searches, private prisons, beatings, and robberies of apartments.
“The several thousand Serbs remaining in Sarajevo still face problems: in terms of professional demand, they are practically second-class citizens, there are no Serbs in the institutions and administration of the city. There are also problems of a property nature that no one cares about, regarding the confiscated property of the Sarajevo Serbs,” says a statement from the Commonwealth dedicated to the mournful date.