* Activists put up marble plaques overnight
* Atrocities committed by forces of different ethnic groups
* Protest is against denial of crimes by authorities
By Daria Sito-Sucic
SARAJEVO, Oct 26 (Reuters) – Bosnian activists put up
“guerrilla memorials” overnight to Serbs, Muslims and Croats
killed in the 1992-95 war, in protest at the denial of war
crimes by authorities in the Balkan country.
In a synchronised action, they erected identical marble
plaques in three towns across Bosnia in the early hours of
Saturday.
The memorials in the southeastern town of Foca, the central
town of Bugojno and the southern town of Konjic all bore the
text: “So that it never happens again. In memory of the victims
of war crimes committed in the area of (Foca, Bugojno or
Konjic).”
When Bosnia tried to become independent of Yugoslavia in
1992, Bosnian Serbs launched a separatist war with the backing
of the Yugoslav government in Belgrade.
Serbs fought Muslims (also known as Bosniaks) and Croats.
Muslims and Croats were at war with each other later in the
conflict.
In Serb-run Foca, local authorities have never allowed for a
memorial to be raised for more than 1,600 Bosniaks who went
missing after Serb forces overran the town in spring 1992. Many
were later found in nearby mass graves.
There are no official memorials to the Croat civilians
detained and killed by Muslim forces in Bugojno, nor for Serb
men, women and children killed by joint Muslim-Croat forces in
Konjic.
The 70 kg (150 pound) plaque in Foca was cemented to the
pavement outside a sports centre where hundreds of Muslim women
were enslaved and raped by Serbs.
Others were fixed in place in pedestrian areas of Bugojno
and Konjic – but only with glue, said activists, because they
did not have time to cement them in during the night raids.
“COLLECTIVE AMNESIA”
“These memorials were raised by the people,” said an
activist of the group “Because It Concerns Me”, whose members
belong to different ethnic groups and come from across Bosnia.
“They (the authorities) can remove or destroy them but we
shall put up new ones again. We’ll show to nationalist elites
that their attempt at collective amnesia isn’t working.”
Nearly two decades after the war, in which around 100,000
people were killed, Bosnia is a single state but deeply divided
between its three ethnic groups and floundering on the edge of
the European mainstream it wants to join.
A large memorial has been built, following international
pressure, to victims of the biggest single atrocity of the war –
the massacre of 8,000 Muslims by Serb forces in and around
Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia.
But local authorities have in the past dismantled memorials
created by unofficial groups.
Activists chose Foca, Bugojno and Konjic because the U.N.
war crimes tribunal has issued verdicts relating to war crimes
in all three. Bosnia’s war crimes court has jailed several
people for the killings in Bugojno and Konjic.
“We want to shame our politicians and the international
community,” said the activist.
“It is inconceivable that 20 years after the war they have
not created memorials nor allowed the commemorations of the
crimes and victims,” said the man, who declined to identify
himself by name.
(Editing by Andrew Roche)
