SARAJEVO – The Mayor of Sarajevo, Benjamina Karic, rejected the proposal of city councilor Adi Skaljic to place a memorial plaque at the auxiliary stadium Koševo, near the fence of the graveyard of St. Joseph, where the bodies of those killed in the locations Kazani, Gaj, and Grm Maline were buried under the NN (no name) markings.
Despite the support of this initiative by the Sarajevo City Council in September, there was no place for it in the Monument Erection Program of significance for the City for the year 2024.
After a public debate, Karic, who is the proposer of the Program, adopted all received proposals except the mentioned one, explaining that a memorial site has already been established in Kazani, as reported by today’s Sarajevo-based “Oslobođenje.”
“In this way, the city of Sarajevo has shown respect for the victims and a high awareness of the tragic events,” is stated in Karic’s explanation, along with the assessment that the “unfortunate event has been adequately marked.”
Skaljic announced that he would submit the proposal to the City Administration until it becomes part of the Council.
“The City Administration considers that the memorial plaque in Kazani and the arrangement of access are the memorialization of the crime of the 10th Mountain Brigade against our fellow citizens. However, it is known that the bodies of fellow citizens were found and buried at temporary locations in Gaj and Grm Maline,” emphasized Skaljic.
Kazani is an inaccessible pit on Trebević from which the mortal remains of 29 individuals, mostly Serbian civilians, killed during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, were exhumed, but there are suspicions that more were killed and thrown into it.
The members of the 10th Mountain Brigade, the so-called Army of BiH, commanded by the pre-war Sarajevo criminal Musan Topalovic, known as Caco, killed Serbs.
Two years ago, the city of Sarajevo placed a memorial plaque in Kazani, on the proposal of Karic, listing the names of the victims, but without specifying who was responsible for their death.