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A mural dedicated to Draža Mihailović was placed in a building in the center of Foča, on Samoborska Street, near the “Partizan” sports hall, where the women were tortured and raped in 1992.
Halida Konjo Uzunović lost her husband and brothers in Foča at the beginning of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. They were killed in the City Penitentiary, which was turned into a Bosnian camp.
Halida lives in Sarajevo and her house in Foca has not yet been renovated. Visit his hometown at least once a year, in mid-June.
Then, in front of the “Partizan” sports center, the International Day for the Fight against Sexual Violence in War is commemorated.
Last year and this year, across the street from the sports hall, she was greeted by a mural with the image of Dragoljub Draža Mihailović, the commander of the Chetnik units in WWII.
“There is no scale that can measure so much pain, humiliation, insult, and I wish there was, so that everyone knows how we feel. They humiliate, rape, capture, torture, kill and eventually burn you.” “It’s the same now. They glorify their nationalist and fascist passions, so we never want to go back there again,” Halida told Radio Free Europe (RSE), commenting on a mural on a building near the Partizan hall.
Precisely because of Foča, in the 2001 verdict in the case against Dragoljub Kunarac, Radomir Kovač and Zoran Vuković, the Court of The Hague, for the first time in the history of international humanitarian law, qualified sexual slavery in war as a crime of It hurts humanity. Before the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, the Bosnia and Herzegovina Tribunal and four other courts, 19 war crimes verdicts were rendered in the Foča area, of which 14 verdicts also refer to the crime of rape.
In addition to Dragoljub Draža Mihailović, there are also murals by Gavril Princip, the assassin of the Austrian heir to the throne Franz Ferdinand from 1914, as well as Serbian explorers and dukes from World War I and previous wars Dragutin Matić, Stepan Stepo Stepanović, and Petar Bojović.
The Foča murals, in various buildings in the city center, some fifty meters from the police station, were drawn by a group of young people from this city, with the consent of the tenants.
The municipality alleges that the Department of Inspection Affairs first requested his removal, because the necessary consent was not obtained. After that was not done, a lawsuit was started.
The authors of the mural, but also the citizens of the building in which it is located, did not want to talk about it for Radio Free Europe. Dušan Bodiroga, a member of the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) in the Foča Municipal Assembly, believes that it is about “decorating the city with positive characters from Serbian history and world history.”
“The Bosnian people have a different view of our common history, especially in these recent periods. Based on my arguments and my facts, I think that Draža Mihailović is without a doubt a positive person not only in Serbian, but also in world history, especially if we take into account the decorations of which world personalities he obtained in World War II ”, believes Bodiroga.
The mayor of the municipality of Foca, Radisav Masic, is already the second term of the first man of the municipality. In the 2012 elections, he was a joint candidate of the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), a party of the member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Milorad Dodik, and at the entity level of the opposition Serbian Democratic Party (SDS), and in 2016 he won as a SNSD candidate.
Masic told the radio that the case of placing the mural in Draza Mihailovic, due to disrespect for the inspector’s decision to remove it, ended in court. According to Masic, the lawsuit was filed against the council of the building on Samoborska Street, which, he said, “defended itself during the judicial process by transferring responsibility to the neighbors from the other entrance.”
“We refer to the municipal decision that they must ask for the consent of the Urban Planning Service, but they did not ask for it. So the judicial process continues. I think the mural will fade until all that is resolved, ”added Masic.
According to the 1991 census, there were 40,513 inhabitants in Foča: 20,790 (51.31%) Bosnians, 18,315 (45.2%) Serbs, 94 (0.23%) Croats. The last census of 2013 showed that 18,288 people live in this municipality: 16,739 Serbs (91.5%), 1,270 Bosnians (6.9%), 55 Croats (0.3%).
Among the few Bosnians living in Foca is Serif Halilovic, councilor of the municipal assembly. His mother was killed and set on fire in an old family home in Vojnoge, a kilometer from the city center.
In World War II, as Halilović says, the Chetniks killed about 130 members of his family, so the character of their commander, Draža Mihailović, is a provocation and a threat to him.
“As a councilor, I did everything in my power to present initiatives to remove those murals. On two occasions, I asked the councilor a question to the mayor. The responses were mainly that the inspection ordered the removal of these murals, especially by Draža Mihailović. That the transfer was ordered, and in the second response that a court trial was being held against the council of the building house, “says Halilović.
At the same time, the president of the Foča Municipal Assembly, Izet Spahić, points out that the outcome of the trial must be awaited before the Trebinje court.
“We had agreed to build a peace park on the site of the infamous ‘Partizan’ facility and to place a plaque on the facility that would indicate the facts of the Hague court verdicts, that crimes against women were committed at that facility The result of this whole story is huge. Draža Mihailović’s mural right next to ‘Partizan’, “adds Spahić.
Historian Husnija Kamberovic, and professor at the University of Sarajevo, says there are no unknowns when it comes to Draza Mihailovic and his role in WWII.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, their officers include Jezdimir Dangic, in eastern Bosnia, Major Bosko Todoric, who was captured and killed by partisans in Herzegovina in early 1942. They led Chetnik detachments that committed major crimes in Bosnia, especially against Muslims. . in eastern Bosnia, “explains Kamberović.
Therefore, it is important to emphasize that the Chetniks do not have the same role in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. While in Serbia they once had the role of national protectors, in Bosnia and Herzegovina they left only blood and ashes. Especially in eastern Bosnia, about which there is countless evidence, “Kamberovic said. Kamberović adds that Foča is a city where Chetniks committed crimes against Muslims, so” any celebration of Mihailović in this place can mean fear. “
“It is not even a sign of respect for Mihailović, but a message for today’s Muslims in that city. Mihailović is a disgrace, not the pride of the Serbian people,” adds Professor Kamberović. Due to the lack of cooperation with the Court of The Hague and the provision of protection to war criminals, the municipality of Foca came under sanctions from the United States Congress from 2001 to 2006.
The sanctions were lifted after two years of the term of the former mayor, the late Zdravko Krsmanović.
About 3,000 Bosnians were killed in Foca and 627 victims are still being sought, according to the radio.
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