This is the memorial bridge for Olga Sucic and Suada Dilberovic who were the first people killed in the Siege of Sarajevo. They were killed by Serbian snipers after a peace protest march they were participating in was fired upon by Serbian snipers located nearby. Fascists still are threatened by peaceful protests and echos of the past resonate today with the current situation in the middle east. It is harder to oppose fascism and racism than it is to close your eyes and pretend it doesn't exist.
Thank you for your picture and post on this place we must never forget. I have just returned from Sarajevo after meeting with poets from around the world. Keep building bridges of peace and justice.
ReplyDeleteTomorrow it we be 20 years since that 6th april 1992 when they started shooting at out people and when our nightmare began.
ReplyDeleteSuada was my first cousin. My dads sisters daughter.I was so young at that time I didnt know what had happend. When i was old enough to finally hear the story i looked at her as a hero. she is a missing part of our family. but im glad people still remember her!
ReplyDeleteI remember Suada as a girl of 12 then 14 when we stayed at her mother's house in Dubrovnik in 1980 and 82 - she used to rent out rooms to tourists, and the entire family were very friendly and hospitable.
ReplyDeleteBetween the two visits, her grandmother had died, and Suada had visibly matured - I only discovered her tragic history via the internet when I tried to find rooms again in Dubrovnik a couple of years ago.
I'm returning to Sarajevo next Wednesday for the first time in 30 years to teach junior doctors as part of the European Society of Contraception workshop and will put flowers on the bridge memorial. I feel a strong connection to people in the countries of former Yugoslavia who have been bereaved, as my younger brother was killed hitch-hiking on the Zagreb-Beograd autoput in 1975 and is buried in Nova Gradiska.
Ave atque vale
Peter Greenhouse FRCOG