The commemoration of the 27th anniversary of the reintegration of the Sarajevo settlements of Grbavica, Kovacici and Vraca began with the laying of flowers on the Suada Dilberovic and Olga Sucic Bridge memorial, on Monday.

With the return of the said settlements, 27 years ago, the process of reintegration of the areas which, according to the Dayton Peace Agreement, belonged to the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina was completed.

Novo Sarajevo Municipality mayor Hasan Tanovic pointed out the importance of marking such events and nurturing the culture of memory.

“Today we are here at the Suada and Olga Bridge, the first victims of the aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina, the place where the aggression began, from where it came to the occupation of parts of the Municipality of Novo Sarajevo and the city of Sarajevo, and one of the places where the reintegration of those settlements started. It is important that we are here today and that we remember those events,” Tanovic said.

The organizing committee chairman for marking the Reintegration Day, Edhem Koradzi, stayed in Grbavica for four years of the war.

“I wouldn't call this the reintegration of Grbavica, I would call this the liberation of Grbavica because the people who were already living there have returned. We didn't reintegrate anything here, we just returned people to their own [homes]. We didn't enter other people's territory, but they came to ours, they occupied and made a [concentration] camp out of Grbavica,” said Koradzija.

As part of the commemoration of the 27th anniversary of the reintegration of the aforementioned settlements, flowers were laid and tributes were paid to the martyrs and fallen fighters at the Martyr's Cemetery Kovaci, and during the day tributes will also be paid at the Vraca memorial park, the Gornji Kovacici and Grbavica memorials.

A few months after the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement, which ended the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina and ended the almost four-year siege of Sarajevo, on March 19, 1996, members of the security forces of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) entity entered the settlements of Grbavica, Kovacici and Vraca.

With this act, after almost four years of occupation by the aggressors, those settlements were once again returned to the composition of the Sarajevo municipality of Novo Sarajevo.

The Reintegration Day of the Sarajevo settlements of Grbavica, Kovacici and Vraca, March 19, is also the Day of the local communities of Grbavica I, Grbavica II, Kovacici, Vraca and Gornji Kovacici.