A group of residents paid tribute on Sunday to the killed Serb civilians at the Kazani site, near Sarajevo, during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and urged the authorities to build a monument in the city centre.

The Association for Social Research and Communications (UDIK) once again called on the authorities in Sarajevo to erect a monument to those killed in Kazan in the city centre.

“The monument should be an example of self-critical confrontation with one's own crimes, as well as an example of the moral obligation of Sarajevo citizens to pay tribute to their fellow citizens killed at Kazan. Such a monument would symbolically show that Sarajevo, which suffered the longest siege of a city and the experience of the cruellest killing civilians during a siege in modern history, is ready to condemn the crime from among their own ranks and start the process of public constructive confrontation with the past. This would make it clear that there is no ‘but’ in Sarajevo,” said the Association for Social Research and Communications (UDIK) who organised the marking.

Historian and Professor at the University of Sarajevo Husnija Kamberovic also took part in the marking of the Serb suffering and said on this occasion that a monument in Sarajevo would be a message that this city wants to show readiness to face the dark side of its past.

According to him, Sarajevo has nothing to be ashamed of because “it led a just fight during the siege.”

“The army conducted fair liberation operations. The fact that a group that committed crimes appeared within the Army of the then Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (RBiH) doesn't mean that it was the concept and strategy of that army. We can remove this stain from the Army of RBiH by showing that we were not all the same,” Kamberovic told reporters.

The UDIK reminds that during the siege of the city in 1992 and 1993, several members of the Army of RBiH under the command of Musan Topalovic Caco brutally killed dozens of Sarajevo Serb citizens at the Kazani site. Fourteen former soldiers of the Army of RBiH were sentenced from ten months to six years in prison for this crime. Topalovic was killed while trying to escape in 1993, after being arrested in an operation by police and military forces organized by the then Presidency of RBiH Alija Izetbegovic, the Interior Ministry and the Army.

The remains of 23 civilians were discovered at the site so far, 15 of which were positively identified.