The grandson of Sarajevo’s beloved general Jovan Divjak read during Tuesday’s commemoration his grandfather's farewell letter to his compatriots and fellow Sarajevans, telling them that his life in this city was filled with love and respect.
Gregor Divjak read the letter of the Belgrade-born general who defended Bosnia from the Bosnian Serb army during the 1992-95 war, at a ceremony prior to the funeral.
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Divjak died on Thursday, aged 84. He was well-respected in Sarajevo, both for his decision to defend Bosnia during the war and because he founded the association ‘Education Builds BiH’, which helps the education of children who lost their parents in the war.
“At funerals and Janazahs, they usually say ‘he was a good man.’ What I was like, you present here will know best,” the general started his letter.
“One way or another, but I'm sure I was a moral and modest man. That is how I was raised in the family of mother Emilia and father Dusan. That's how my wife Vera and I raised Zelimir and Vladimir. But I reached the peak of my life when my grandson Gregor wrote: ‘grandpa, I am proud of you’.”
Divjak laid out his biography, mentioning his education, the fact that he was born and lived in Serbia and then in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he shut his eyes for the last time. A special section of his letter was dedicated to his service in the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the 1992-95 war – a period he described as “the most honourable part of his professional life.”
“Honorable members of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, be proud of your contribution to the defence of BiH within its historical borders and the preservation of a civil and secular community. Raise your children based on those foundations,” he urged his comrades.
Divjak wrote that the most valuable part of his life was the past 27 years when the association he founded during the war helped many young people get their education by providing scholarships, organised trips for students to 18 countries in Europe, as well as Uruguay and Canada, summer holidays for 4,500 children and stipends for 7,300.
“An educated and well-raised young person can be useful to itself, their family and social community. Take all the good things you learned in the House of Love and reject what you think is not good,” the general wrote, referring to the headquarters of his association “Education builds Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
Divjak separately addressed the citizens of Sarajevo.
“Dear Sarajevans, half a century of life among you. To all of you, from neighbours, my hairdresser, tailor, salesman, saleswomen in shops, markets, newspaper sellers, you who work in institutions of culture, art, sports – thank you very much. I was one of you, together in sunny and rainy weather,” Divjak wrote.
“Life in Sarajevo was a life filled with love and mutual respect,” he said.
“I shed a tear before I closed my eyes, you can shed a tear now. May this Bosnian soil bring me happiness, with all of my love,
your Jovan the Bosnian and a Herzegovinian from the bottom of my heart.”
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