Tuzla celebrates Defense Day Monday, marking the anniversary of the event in Brcanska Malta, better known as the Tuzla Column.

According to the list of the “Truth, Justice, Reconciliation” Foundation, 33 members of the column were killed. Information from the Republika Srpska (RS) entity Center for War Research, War Crimes and RS Search for Missing Persons say that 54 people died.

In 2016, the Court of Appeal in Belgrade acquitted BiH police officer Ilija Jurisic of war crimes because there was no evidence that he ordered an attack on a column of Yugoslav National Army (JNA) soldiers in Tuzla in 1992. This decision changed the first-instance verdict of the War Crimes Department of the High Court in Belgrade, which sentenced Jurisic to 12 years in prison.

The International Court in the Hague said that the events in Tuzla were not a war crime, and the Court of Appeal acquitted Ilija Jurisic of responsibility. However, the BiH Prosecutor's Office must finish the Brcanska Malta case and finally end it so that the truth is known once and for all.

The Tuzla City Administration said Monday:

“Today, 31 years after successfully repelling the first attack on Tuzla, we build a future based on the truth, honourably and respectfully remembering the defenders who laid down their lives for our homeland Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as all the civilian victims of the war, with the promise that we will never forget and that we will continue to cultivate and nurture the tradition of anti-fascism, common life and tolerance.”