Tuzla column

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As Tuzla column ( Serbo-Croatian  Tuzlanska kolona / Тузланска колона ) or attack on the convoy of the Yugoslav People's Army in Tuzla ( Napad na kolonu JNA u Tuzli / Напад на колону ЈНА у Тузли) an incident is referred to the beginning of the located Bosnian war on May 15, 1992 in the Bosnian city ​​of Tuzla . The event is classified as a war crime by the Serbian judiciary .

background

Withdrawal of the JNA

After a referendum on February 29 and March 1, 1992, President Alija Izetbegović declared Bosnia-Herzegovina an independent state on March 3; From the beginning of March armed clashes broke out in many parts of the country, and several ceasefire agreements were broken after a short time. On April 7, the state was recognized by the European Community and the USA .

The Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) announced the withdrawal of its units to the "rest of Yugoslavia" consisting of Serbia and Montenegro for the period from May 4th to 19th, 1992. There were disputes between the JNA and the Bosnian government, which in the meantime only actually represented the Bosniak population group, as to whether the JNA could take its weapons with it or leave them in the barracks and thus hand them over to paramilitary units. Barracks were blocked in several cities in order to prevent weapons from being taken to "the rest of Yugoslavia". In an attack by Bosnian paramilitaries on a JNA barracks in Sarajevo on May 3, 1992, according to Serbian sources, 23 soldiers were killed and 47 wounded.

Situation in Tuzla

In Tuzla there were no noteworthy disputes until mid-May. While politicians from the three national parties ( SDA - Bosniak; SDS - Serbian; HDZ BiH - Croatian) were discussing dividing the country into three mono-ethnic parts, the Tuzla city government, which consisted mainly of representatives from liberal and social democratic parties, rejected such a division. "If Bosnia-Herzegovina were to disintegrate as a unified state, Tuzla would be declared an independent city, a representative of the local government recently said."

incident

On May 15, 1992, a convoy of the Yugoslav People's Army leaving the Husinska buna barracks in Tuzla was attacked by around 3,000 members of the Zelene Beretke ( Green Berets , a paramilitary unit of the Bosniak nationalist Stranka Demokratske Akcije ). Seven military trucks loaded with ammunition are said to have exploded. There were numerous dead and wounded on the part of the JNA soldiers. In an initial report by the Yugoslav news agency Tanjug , the number of soldiers killed was given as 15, and four other people were also killed. According to later Serbian information, around 80 fatalities and around 130 injured on the part of the JNA members, most of whom are said to have been unarmed conscripts. Other JNA members were taken prisoner, and some are said to have been killed there.

In an article published in the Serbian newspaper Politika on the occasion of the 16th anniversary of the commemoration in Bijeljina , it is stated that the victims were inexperienced recruits between the ages of 16 and 25 who were doing their military service in the city some reservists. According to the survivors, they were unarmed because they had received the appropriate order for reasons of de-escalation. According to witnesses, posted snipers of the Bosniak irregulars were said to have first murdered the drivers of the cars in order to force the column to a standstill. The young conscripts who then escaped from the trucks were murdered one after the other.

Legal prosecution

The Belgrade Military Prosecutor's Office has launched an investigation into the incident. This published a list of 58 people against whom there is “reasonable suspicion” of having planned and carried out the attack. This list includes Selim Bešlagić (then Mayor of Tuzla), whom the Serbian authorities put out to be wanted in 1995 (during the war). In contrast to Serbia and the Republika Srpska, the UN tribunal in The Hague refrained from prosecuting Bešlagić in 2005. According to Serbian sources, Bešlagić is said to have attended a meeting of people who prepared the attack.

However, after the Special Chamber for War Crimes started proceedings at the Belgrade District Court , Serbia put him and other alleged suspects on Interpol's wanted list. In mid-June 2006, Bešlagić and two other people accused in connection with the Tuzla column were arrested by the Bosnian authorities, but released on the same day after questioning. Members of the Srpsko građansko vijeća Tuzle (Serbian Citizens' Council of Tuzla) protested against the arrest because "the accused are not those responsible for the incident".

Since the manhunt for Selim Bešlagić was initiated during the war, political motives are obvious. Bešlagić was the only mayor of a Bosnian city with (at least a relative) Bosniak majority who did not belong to the nationalist SDA, but to the Social Democratic Party . He campaigned for the peaceful coexistence of all citizens of the city regardless of their nationality and was therefore popular with many Serbian residents. The Social Democratic Party strictly rejected the formation of ethnically homogeneous armies and paramilitary groups.

On September 28, 2009, the Bosnian Croat Ilija Jurišić was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment by the Senate of the Belgrade District Court because he was found guilty of having given the order to attack the column as a police officer. The trial followed after Jurišić's arrest in May 2007 at Belgrade Airport. The judgment met with incomprehension and protest on the part of the Bosniaks, since from the Bosniak point of view it means a condemnation of the victims of the Bosnian war.

Literature (press reports)

  • Cyrill Stieger (C. Sr.) in Neue Zürcher Zeitung of May 16, 1992 p. 2 ( The Bosnian Muslims in distress , last paragraph Tuzla - an oasis of peace ), May 18, 1992 p. 3 ( withdrawal of UN soldiers from Sarajevo , 2nd paragraph Serbian attack on Gorazde ), May 20, 1992 p. 2 ( Glorious end of the Yugoslav People's Army )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. NZZ from May 20, 1992 (see under literature)
  2. ^ Publication of the Documentation Center of the Republika Srpska (see under web links), pp. 56–65
  3. ↑ NZZ of May 16, 1992 (see under literature)
  4. ↑ cf. NZZ of May 18, 1992 (see under literature) with reference to Tanjug; the publication of the Documentation Center of the Republika Srpska (see under web links) does not contain any information on this.
  5. ↑ cf. NZZ from May 18, 1992 (see under literature)
  6. ↑ Publication of the Documentation Center of the Republika Srpska (see under web links), p. 68f
  7. ↑ Article "Sećanje na pakao u tuzlanskoj koloni" , in: Politika from May 15, 2008
  8. ↑ BiH Court: Beslagic, Nikolic and Delibegovic cannot be extradited to Serbia (report slightly above the middle of the page) ( Memento from September 7, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ Former police officer sentenced to 12 years in prison . Der Standard online, September 28, 2009