The Dean of the Orthodox Theological Faculty in Foča, Archpriest-Stavrophor Darko Đogo, stated that the Serb people in Bosnia and Herzegovina, after the tragic events of March, April, and May 1992, had no choice but to organize themselves and thereby lay the foundations of Republika Srpska as their state, which, he said, saved them from systemic persecution allegedly planned by Muslim extremists.
- I remember, as a ten-year-old boy, that my parents first realized after March 1, 1992, what kind of evil they were facing. Until the killing of the Serb wedding guest, they believed it was still possible to find common ground, or at least some human understanding, with colleagues with whom they had spent 10, 12, or 15 years working in offices – Đogo said.
According to him, the killing of the Serb wedding guest Nikola from the respected clerical Gardović family, who was a friend of the Đogo family, cast an entirely new light on events.
- My parents told me about the well-known gatherings and social events at the then Bristol Hotel, which brought people together. But when the killing of the Serb wedding guest occurred in Baščaršija near the Old Church, they realized in my father’s newsroom and in the National Bank, where my mother worked, what they were facing – Đogo recalled.
“What would a Serb flag be doing in Baščaršija?”
He pointed out that the reactions of colleagues and acquaintances were: what would a Serb flag be doing in Baščaršija?
- When someone tells you it is legitimate to kill a person simply because they carry a Serb flag and justifies taking a life on that basis, it becomes clear that such a person would take the life of anyone, including you, simply for who you are, not for anything you have done – Đogo said.
He reminded that it was an ordinary wedding procession in which a flag is always carried, noting that every religious and national community in Bosnia and Herzegovina had its own flag, typically displayed on such occasions.
- Everyone has the right to carry whatever flag they wish in a joyful wedding procession. Someone could carry the flag of Saudi Arabia, and no one would touch them or even look at them the wrong way. But when someone says it is legitimate to kill a person for carrying a Serb flag in Baščaršija, next to the Old Church—the oldest place of worship in Sarajevo—it becomes clear that this is no longer a political disagreement that can be resolved, but that someone has prepared for evil – Đogo said.
He believes this was the key impulse that is still somewhat forgotten today.
The collective West sided with non-Serb peoples
According to him, the situation evolved in such a way that the international community became involved, and historians have since shed light on the influence of the collective West, which, he claims, promised a unified Bosnia and Herzegovina exclusively to non-Serb peoples and prevented Serbs from remaining even within an asymmetric confederation that would have allowed them to live in the same state and community with Serbs in Serbia and Montenegro.
- After that dark March, April began with the first serious armed clashes, and by early May, Muslim paramilitary forces carried out a massacre against young, unarmed members of the former JNA – Đogo said.
He noted that his parents still hoped at the time that it would not last long and believed that good in people was strong enough to overcome evil.
- Only when they were confronted with recordings in which someone /Murat Šabanović, in a phone conversation with Muslim leader Alija Izetbegović, broadcast on Sarajevo radio/ publicly threatened to blow up the dam on the Drina and flood Višegrad, and then with footage from Dobrovoljačka Street, where unarmed recruits—including Macedonians, Croats, Slovenians, and even several Muslims—were attacked, killed, executed, and mistreated because the Muslim authorities labeled them as legitimate military targets, it became entirely clear that in such a Bosnia and Herzegovina, anyone unable to defend themselves would be seen by a large number of people as a legitimate target – Đogo said.
Republika Srpska as a state – a guarantor of Serb freedom
He stated that at that point began what no one had planned—the self-organization of Serbs.
Đogo recalled that his father Risto, who worked as a journalist at Radio Sarajevo, went to Pale carrying only a tape recorder. According to him, his father, together with colleagues, began gathering equipment and soon established the Serb News Agency (SRNA), Serb Radio-Television, and later Channel S.
- Those people, including the late Miodrag Tarana, founder of SRNA Film, started with that news program from Grbavica. It was not a sketch—they simply did not have a television studio – Đogo said.
He explained that at that time, Serbs had to make do with whatever was available.
- We had to build our state with a single impulse—to ensure that we would not become victims. I believe that remains important for Republika Srpska to this day – Đogo stressed.
He believes that even after more than 30 years, it remains a characteristic of political life that Serbs react only when threatened with weapons, destruction, or expulsion from their ancestral homes, which is why they consistently emphasize that they are at home on their own land.
- I have never heard anyone from here make any aggressive statement or call for aggression against anyone in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. We simply want to live freely as Serbs, without interference, and as long as someone can accept that, we will welcome them and remain open-hearted. The moment someone tells us we have no right to live as Serbs, that sense of freedom and the impulse to defend ourselves emerges within us—we do not wish harm to anyone – Đogo said.
He emphasized that today the Serb people, along with all people of good will, have Republika Srpska, whereas some thirty years ago Serbs had to defend basic human dignity and, if necessary, make the greatest sacrifices in order not to become slaves, because for them, freedom is the essence of everything.
Source: RTRS
