Eurasia Press & News
Tuzla residents commemorated the anniversary of the Brcanska Malta battle in 1992, when 37 people died as local police in the north-eastern town fought the Yugoslav People’s Army.
Families of victims, war veterans and local officials gathered on Thursday to mark the anniversary at a memorial to those who died in the fighting at Brcanska Malta on May 15, 1992.
“It is important for the truth to be the light of history. We need it for the purpose of reconciliation between people in this region,” said Tuzla municipality mayor Jasmin Imamovic.
“Military forces that were under [Bosnian Serb commander] Ratko Mladic’s command were situated within the military barracks in Tuzla on May 15. Mladic is on trial in The Hague for that. Those forces attacked Tuzla. The town was defended by the Tuzla Canton interior ministry,” Imamovic said.
Thirty-three of those who died were Yugoslav People’s Army troops, three were policemen from Tuzla, and one was a female civilian.
However widespread floods in the country prevented the Bosnian Serb government’s Board for Cherishing the Tradition of Liberation Wars from arriving in Tuzla to commemorate the Yugoslav soldiers who were killed that day as their military convoy was leaving the town.
