ZLOČINI NAD CIVILIMA U SARAJEVSKOM NASELJU DOBRINJA
CRIMES AGAINST CIVILIANS IN THE SARAJEVO SUBURB DOBRINJA

Summary/Abstract: According to one of the ”six strategic aims of the Serb people” which referred to the division of Sarajevo into a Serb and a Muslim part, the whole of the Sarajevo suburb Dobrinja was supposed to belong to the ”Serb part of Sarajevo”. The actions of military units from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and the newly formed Sarajevo-Romanija Corps, brought about to the conquest of one part of the suburb, and the orders of the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps command or the officials of the Serb Democratic Party to ”(…) cleanse the broader area around the airport” or ”trample over everything which is Muslim” were realized in the areas of the Airport Settlement, Dobrinja IV and parts of Dobrinja I. However, the defenders put up a heroic resistance and managed to defend the greater part of the settlement, as well as to de-block the road which led to the other parts of the city. The acknowledgment of Radovan Karadžić that they managed only to take two ends of Dobrinja, but that the main part of the settlement, despite the military supremacy, ”could not be taken”, is at the same time a recognition to the defenders of this settlement. Faced with a blockade, daily exposed to the systematic, unselective shelling, sniper fire, at the same time being denied food, water and other existential conditions for life, the population of Dobrinja was forced to organize themselves and what seems especially fascinating is the ”birth” of numerous institutions which enabled that, particularly during the first stages of the siege, this Sarajevan suburb functions like a small commune, independently from other parts of the city. The proximity of the airport had a somewhat different significance in the latter stages of the siege, compared to the period until July of 1992, when the settlement, after the de-blockade and digging of a system of trenches which connected it with other parts of the city, it grew into a transit station for all those who tried to exit the city. The shelling of civilians in queues for water, humanitarian aid, in improvised markets, football pitches, flats and all other areas in the settlement was a part of every day life in Dobrinja, but was also characteristic for all other parts of the city which were besieged by members of the Sarajevo-Romanija corps. This research encompassed the crimes committed against civilians during the conquest of the Airport Settlement, Dobrinja IV and parts of Dobrinja I, as well as 12 locations of mass killings of civilians in the area of the settlement which was under siege. Members of the Sarajevo-Romanija corps and military formations from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia killed in the Airport Settlement 5 members from each family of Božinović, Džemidžić, Ibrahimagić, Šljivo and Tetarić.

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