Memories of brotherhood and unity
A ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of a World War II battle in which partisans broke the Nazi stranglehold at Mrakovica in what is now Bosnia Herzegovina turned into the biggest multi-ethnic gathering in the Serb-run entity after Bosnia's 1992-95 war. The communist slogans of brotherhood and unity were invoked. Several thousand people, among them hundreds of Bosnian Muslims and Croats from the Muslim-Croat Federation that, together with Republika Srpska, makes up post-war Bosnia, attended the ceremony held at the Mrakovica memorial centre, a symbol of anti-fascist resistance. "This is the first time in ten years that I have come here to pay tribute. Me and my partisan comrades and supporters arrived from Sarajevo", said Salko Rizvic, a 73-year-old Bosnian Muslim while holding a large photo of former Yugoslav communist leader Josip Broz Tito. Salko, who was only 14 when he joined the communist-led partisan forces, said he was disappointed that young generations in Bosnia today have no regard for the communist-era and widely proclaimed brotherhood and unity among peoples of the former Yugoslavia. Instead, they are divided along ethnic lines. "For 48 years we were living and building together side by side without asking who is Serb, who is Muslim and who is Croat. It is sad that today youngsters, when they complete school, celebrate their diploma in separated ethnic groups, although they have been in the same class together," he said. As people standing around Salko started to applaud him, a woman approached and through tears said: "I heard your words. May I shake your hand?" Sixty-year-old Slobodanka Grubalj, who came from the western town of Drvar in the Muslim-Croat Federation, is a sister of the first partisan hero- woman Marija Bursac who was killed during World War II. "We used to live so nicely together, communities not mattering. But unfortunately we have witnessed what we thought was impossible, that our children fight each other on a community basis", Slobodanka said. "I hope that brotherhood and unity will be revived one day, because if it does that will mean that the blood of my sister and other partisans was not shed in vain", she added. On July 10, 1942, some 40,000 Germans and their Croatian Ustashi allies launched an offensive on the partisan-held region around the Kozara mountain massif encircling some 3500 partisans and 80,000 civilians. In the battle that lasted 50 days partisans managed to break through the enemy circle evacuating 20,000 civilians while others were captured. Ever since the former Yugoslavia was broken up in the 1990s' wars, and republics were declaring independence, symbols of the communist era started to disappear from public places. For 67-year-old Ilija Radeljic, bringing the former Yugoslav communist flag with the red star to Mrakovica was a risk. "I brought this flag, for it is a symbol of peace and freedom. I took the risk to show up with it", Ilija said. The anniversary at the Kozara mountain did not pass without what was Tito's and the communists' biggest pride — the pioneers — children who had to give an oath at the age of seven that they would follow communist principles. A pioneer at the Kozara event, wearing a red shirt and blue partisan hat with the red star, was once again the favourite of the aging partisans who were kissing him, despite the fact that their "pioneer" is 35 years old now. "I kept this hat from my childhood, and I will keep it for ever," said Vitomir Milakovic, Tito's pioneer from Banja Luka. "I'm a communist ... I shall never give away the five-pointed red star. I wear it on my hat, and have it in my heart", Vitomir said.