Open documentary exhibition “The 7th Republic in court: personal files of YPA officers as evidence in ICTY” upon occasion of 1 March BiH Independence Day

The University of Sarajevo – The Institute of History is to mark Bosnia and Herzegovina's Independence Day on 28 February 2024 at the UNSA Rectorate by staged the opening of a documentary exhibition entitled “The 7th Republic in court: personal files of YPA officers as evidence in ICTY”.

The exhibition was opened by the author and associate of the Institute of History of the University of Sarajevo Edin Omerčić, and at his address pointed out that, with his associates Anida Ibričić, Alen Borić and Ajdin Muhedinović, through this project, it sought to encourage students of the University of Sarajevo, but also beyond, to engage in research into the SFRY decomposition process and issues related to war, wars from the 1990s that followed the process. He stated that databases at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia are available and searched. The second goal of this project, as the author states, was to analyze the documentation, part of which was presented through the exhibition, include in the debate, which is tied to the very date of the start of the outbreak of the war in Yugoslavia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in particular.

“Chiefly the Personal Administration of the Federal Secretariat for National Defense conducted personal files for each military officer. From these files, ie personal sheets, it is possible to reliably determine the period in which members of the JNA operated in war operations, and on this basis the date of commencement of military operations in the space of Bosnia and Herzegovina“ can be set, according to the author of the exhibition Edin Omerčić.

The third goal of the research was to get one more plastic picture of Serbia's responsibility and involvement in aggression on Bosnia and Herzegovina by analyzing this documentation. „Personal sheets of JNA members record the monetary, material and logistical support provided by Serbia as an integral part of the SR Yugoslavia to military units deployed in the territory of the internationally recognized state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, UN members“, according to the author Omerčić.

The exhibition is held as part of the project “The 7th Republic in court: personal files of YPA officers as evidence in ICTY bases” realized at the University of Sarajevo - the Institute of History with financial support from the Ministry of Science, Higher Education and Youth of Kanton of Sarajevo.

You can visit the exhibition by 6 March 2024!