Translation of the extract of the article published by The stav magazine
Full article available at: http://stav.ba/barcelona-vise-od-grada/
BARCELONA, MORE THAN A CITY
The authorities and citizens of Barcelona organized dozens of charities and spent millions of EUR to aid Sarajevo. They felt the tragedy of Bosnians and Herzegovinians as their own. Barcelona is a city that established the 11th city district and called it Sarajevo District. During the years of war, the citizens of Barcelona were collecting money and humanitarian aid for Sarajevo. Every Monday at 08:00 in the evening they were gathering in front of the City Hall and expressing their protests against the siege of the capital of BaH with a minute of silence.
Sarajevo paid its respects to the victims of terrorist attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils, in which 14 persons were killed and over a hundred were injured. The letter of support to the citizens of Barcelona was addressed by the Mayor Abdulah Skaka, Reis-ul-ulema Husein Kavazovic, sportsmen, artists … Ibrahim Spahic, a president of the International Peace Center organized a performance in the Tito Street:"We are all one genus, stop the terrorism”. Fatima Mehmedovic and Nejla Komar, students of the Music School in Sarajevo to pay respects to all victims of terrorist attacks, not only in Spain, but all over the world performed Albinoni's Adagio, a piece that during the siege of Sarajevo was performed every day at noon for the victims of terror against the city (Sarajevo) and its citizens at the alley La Rambla. “La Rambla is a symbol of freedom and the place where together with Pasqual Maragall we marched for peace and lifting siege around Sarajevo. They even named one block in Barcelona after Sarajevo", said Spahic....
“CALL FOR SARAJEVO”
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After the war, their assistance was mainly addressed via the Embassy of the Local Democracy (note by blogger: for further explanation on this NGO see bellow the article).
For example, a fundraising event was organised in Barcelona named "Call for Sarajevo", which, by having people dial the humanitarian hotline, collected money for the reconstruction of the book fund of the National Library. The hotline was dialed by 300 thousand people. In 1996 Barcelona donated 205 thousand euros for the reconstruction of the Kosevo stadium, at which the athletic event "Meeting of Solidarity" was held. The first organised tour group to visit Sarajevo after the war came from Barcelona and consisted of 50 people. Barcelona donated two buses to GRAS. A total of 2.887.000 euros was donated for the reconstruction of apartments in the Mojmilo residential area. Aside from that, 650 thousand euros was donated for the reconstruction of the clinic, and another 150 thousand for the kindergarten facilities. 250 thousand euros was donated for the reconstruction of 80 houses in Hadzici and Tarcin municipalities. The Olympic Hall Zetra was reconstructed with the help of Juan Antonio Samaranch and Barcelona. Barcelona donated 150 thousand euros for the reconstruction of the "Kamerni Teatar 55" theater. Money was donated for the hospitals of Sarajevo and Tuzla, for books, promotions, concerts, student visits, businessman visits...
When the war began in Kosovo, 400 thousand euros was donated for the refugees from Kosovo accommodated in the Sarajevo area. 50 thousand euros for the shelter, 120 thousand euros for the reconstruction of the primary school in Semizovac... And that's just a part of the money and some of the projects that Barcelona organised to help Sarajevo and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Since November 2000 Sarajevo and Barcelona are twin cities, and the Catalan cities Sankt Perptu and San Sebastian are the twin cities of Tesanj and Gorazde.
... The heads of FC Barcelona were also involved in humanitarian missions. Ramon Pujol, a member of the club's administration, a head of the club protocol, spent three months in BaH during the war as part of a humanitarian mission. He took an unpaid leave and arrived to BaH. He came back when the company he worked for threatened to fire him. "I felt like Bosnia was a place that I needed to help, and I did just that, and not because it'd look good in my biography later on," stated Pujol. Spanish humanitarian aid workers came to BaH for the first time in 1992, arriving to Pazaric and to the mountain Igman. During three years of the war they drove in 105 trucks of humanitarian aid, mostly food and clothing, and through this organisation, 107 refugees from BaH departed to Catalonia. It's interesting that three Catalan aid workers managed to get married during their stay in BaH. According to some calculations, a total of 2.000 tonnes of food was delivered to BaH.
In 1994, during the war, Catalan humanitarian aid workers fully equipped the hospital in the Suhodol residential area, and three years later, rebuilt the destroyed school in Lokve from scratch. They built bleachers, a tartan-track and a management building on a stadium in Hadzici. These establishments were formally opened in 2005 by Joan Laporta, the then-president of FC Barcelona, one of the heads of the Catalan humanitarian organisation "Accio Solidaria Igman Catalunia", which organised dozens of humanitarian actions for BaH, from the reconstruction of houses, mine removal projects to memorials dedicated to Srebrenica.
Laporta came to BaH on the 11th of July 2005, visited Mostar and Sarajevo, and intended to attend the commemoration of the victims of the Srebrenica genocide, but, due to security reasons, the organisation of that trip wasn't possible..
Near the very end of the siege of Sarajevo, a visit was made by the delegation of the Barcelona City Council. The summer of that year was marked in Barcelona by protests organised due to the long-standing siege of Sarajevo, continuing even after the fall of Srebrenica. The main initiator of those protests was the late Jose Maria Mendiluce, who saw the beginning of the war in the BaH as one of the heads of UNHCR, and witnessed the murders committed by the White Eagles (Beli Orlovi) in Zvornik in 1992. During the war, the citizens of Barcelona were collecting money and humanitarian aid for Sarajevo. Every Monday at 08:00 in the evening they were gathering in front of the City Hall and expressing their protests against the siege of the capital of BaH with a minute of silence. Even though the "set" of people in charge in Barcelona and Catalonia has changed since 1992, the wish to help Sarajevo remained the same.
BARCELONA AND SREBRENICA
The artists and journalists of Barcelona often dealt with Srebrenica, talking about and reminding the people of the genocide in the town. Along with gatherings in the years during the war, almost every summer, manifestations are held at which it's spoken about the events in the former UN enclave. For example, the citizens of Barcelona marked the 16th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide by gathering on the Sant Jaume square. At the gathering, the messages of mothers from Srebrenica as well as the letter from General Jovan Divjak, were read, along with the letters of the Catalan NGOs. The citizens of Barcelona honoured the victims by lighting candles. During this gathering, they also demanded the release of General Jovan Divjak from detention**. In the General's letter which was read in this occasion it was stated: "I am honoured to be able to thank you for your tribute, for your remembrance of the highest scale genocide in Europe after WW2, the genocide committed against Bosniaks Muslims in Srebrenica. The truth about Srebrenica is denied by Serbian nationalist-chauvinists, so thank you for not forgetting the over 8.000 killed in just five days in July, 1995 right before the eyes of members of the UN."
In 2008 the monograph Srebrenica by Tarik Samarah was translate to Catalan and launched in Barcelona in 4.000 copies on the 10th of July. Photo-journalist Alfons Rodriguez was awarded on the 11th of November, 2010 in Sevilla a national journalist award for his reportage from Srebrenica, published in El Mundo.
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*The Foundation of Local Democracy has stemmed from the international organization Embassy of Local Democracy Barcelona-Sarajevo, founded in 1996 upon the initiative of the Council of Europe, with the aim of linking and twinning with other European cities, the development of democracy, cultural exchanges, and socio-economic development. During the existence of the Embassy of Local Democracy, it has implemented over 300 projects. The projects were implemented in the areas of reconstruction, sustainable returns, health and social care and education.In January 2003, the registration was renewed as a local organization - the Foundation of Local Democracy, as the legal successor of the Embassy of Local Democracy Barcelona-Sarajevo. More info available at: http://www.fld.ba/stranica/donors
** In March 2011 General Jovan Divjak was arrested by the Austrian authorities at the Vienna airport following the arrest warrant issued by Serbia for the allegations that he had committed a war crime in the "Dobrovoljacka Street" case in 1992 when the soldiers of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) were attacked in the process of withdrawal from Sarajevo.
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