A lively controversy over the number of children killed during the siege of Sarajevo in the 1990s erupted in Bosnia after the questioning of the official figure of young victims by a local columnist accused of "
provocation
" and threatened on the networks.
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According to official figures, 1,601 children died between 1992 and 1995 in the capital besieged by Bosnian Serb forces.
Known for his sometimes crude way of denouncing the manipulation of the number of victims of the inter-communal war, in particular by leaders of the Bosnian Serb community, from which he himself comes, Srdjan Puhalo recently criticized Bosnian leaders (Muslims) and Sarajevo media on the same subject.
"Fact" that "is not proven"
"
Prove that 1601 children were killed in Sarajevo or stop using this figure
", as media and political leaders did on May 5 on the occasion of the day of remembrance of the children killed, he said. asserted in an article.
“
With the best intention of paying tribute to the children of Sarajevo who were killed, there is constant reference to a fact that has simply not been proven
,” he said.
"
According to documented research, far fewer children were killed
."
"
The Bosnian Book of the Dead
", edited and updated since 2007 by the Sarajevo Documentation and Research Center (IDC), an independent institution, established the number of children (0-18 years old) killed at 643. during the siege out of a total of 11,541 victims.
Death threats
The monument dedicated to children killed during the siege, inaugurated in 2010, has 521 names.
Srdjan Puhalo's text provoked anger in Sarajevo and in particular on social networks where he received death threats, denounced by the Association of Bosnian Journalists who urged the police to identify the authors.
“
We pour salt on the open wounds of the parents
,” Fikret Grabovica, president of the association of parents of children killed during the siege, told the local press.
For him, it is a "
shameful provocation
".
He explained that the names inscribed on the monument were those of children declared "
voluntarily
" by their parents to the association, and that the figure of 1601 children came from a document published in 1996 by the health authorities.
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Srdjan Puhalo has however received the support of several figures from Sarajevo, including the Bosnian director Jasmila Zbanic and the director of the Museum of Childhood during the War, Jasminko Halilovic.
“
One child killed in Sarajevo or anywhere else is too many.
I do not understand where is the problem of asking for a
complete and verified list of names, wrote the filmmaker on her Facebook account.