After family members of several children killed during the siege of Sarajevo discovered that the names of their loved ones were falsely included in the list of 106 children killed in Bosnia’s Republika Srpska (RS) entity, the RS Centre for the Investigation of War and War Crimes, which compiled the list, erased three of those names, but the number listed has not been changed.
Their families discovered the scandal by chance after the issue was raised by Sniper Alley, a social media account that collects, archives and preserves photos of world-renowned photojournalists who covered the Siege of Sarajevo 1992-1996.
The three names that were erased from the list so far are Marko Lukic, Igor Malesevic and Damir Dodik.
Sniper Alley pointed out that the names of Mirjana Malesevic, Danijel Kovacevic and Vitomir Soknic, children who were killed in Sarajevo, are still on the list.
Sixteen-year-old Mirjana Malesevic was killed while on her way to meet up with friends. She was shot in the heart. Her friend Samir, who was with her at the time and tried to help, was also killed.
Vitomir Soknic was killed in Dobrinja after he was shot in the neck while collecting wood. The shot came from the direction of an Army of Republika Srpska position.
As for Danijel Kovacevic, the sixteen-year-old also passed away but was not killed in the siege. His father Ivo was killed by Bosnian Serb forces. Danijel could not come to terms with this and would eventually commit suicide.
The family of Marko Lukic, who was killed at the age of eleven in the Mejtas neighbourhood and whose name was also on the disputed list, has announced a lawsuit.