MÉMORIAL DE ŠUŠNJAR

This memorial in the Šušnjar district of Sanski Most (Spomen Park Šušnjar) was created in 1971 in memory of the 2,000 to 10,000 Serbian and Jewish residents and partisans of the area who were executed and deported by the Ustasha (Croatian nationalists) in 1941. It houses an elegant modernist aluminum monument 15 m high in the shape of a flame that evokes, according to its designer, "fire" and "the light of life". It was designed by the Sarajevan architect Petar Krstić (1899-1991), to whom we owe the monuments in Bratunac (near Srebrenica) and Vogošća (near Sarajevo). The work is in poor condition: it is covered with graffiti and the lower part has lost its aluminum cover. But the municipality of Sanski Most is reluctant to undertake any work. This is the result of a dispute between the communities. In 1992, when Bosnian Serb troops took over the town, they destroyed the plaques bearing the names of Bosnian partisans on the memorial. In 1995, when the city was liberated, the site was again defaced by Bosnian refugees. However, the memorial is still visited every year on August 2 for the Serbian national holiday, Ilinden, or St. Elijah's Day according to the Orthodox liturgical calendar. Organized by the authorities of the Bosnian Serb Republic, this ceremony now takes place mainly in front of a stele bearing a Christian cross that was installed by Bosnian Serb troops in 1992 a few meters away from the official monument.