Period: Yugoslav Wars

Region: Bosnia and Herzegovina

Božana Delić - a Serbian victim from Gorazde - Bosnia 1992

Božana Delić (1912-2005) from the place of Goražde is the symbol of the Serb suffering in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the war 1990-1995. Although surviving the horror of WW2, she faced tragedy in the 1990s when her Muslim neighbours who joined the Muslim forces of BiH, killed her three sons, a daughter, a grandson, and three sons-in-law.  

For years, she was searching for the remains of her beloved ones, but without any success. No one dared to help her find justice for her family killed in monstrous ways.

Božana Delić in 2004, in mourning clothes

She died on June 8, 2005, without receiving justice, nor finding the truth because not any of the Muslim criminal monsters hadn’t been prosecuted for the crimes committed against Serbs from Goražde.

BIOGRAPHY

Božana was born in 1912, in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the village of Crkvine near the town of Goražde. At that time, Bosnia and Herzegovina were annexed by the Austro-Hungarian monarchy and Serbs faced terror and tyranny ordered by the Court in Vienna.

She married Vlade Delić before the outbreak of WW2 and gave birth to three daughters, Milka, Gina, and Andja (1993), and four sons, Novica (1939), Nika (1943), Jovana (1947), and Radivoje (1952).

Andja Pejović, Božana's daughter

SUFFERING

At the beginning of the 1990s, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, growing tensions were caused by the revival of evil from WW2, ie. renovation of the monstrous clero-fascist Independent State of Croatia. In such circumstances, militant party of SDA provided Muslims with weapons and created paramilitary units, the so-called Green Berets and the Patriotic League wherever they held a relative or absolute majority in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Furthermore, Muslims received help from Arabian countries which aimed at spreading Jihad.  These aims were earlier stated in the “Declaration of Islam” announced by Alija Izetbegović, a prewar prisoner, who on the eve of the war became president of the Muslim presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. His declaration propagated ethnically and religiously cleansed the Muslim state of Bosnia. 

Niko, Novica, Jovo and Radivoje

Only several days after the important Orthodox Christian day of Djurdjevdan, precisely on May 12 1992, members of the 81st Division of the Muslim Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina commanded by Osman Subašić attacked Serb villages around the town of Goražde since only Goražde was a strategically important place in the region of Podrinje at far east of Bosnia. This is also the place on the road from Sarajevo to Priština (Kosovo). 

On this occasion, they forced Božana and her husband Vlada to leave their house, previously taking all men living in the village to an unknown direction. Their Muslim neighbour Nasko Švraka from the village of Čivići visited Božana and Vlada to tell them that he and his group had killed their son Radivoje the day earlier. A Muslim woman Hana Spahović told them that Radivoje had been buried near a cement factory. They also killed Božana’s grandson Danilo Delić, a young man of only 19. Her daughter Andja Pejović was raped several times and then thrown into the river Drina.

Tombstone of  Božana and her family

This is when a lot of Serb villages around Goražde were ethnically cleansed and many families were exterminated. 

THE LIST OF PERPETRATORS

Among many Muslim criminals who are considered guilty and responsible for the murder of members of Delić family, some are listed below:

AFTER THE WAR

After the Dayton Agreement had been made, Goražde became part of the Muslim-Croatian Federation which made Serbs unable to return to their homes. 

The Bosnian Prosecutor purposely disrupts the investigation of the war crimes committed against Serbs to avoid disclosure of the criminal role of the Muslim leaders during the 1990s war of Bosnia and Herzegovina. 

Božana Delić died on June 8, 2005, without finding the truth about the death of her family members who were killed just because they were Serbs.