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Sarajevo My Love

The story of Jovan Divjak, an ethnic Serb who defended Sarajevo against Serb forces during the Bosnian war. Jovan Divjak is an ethnic Serb and former army officer who defended Sarajevo against Serb forces during the Bosnian war in the 1990s. In Bosnia he is a hero and humanitarian who, since the war, has worked to improve the lives of citizens - Bosnians, Croats, and Serbs alike. But his native Serbia accuses him of being a war criminal and has sought his extradition. As a young conscript, Divjak served in the elite guard of Yugoslavia's first president, the country's founding father Josip Broz Tito. Under Tito's rule, Yugoslavia's ethnic divisions were kept in check and Serbs, Croats, Muslims and Slovenians came together to establish the Republic of Yugoslavia on November 25, 1942. But war changed all that and nationalist parties rose to power and fought each other for dominance. Amidst the conflicts of the 1990s Radovan Karadzic's propaganda was that co-existence with Bosnian Muslims was impossible. For Divjak, a Serb who had made Sarajevo his home, there was a hard choice to be made. On May 3, 1992, Divjak played a role in one of the war's most bitterly contested incidents, a role which was to stain his reputation. Serbian forces had taken Alija Izetbegovic, the Bosnian president, hostage in a bid to secure the release of a Serbian general. But the exchange went awry and Divjak, a deputy commander who has been handling the operation, was accused of betraying his cause. Years later after a forced exit from the army and an end to war, Divjak found solace in helping the children who were scarred by the atrocities of war through his NGO, the 'Education Builds Bosnia'. But this newfound peace was interrupted one day in March 2011 by his sudden arrest in Vienna airport, and request for his extradition to Serbia. Two decades later, Serbian authorities still held him responsible for the deaths of their soldiers in the bungled hostage exchange but a surpris

English
  • Originally Aired June 11, 2013
  • Runtime 50 minutes
  • Network Al Jazeera
  • Created April 16, 2018 by
    Administrator admin
  • Modified April 16, 2018 by
    Administrator admin