The April 1992 Commemoration marks the beginning of unforgettable violence in Bijeljina and the lasting impact it has had on the city and its people. Drawing on the reflections of writer and activist Jusuf Trbić, the commemoration honors the memory of those days in April as both testimony and warning. His account of April as a month transformed from renewal into one of loss and enduring trauma underscores the lived experience behind the historical record and affirms the responsibility to remember.
This commemorative text is now part of the Bijeljina City Archive Collections, which assemble key legal and historical materials documenting the city’s history, and the prosecution of political and military leaders responsible for atrocities in Bijeljina and the surrounding areas. Originally preserved at the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) in The Hague, the court records selected for this collection include materials related to the cases of Radovan Karadžić, Slobodan Milošević, and others. Together, they provide public access into the organization and execution of campaigns of ethnic cleansing, as well as the international legal processes that followed.
Additionally, the collection includes works by local Bosnian authors and documentary filmmakers, Selma Hujdurović, and Avdo Huseinović of Pravda Bosna Film Productions. Contributions from these contemporary cultural figures, including Jusuf Trbić, offer personal and creative engagements with memory, identity, and survival. The combination of archival documentation and narrative testimony creates a layered resource that connects institutional records with human experience.
This project was developed by Aida Gradaščević through an independent study in the Human Rights Program, with guidance from Catherine Masud and Predrag Dojčinović, and support from the Gladstein Family Human Rights Institute.
