Spomenko had a father, but he didn’t know about him. He gave up on him when he was 4, and now, he is getting a pension in the name of his dead son.
It has been 26 years since Spomenko Gostic has died, the youngest awarded fighter of the army of Republika Srpska (RS). He has died at the age of 15 when Muslim forces attacked the mountain Ozren, and he was awarded the Medal of merit for the people.
Spomenko Gostic was born in 1978. He went to the elementary school in Maglaj, which he didn’t finish due to the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).
At the beginning of the war, more precisely in April, his mother died, and he continued living with his grandma who died in 1992 when the village was bombed by so-called Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
As a member of the Army of Republika Srpska, he has died on March 20th, 1993, he was killed by a grenade, close to his village Jovici on the mountain Ozren. Besides him, 5 Serbian soldiers lost their lives and little Spomenko was just 15 years old.
He was buried in the community cemetery Gornji Ulisnjak, where his mother and grandmother are buried. That place, and his village Jovici, are in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
When he was left on his own in the war, Spomenko joined the army, where he first worked as a courier, and later on, he was driving food to the soldiers, reports Srna.
Several months before he died, he encountered a land mind, he was delivering food with horses. Horses died and Spomenko was injured. Later on, he went to Artillery, where his young life ended.
After more than 2 decades from his death, the young hero from Ozren got his monument – In Doboj, placed on March 20, 2014, placed in the yard of the temple of the Birth of the Holy Mother of God. Three years later, on March 19th, 2017, one of the streets got a name after the young hero in the Visegrad suburb Garca.
Spomenko got a nickname Little Obilic, not because of his years, but because he was pulling out the dead and wounded friends from the front line, under the heavy rain of bullets.
Photographer Tomislav Peternek remembers the moment when he filmed this young hero.
– I remember a boy with a baby face, coming to me in a carriage. I have looked and him and he is smoking, he is really pulling in the smoke, and he is carrying a bag full of food. When I took the camera, his comrades joked that he will enter history now – said Peternek for Kurir.
Rarely anyone knows that Spomenko refused an offer to go far away from the war, to live in a different country, with a carefree life, until his country is finally at peace again.
– I am not going away from here until my foot steps into Maglaj – he said when he received an offer to go to Paris and to leave these war terrors.
Spomenko had a father, but he didn’t know about him. He gave up on him when he was 4, and now, he is getting a pension in the name of his dead son.
THIS IS HOW SPOMENKO SPOKE IN AN INTERVIEW
– We have many cases where it was hard, but somehow you endure it. I had cases where I stepped on the mine, it hit the wheel, this is my second wound, I was thrown by detonation and a shard hit me.
They were firing bullets at me, but I endured that. It is good for me here, I cooperate with the army, I eat and sleep with the army… I have no parents, I am with my grandma, and she died near this house here – he said in an interview.
– My job is to take out the wounded, to transport ammo and food, but since we have a lack of couriers, I had to be a courier, and someone older took over the carriage – said this boy.
It can be seen that he tried to be brave, as much as it is possible with the war conflicts.
– I am not afraid. I was afraid before a little bit, but you get over it. I always have some weapon. They are attacking all the time, but not for long – he said.
Spomenko said that all of the people, who are sitting in cafes and who didn’t go to war, are cowards.
– Those are the traitors of their own kind. I volunteered to help my people to free ourselves from the occupation – he said.
A REQUIEM
The priesthood of the Archdiocese of Doboj held a requiem for the youngest soldier of the Republika Srpska Army, Spomenko Gostic, who died on this day 26 years ago.
The priest Dusko Nedic told the reporters that Gostic’s sacrifice is a great one, as well as all others who gave their lives for the defense of Republika Srpska, so he pointed that they enabled peace and stable life for future generations.
Source: telegraf.rs