Thread by @SniperAlleyPhot

MELISA VITEŠKIĆ was killed on 16 October 1992. She was with her father Edhem trying to get across the runway when the #Serb Forces shot her in the head.

Melisa was 12 years old.

#SniperAlley #BosnianGenocide

Melisa's father described the details of her murder:
"Since the barricades in the city [April 1992], even in Ilidza, she lived with her sister and mother at her aunt’s and uncle’s place in ‘Bratstva i Jedinstva’ street, Pofalici, for security reasons.

It was not safe in Butmir. She had already lived in the city for 6 months and they were running out of food and I as a father stayed in Butmir to defend the frontlines of defense. So I decided to go get them across the runway to Butmir to make life easier for them

because we in Butmir had food and free territory. While we were approaching the building, going down the street, a bullet came from nowhere and hit her in the head, after a short time and transport to ‘Koševo’ hospital she died.

Throughout her stay with her aunt, Melisa showed nostalgia for her father and her Butmir neighbourhood. ‘Before I went to get them, her sister and her mother Begajeta were telling me how Melisa once said, 'I wish I could see my father, even if I die immediately!'

When I, as a father, decided to go across the runway to pick them up, relatives and neighbors told me, 'Don't, it's not safe.' But I could not fathom the meaning of those words, so I answered the question, 'I am going, even if they kill me’

but fate was intended differently. I remember her saying to me, ‘Baba, how are we going to get over the wire?' I told her, ‘Sweetheart, don't be afraid, we'll put a towel over the wire so you won't get hurt.'

I remember her as if it’s happening now, I was holding her hand and she was holding white towel in her hands and I couldn’t wait to arrive to Butmir. There was a moment when she knelt down, I held her hand tightly and it seemed she slipped on the edge of the sidewalk

but it wasn't that. Her head was bowed down and blood was gushing from her forehead. I knew right away that I had lost her. This left a deep mark of grief on me and my wife, and all the joy of our lives was already lost at that moment.

Today we live with the sorrow & pain that will follow us to the grave. It was the fall of 16 Oct '92 with the first fog of the year, around 8pm. One young life has come to an end, which cannot be compensated or forgotten. What they've done, shame on them and their honor.’

Killed by a bullet on 16 October 1992, in ‘Hakije Turajlica’ Street, Dobrinja, Novi Grad Municipality, Sarajevo. She was buried at the ‘Koševo Stadium’ cemetery.

#BosnianGenocide
#MelisaViteskic