GARIWO

In a ceremony held in Sarajevo on February 23, NGO Gariwo Sarajevo granted the Dusko Kondor Civil Courage Award for 2009 to those brave people who risked their own lives by standing up to negative authorities and acting accoring to their own values. The award commemorates an uncompromising champion of civil courage, who was assassinated in his own home in Bjeljina on the 22nd of February 2007. His name has become a symbol of civil courage.

The ceremony was attended by numerous members of the diplomatic corp, including HE Jan Braathu, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Norway in B&H, HE Maryse Berniau, Ambassador of the Republic of France in B&H, Mr Alija Behmen, Mayor of Sarajevo, other polititions and workers in the non-governmenta sector.

Based on the proposals it had received, the Commission for The Dusko Kondor Awards for Civil Courage and Promotion of Civil Courage agreed to make the Awards for 2009. to the following:

1.    Djuro Ivkovic posthumously for civil courage
2.    his wife Rada Ivkovic, his daughters Branka Ivkovic and Dragana Ivkovic and his daughter-in-law Zora Ivkovic for civil courage
3.    Alojz Knezovic posthumously for civil courage
4.    Ivanka Sucur for civil courage and
5.    the team of the Federal TV political magazine "60 Minutes" both for their consistent emphasis on the need for civil courage in our society and for the example they set by their own civil courage in confronting the authorities. 

1.  Djuro Ivkovic, born in 1934 in Drezanj, Nevesinje Municipality. worked as a policeman in Nevesinje before and during the war.  Retired after the war he died of the consequences of a stroke on 17 May 2008.

-  In July 1992 he saved from being murdered three boys from the catic family: Irfan, 11 years old (1980) Dzemal, 12 years old (1979) and Dzenis, 8 years old (1984), releasing them from detention in the basement of the Nevesinje Police Station and helped them go to the free territory  
-  In July 1992 he saved from being murdered a six-month-old baby and a three-year-old child of Nura MiCijevic, releasing them from detention in the basement of the Police Station in Nevesinje  and helped them go to the free territory where their mother found them
-  In July 1992 he saved Nura MiCijevic from being murdered and helped her to the free territory where she found her six-month-old baby and three-year-old child  
-  In July 1992 he saved two elderly ladies from being murdered, releasing them from detention in the basement of the Nevesinje Police Station and helped them go to the free territory
-  In June and July 1992 he organised the escape from being murdered of several expelled, unarmed civilians detained in the Nevesinje Police station and the surrounding concentration camps in Eastern Herzegovina  

From the first to the last day of the war he succeeded to live by his principle that "in the war the most important thing is to keep your integrity and protect your family ".  

2. The following members of the family of Đuro Ivkovic:

-  his wife Rada Ivkovic, nee Zurovac, born in 1939 in Rabina village, Nevesinje Municipality, housewife by profession;
-  his daughter Branka Ivkovic, born in 1960, employed in Nevesinje
-  his daughter Dragana Ivkovic, born in 1969, mother of four children -son Milos(1990), daughter Natasa (1992), daughter Jelena (1994), and daughter Aleksandra (1999).
-  His daughter-in-law Zora Ivkovic, born in 1960, mother of three children -twin sons Marko and Aleksandar, (1990) and daughter Irena (1998).

-  In June and July 1992 they saved several unarmed expelled civilians, including at least 5 children aged from 6 months to 12 years, detained in the Nevesinje Police Station

-  Although they had three 2-year-old children and a baby of their own in their house they saved some of their own food and secretly, because it was prohibited, gave their food and milk to the unknown children separated from their parents and left alone without any food or care detained in the basement of the Nevesinje Police Station.


3.  Alojz Knezovic born in  1938 in Tuzla, an optician, soldier, politician and socially active pensioner, Member of the Federal Parliament, and President of the NGO Spokojna starost. (Peaceful Old Age). He died in Tuzla on  November 26, 2008.

-  In February 1992 he saved Sead Husejnovic from Serb paramilitary units who at the time occupied the territory of the Municipality of Erdut, Croatia, where Sead was serving military service in the Yugoslav National Army. Alojz managed to get Sead out of a situation in which, according to Sead Husejnovic, as a member of the Islamic religion he was "in mortal danger".
-  As a soldier of the Army of BiH  during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, he showed civil courage when he submitted a written complaint to the Corps Commander against his own superior, the commander of his battalion, on the grounds of that officer's illegal and immoral actions and abuse of his position.
-  He sent an open letter to the first President of the Presidency of the Republic of BiH and Commander-in-Chief of the Army of BiH, Alija Izetbegovic  published on 19.11.1993. in the magazine Front Slobode, under the title "What kind of Bosnia do you want?", In it he argued that many of Izetbegovic's pronouncements raised  anxieties, indeed fears among  non -Moslems as to their status and treatment in the new Bosnia for which they were fighting.
-  As President of the Association Peaceful Old Age he constantly exposed irregularities and corruption in the Institute of Pension and invalid Insurance and the Union of the Association of Pensioners.
-  As a Member of the House of Representatives of the Federal  Parliament of BiH in public appearances, statements and articles naming guilty  institutions and individuals, exposing their criminal activities and at the same time giving up his immunity.

4. Ivanka Sucur, born in 1950 in Kakanj, a housewife who lives in Sarajevo.

-  A widow with three children, on October 16, 1993 - two months after her husband was killed defending Sarajevo - found an abandoned eighteen-month old child on the street in Hrasnica, saved his life and took him home during shelling.  

-  She kept the abandoned boy Elvis, born in Capljina on January 9, 1992, accepted him as family and thereby proved that humanity knows no ethno-national or religious borders.

-  She then expressed unlimited humanity when she decided to dedicate at least sixteen years of her life to raising and educating this boy.

5.    In 280 hours of fearless informative presentations over more than six years now the journalists of the Federal TV political magazine "60 Minutes", have consistently in each of their broadcasts pilloried the most corrupt authorities, enterprises and associations in B&H.
 
-   Subjected to frequent insults, physical assaults and threats, including death threats, from the bodies they are exposing (which thereby themselves prove their dangerous criminal character), every individual journalist has set an example by their own civil courage .  
 
-  In a society run by organized crime, the "60 Minutes" team, by constantly exposing links in the chain of organized crime,  prove their total commitment to promoting and upholding social and political  courage as an abiding personal value essential to building a free human society.