Sarajevo Belatedly Honours Sportsman Who Sacrificed Life for Neighbour

"To me, he [Cengic] represents one of the greatest heroes," Halilovic said, adding he had long wondered why no tribute had been paid to the great sportsman who perished saving a neighbour in the building where he lived.

"To confront those men - and there are no words to describe them … there were many of them, and he was alone with his family, helping an elderly debilitated man. … To me, he is not just any hero, but a great one," Halilovic said.

Cengic was killed in mid-June 1992, trying to save his neighbour, Husnija Cerimagic. In a verdict against his killer, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina stated that it had been unable to determine the date of death, but his friends and family mark it on June 14.

Heroic act

Sports hall in Sarajevo named after Goranu Cengic. Photo: BIRN

According to the verdict passed down by the Court against Veselin "Batko" Vlahovic, Cengic tried to prevent Bosnian Serbs then controlling the area from taking Cerimagic away from his apartment in Rave Jankovic St in Grbavica, meters away from the hall which should soon bear his name.

The Court sentenced Vlahovic to 42 years in prison for having committed persecution by means of torture, rape, forcible disappearances, detention, enslaving, property pillaging and other inhumane acts in the Grbavica neighbourhood.

The remains of Cengic and Cerimagic were found after the war.

As a person who grew up with Cengic, played handball with him and knew his family, Halilovic remembers Cengic, son of Ferid Cengic, a mayor of Sarajevo after World War Two, as a cheerful man with a big heart and top sportsman.

"He was amiable. He would make friends very quickly. He used to help the elderly and young. Being all dressed up, he would...