The Novo Sarajevo Municipal Council decided Thursday to name the sports hall in Grbavica neighbourhood after Goran Cengic, a young handball player of Serb ethnicity who died defending his Bosniak neighbour from Veselin Vlahovic 'Batko' who was later convicted to 42 years in prison for crimes against Bosniaks.

The initiative to name the sports hall after Goran Cengic was launched back in 2013 when Our Party submitted it for discussion.

“Goran Cengic was a successful handball player who played for the Sarajevo handball club Bosna, the Belgrade Red Star and the handball national team of Yugoslavia. During the war, he remained in the Sarajevo neighbourhood of Grbavica, which was under the control of Bosnian Serb forces that sowed terror against the non-Serb civilian population. The most notorious criminal from Grbavica was Veselin Vlahovic “Batko”, who was sentenced to 42 years in prison after the war. He harassed Goran's neighbour Husnija Cerimagic. Goran tried to save him, but Batko took them both and killed them on the slopes of Trebevic. Cengic posthumously received the civic courage award ‘Dusko Kondor’ for that act,” Our Party.

The party added that the civic courage shown in the 1992-1995 Bosnian war was completely underestimated and that the naming of the hall after Goran Cengic was in fact a form of its affirmation.