On this day, April 29, 1993, Briton Graham Bamford doused himself with gasoline and set himself on fire in the middle of the day in front of the House of Commons of the British Parliament.
He did this in order to draw the attention of the world, and above all the British public, to the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina – to the suffering of the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who were killed, persecuted and humiliated just because they called themselves differently and prayed to God.
“The British army must not be an honor guard at a mass funeral. Bosnian babies, children and women are waiting for politicians to give them what they can certainly give – military protection,” the 48-year-old Briton wrote in his farewell letter.
Graham Bamford had no connection to Bosnia and Herzegovina and its citizens. However, the images of horror from Bosnia and Herzegovina forced him to make sacrifices.
In the testimonies of acquaintances and psychologists at the time, he saw his own daughter in every child victim in Bosnia and Herzegovina. His condition worsened after the footage of the massacre in Ahmići on April 16, 1993, when 116 people were killed, including a three-month-old baby.
Bamford’s name was only mentioned in BiH on April 6, during the award ceremony named after him, which was established by the City Administration of the City of Sarajevo in 2009.
Not a single street today bears the name of Graham Bamford, nor has a place been found in the city for a monument made by the academic sculptor Mustafa Skopljak.
