Marking of the 27th anniversary of the suffering, persecution and war crimes against Croats of Bugojno began with the laying of wreaths and lighting of candles at the Memorial in the Catholic City Cemetery in Bugojno on Monday.
Representatives of associations gathered around the Croat Defense Council (HVO) and the Homeland War and a large delegation of the HNS and the HDZ BiH paid tribute to the Croats of Bugojno.
“The units of the so-called Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina expelled 15,000 Croats from Bugojno during the war and 311 Croat civilians and soldiers were killed, and about 2,000 Croat detainees were tortured in dozens of camps, and the most prominent were taken into the unknown. Nineteen of the soldiers and 16 civilians have been missing for 27 years,” the HDZ BiH said in a press statement.
“Together with the families of the killed and missing Croat defenders of Bugojno, members of the associations stemming from the Homeland War, the delegation of the HDZ BiH and HNS recalled July 1993, the persecution and suffering experienced by Bugojno Croats that month, but also current events, finding the bodies of forcibly abducted Croat detainees whose bodies have been sought for 27 years at the same time as the appointment of Selmo Cikotic as the Minister of Security of BiH,” the statment added.