The Association for Social Research and Communication (UDIK) reminds the public that today is the 29th anniversary of the war crime in Pionirska Street in Višegrad.
In the Pionirska Street Fire, on 14 June 1992, a group of Bosniak civilians were locked en masse in the house of Adem Omeragid in Višegrad. The house was set ablaze and the occupants were left to burn to death. About 70 Bosniak women, children and elderly men, most of them from the village of Koritnik, were confined in a house in Pionirska Street by cousins Milan and Sredoje Lukic, leaders of the paramilitary unit called Avengers. The youngest victim was two days old.
A similar scenario happened on June 27, when approximately 70 Bosniak civilians were forced into one room in the house of Meho Aljic in the settlement of Bikavac, near Višegrad. After the captives were robbed, the house was set on fire and the occupants were burned alive. According to the testimony of Zehra Turjačanin, there were many children in the house, the youngest less than one year old. Such crimes were repeated at several other locations in Višegrad.
For war crimes in Višegrad the ICTY sentenced Milan Lukic to life imprisonment and Sredoje Lukic to 27 years in prison. The Hague Tribunal has proved that one of the most monstrous campaigns of ethnic cleansing was conducted in Višegrad during the war against Bosnia and Herzegovina.
