The Majlis of the Islamic Community of Visegrad, in cooperation with the associations of families of the missing “Visegrad 92” and “Women-Victims of War” in this city, is marking the 30th anniversary of the crimes against Bosniaks in Visegrad.
3.000 roses were dropped from the Mehmed-pasha Sokolovicbridge into the Drina for the same number of innocent civilians killed, after which those present visited the crime scenes, live bonfires Bikavac and Pionirska.
Only in the living bonfires Bikavac in the house of Meho Aljic, and in Pionirska Street in the house of Sumbula Zeba, in the most monstrous crimes committed during the aggression on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), more than 140 civilians were set on fire. According to the Hague tribunal, in May and June 1992 alone, more than 60 percent of Bosniaks from the Visegrad area were killed.
“30 years since the burning of Bosniak civilians in Visegrad on June 14th in Pionirska Street and another bonfire on June 27th in Bikavac. 25 years after the horrific crimes committed against Bosniak civilians, not a single bone has been found to date, that is, the remains of civilians who were burned, although war criminals were convicted, some in The Hague, some before the Court of BiH. I think the conscience should work, someone should finally say where is the location of the remains of the burned civilians and others killed on the Mehmed Pasha Sokolovic Bridge and in the immediate vicinity, but also in other locations, so families could bury their loved ones, even if it was a bone, as I bury my sister-in-law’s mother today, where the whole family of my brother-in-law was killed, because there is no one to put her in the grave. I blame Visegrad government, the international community, and all those who could have ordered and so far brought in and prosecuted those who planned, ordered, and the last ones are those who committed crimes, ” said Bakira Hasecic, President of the Association “Women-Victims of War”.
Pionirska, Bikavac, Uzamnica, Vilina Vlas, the Mehmed Pasha Sokolovic Bridge, and other locations in this city are a terrible reminder of the character of the crimes committed in the Visegrad area. A memorial room reminiscent of one of the most horrific crimes ever committed in Europe was opened yesterdayin Omeragic’s house in Pionirska.
But, the fact that not a single bone of the burned civilians has been found even three decades after the crime is worrying.
“Exhumation has been done several times so far from the live bonfire Pionirska with the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH, with the Hague Tribunal, but no, they removed it, while in Bikavac, when we performed the exhumation, three or four bones were found, but they were in such the condition that the DNA finding could not be taken out, ” stated Hasecic.
About 3.000 Bosniaks from Visegrad were killed during the 1992-1995 war, and Hague verdicts said Visegrad had been subjected to “one of the most ruthless ethnic cleansing campaigns in the Bosnian conflict.”, Klix.ba writes.
E.Dz.