Today is the 32nd anniversary of the horrific crimes in Pionirska Street in Višegrad, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Namely, more than 140 women, children and old people were burned alive in the “live bonfires”, in the houses of Adem Omeragić in Pionirska street, on June 14, and a few days later, on June 27, 1992, in Bikavac, in the house of Meho Aljić. The youngest victim, a baby in her mother’s arms in Pionirska Street, was only two days old and didn’t even have a name at the time of her death.
The only survivor of this crime is Zehra Turjačanin, who testified about the horrors at Bikavac before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
This crime represents one of the most terrible war crimes that happened during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The crime known as the “live bonfire” took place on June 14, 1992, when members of the “Avengers” paramilitary formation, led by Milan and Sredoj Lukić, forced about 70 Bosniak civilians into the house of Adem Omeragić, in Pionirska Street in Višegrad, mostly women and children, where they locked them up, and then set fire to the house.
They threw a bomb into the house and shot at those who tried to escape through the window. Most of the victims were from the village of Koritnik, where Lukić and Mitar Vasiljević came for them and ordered them to get on the buses, which were supposed to go to the free territory, to Kladanj. The youngest victim was only two days old.
Milan Lukić and Sredoje Lukić were sentenced to 27 years in prison for the crime in Pionirska Street by a final verdict in the ICTY.
In June 2018, Radomir Šušnjar was extradited to Bosnia and Herzegovina, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2021, AA writes.
