Today is the 31st anniversary of the horrific crimes in Pionirska Street and Bikavac, in Višegrad. In “live bonfires”, in the house of Adem Omeragić in Pionirska Street in Bikavac, on June 14, and a little later on June 27, 1992, in the house of Meho Aljić more than 140 women, children and old people were burned alive.
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.
This crime represents one of the most terrible war crimes that happened during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also crimes that happened at the end of the twentieth century.
The crime known as the “live bonfire” took place on June 14, 1992, when members of the paramilitary formation Osvetnici, led by the most cruel criminals from Višegrad, Milan and Sredoje 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 the house on fire.
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 to pick them up and ordered them to board the buses, which were supposed to go to the free territory, to Kladanj. The youngest victim was only two days old.
Milan Lukić was sentenced to life imprisonment and Sredoje Lukić was sentenced to 27 years in prison for the crime in Pionirska Street. In June 2018, Radomir Šušnjar was extradited to Bosnia and Herzegovina, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2021.
