The 30th anniversary of the terrible crime against Bosniak civilians was marked yesterday in the yard of the Sarajlić family’s house in the Bijeljina settlement of Bukreš. On the night of September 24 to 25, 1992, the Sarajlić, Malagić and Sejmenović families were executed.
22 members of the mentioned families were killed, including seven children. Today, their relatives and friends laid wreaths and flowers on the footprint, the mark in the concrete, that little girl Alma Sarajlić left when the family house was being built.
Lawyer Duško Tomić also addressed those present at the commemoration, who called the killing of the Sarajlić, Sejmenović and Malagić families a small genocide. He also said that he is a lawyer of one of the accused who has expressed remorse and that he can’t wait to meet the witnesses who, according to him, should be held responsible, such as Predrag Ješurić.
At the end of last year, after 29 years of waiting, officers of the state agency SIPA arrested several people in the territory of the BiH entity RS. In January 2022, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina confirmed the indictments against: Živan Miljanović, assistant commander of the Public Security Station in Bijeljina, Stevo Bokarić, member of the State Security Service in Bijeljina, Jovica Petrović and Mirko Simić, members of the Interventions Squad at the Public Security Station, Goran Sarić, former commander of the Special Brigade of the Republika Srpska Police, and Ljubo Marković, Slavenko Kočević and Zvonko Pržulj, members of a Republika Srpska Interior Ministry special squad.
According to the prosecution, during the night of September 24-25, 1992, the indictees unlawfully captured members of the Sarajlić, Sejmenović and Malagić families from their houses in the Bukreš neighbourhood of Bijeljina.
More than half of the Bosniaks who were captured were women, children and elderly people.
“After having been captured and taken to the village of Balatun, the civilians were executed with firearms, their bodies thrown into the River Drina,” the prosecution said when the indictment was initially raised.
After the war, most of the victims’ bodies were found buried at several locations in the Sremska Mitrovica area of Serbia. The bodies of four victims have yet to be found.
