On this day in 1992, a war crime was committed at Bikavac in Višegrad.
The crime known as the Living Bonfire took place on June 27, 1992, when members of the paramilitary formation Osvetnici, led by the most cruel criminals from Višegrad, Milan and Sredoje Lukić, forced about 71 Bosniak civilians, mostly women, children and the elderly, into the house of Meho Aljić, in the Bikavac neighborhood in Višegrad, where they locked them, and then set the house on fire.
The youngest victim was only one year old.
The only survivor of the crime was Zehra Turjačanin, who testified about the atrocities at Bikavac before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
Milan Lukić was sentenced to life imprisonment and Sredoje Lukić to 27 years in prison for the crime at Bikavac by a final verdict at the ICTY. The crimes in Višegrad were also tried before domestic courts in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The crime at Bikavac, along with the crime committed on June 14, 1992, in Pionirska Street in Višegrad, represents one of the most horrific war crimes during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
