Dad, save me. It was the last request that nine-year-old Augustina whispered to her father, after she was seriously wounded in a grenade explosion at the children’s playground in Vitez in June 1993, during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina(BiH).
Three decades of waiting for justice
Nine-year-old Augustina Grebenar was the youngest among eight children who died on June 10th, 1993, in the explosion of a grenade fired from a position of the Army of the Republic of BiH. The oldest victim was 18 years old.
The case related to this event has been in the BiH Prosecutor’s Office for 20 years, where it was forwarded from the cantonal Prosecutor’s Office in Travnik.
The State Prosecutor’s Office claims that the investigation has been accelerated since the beginning of 2022, and that experts have been hired for ballistics examinations.
The members of the families of the children who died gave evidence several times to members of the State Agency for Investigation and Protection. However, they say that they have less and less hope that those responsible will be prosecuted.
The playground as a “safe” zone
During the 1990s war in BiH, Vitez was the scene of fierce armed conflicts between the Croatian Defense Council (HVO) and the Army of BiH.
Children from the settlement of Podgradina spent days when there were no fights on the nearby playground, with a bench and a basketball hoop. The parents considered that area, surrounded by their houses, a safe place to play, out of sniper range.
The grenade was fired at the playground in the evening, a little after 8 p.m. Five children died on the spot and were buried during the night, a few hours after suffering, while three died in the hospital.
Prosecution of war crimes by the end of 2023
The suffering of eight children in Vitez is not the only war crime that judicial institutions in BiH are dealing with almost 30 years after the end of the war.
Almost 500 unprocessed cases with known perpetrators were registered by the end of 2021, and about 1,250 in which the perpetrators are unknown, it was stated in the report of the OSCE Mission from June 2022, Radio Slobodna Evropa reports.
E.Dz.
