Today marks the 31st anniversary of the murder of civilians abducted from train 671 on the route Belgrade – Bar. The crime named “Abduction in Štrpci” took place on February 27, 1993 when members of the Serbian paramilitary unit under the command of Milan Lukić, with the logistical support from the Republic of Serbia, kidnapped a group of passengers from Belgrade – Bar train at Štrpci station near Višegrad, on Bosnian territory.
They kidnapped and later killed twenty civilians: eighteen Bosniaks, one Croat and one unidentified person. To date, the remains of only four victims have been found. Most of those killed were citizens of Serbia or Montenegro.
For this crime was sentenced Nebojša Ranisavljević to fifteen years in prison. Mićo Jovičić received a five- year sentence after pleading guilty before Bosnian state court in 2016. Both have already served their sentences. Milan Lukić was indicted for Štrpci by the Bosnian state prosecution in 2019.
He was sentenced by the ICTY to life imprisonment for war crimes in Višegrad, but not for the murders of civilians in Štrpci. In October 2022, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina convicted seven former soldiers from the Bosnian Serb Army’s Second Podrinje Brigade.
In February 2023, Belgrade Higher Court sentenced Gojko Lukić, Duško Vasiljević, Jovan Lipovac and Dragana Đekić to a total of thirty-five years in prison.
The accused Ljubiša Vasiljević died in July 2021. But in October last year, the Belgrade Court of Appeals quashed the first-instance verdict, and a new trial is scheduled for April this year.
In October 2023, the appeals chamber of the Bosnian state court confirmed the verdict that sentenced the former commander of the Interventions Company of the Višegrad Brigade Boban Inđić to fifteen years in prison.
On the occasion of the anniversary, we express our deep regret for the attitude of the Serbian authorities, and especially the court in Belgrade, towards the victims of this war crime and their families.
That the shamefully low sentences were not the worst outcome was shown by the move of the Belgrade Court of Appeals which quashed the first-instance verdict, and once again belittled the victims, and diminished their families’ hope for justice.
Instead of prolonging the process, Serbia could show with this trial how a state deals with its war criminals. It remains for Serbia not to completely fail the test of humanity, but to recognize the status of civilian victims of war to those killed, and to provide their families with appropriate financial compensation.
On the 31st anniversary, we remember the victims of kidnapping in Štrpci: Adem Alomerović, Džafer Topuzović, Esad Kapetanović, Favzija Zeković, Fehim Bakija, Fikret Memović, Halil Zubčević, Ilijaz Ličina, Ismet Babačić, Jusuf Rastoder, Muhedin Hanić, Nijazim Kajević, Rasim Ćorić, Rifet Husović, Safet Preljević, Senad Đečević, Šećo Softić, Toma Buzov, and Zvjezdan Zuličić, Association for Social Research and Communication (UDIK) stated in the press release today.
