The Association for Social Research and Communications (UDIK) reminds that this year marks the 31st anniversary of the terrible crimes that took place in Pionirska Street and Bikavac in Višegrad in June 1992.
The crimes known as the ‘Living Bonfire’ took place on June 14 and 27, 1992, when members of the “Avengers” paramilitary formation, led by Milan and Sredoje Lukić, forced more than 70 Bosniak civilians, mostly women and children and the elderly and burned alive in a deliberately instigated fire in Adem Omeragić’s house in Pionirska Street in Višegrad.
The youngest victim was only two days old.
A similar scenario occurred two weeks later when seventy Bosniak civilians were set on fire in the house of Meho Aljić in the Višegrad settlement of Bikavac.
Zehra Turjačanin testified before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) about the horrors at Bikavac. Civilians were burned in a tens other locations.
The crimes in Višegrad were tried before the ICTY and the courts in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Hague Tribunal sentenced Milan Lukić to life in prison, Sredoje Lukić to twenty-seven years in prison, and Mitar Vasiljević to fifteen years in prison.
UDIK published the publication “War crimes in Višegrad – verdicts” in 2017 and documented nine cases for war crimes committed in Višegrad brought before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Supreme Court of FBiH, in which Boban Šimšić, Dragan Šekarić, Miloš Pantelić, Momir Savić, Nenad Tanasković, Novo Rajak, Oliver Krsmanović, Predrag Milisavljević, Vitomir Racković and Željko Lelek were convicted.
In March 2020, the Appellate Panel of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina confirmed the verdict by which Radomir Šušnjar was sentenced to twenty years in prison.
The proceedings against Milomir Đuričić and Vukadin Spasojević for the crimes committed against the Bosniak population in the Uzamnica camp in 1992 and 1993 are being conducted before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
According to the data of the Institute for Missing Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 467 persons are being searched for in the area of Višegrad, while 453 persons have been identified.
As stated, Pionirska, Bikavac, Uzamnica, Vilina Vlas and other locations tell us enough about the nature of crime in the Višegrad area. The results of the systematic extermination of the non-Serb population are visible today in the almost single-ethnic structure of the Višegrad population.
