Thirty-Three Years Since the Crime in Štrpci: Remembrance of the Abducted Passengers from Train 671
On February 27, 1993, at around 3:30 p.m., members of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS), including the paramilitary formation known as the “Avengers” led by Milan Lukić, arrived by military truck at the railway station in Štrpci, near Rudo. The armed group ordered the conductor to stop train number 671 on the Belgrade–Bar route.
Twenty civilians of non-Serb nationality were forcibly removed from the train. Eighteen of them were Bosniaks: Adem Alomerović, Džafer Topuzović, Esad Kapetanović, Fevzija 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 and Zvjezdan Zuličić. Also taken were one Croat passenger, Toma Buzov, and one unidentified person of Arab origin. All were citizens of the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
The abducted passengers were transported to Višegrad, where they were detained at the “Želimir Đurić Željo” elementary school in Prelovo, which served as headquarters of the First Battalion of the 2nd Podrinje Light Infantry Brigade. There, they were robbed of their belongings and subjected to severe abuse. Later, they were taken to the village of Mušići, where they were killed. The following day, their bodies were thrown into the Drina River. To date, the remains of only four victims — Halil Zubčević, Ilijaz Ličina, Jusuf Rastoder and Rasim Ćorić — have been found.
Several individuals have been prosecuted over the years. In 2002, a Montenegrin court sentenced Nebojša Ranisavljević to 15 years in prison. Mićo Jovičić received a five-year sentence after pleading guilty before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2016. Although Milan Lukić was sentenced to life imprisonment by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for war crimes in Višegrad, that verdict did not include the Štrpci murders. In October 2022, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina sentenced seven former members of the VRS Second Podrinje Brigade to 13 years each for participating in the killing of 20 civilians. In October 2025, the Higher Court in Belgrade sentenced Gojko Lukić and Duško Vasiljević to 10 years in prison each, while Dragana Đekić received a five-year sentence for war crimes against civilians.
The Association for Social Research and Communication (UDIK) has for years organized commemorative street actions in Sarajevo and participated in annual memorial gatherings in Prijepolje, often in cooperation with regional partners, including the Center for Democracy and Transitional Justice (CDTJ) from Banja Luka and Women’s Voice from Priboj.
This year, UDIK presented the publication “The Abduction in Štrpci – Verdicts,” documenting the three verdicts issued by the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina in connection with this crime. The publication serves as a reminder that the passengers taken from train 671 were targeted not randomly, but because of their names and identities — victims of a planned wartime atrocity that continues to demand remembrance and accountability.
