After the news that Veljko Brajić, the former Chief of Staff of the Sixth San Brigade who was on trial for crimes committed in the area of Prijedor and Sanski Most, has died, the victims say that they are slowly losing hope that justice will ever be served.
The information about the death of Brajić was confirmed by the Doboj City Veterans Organization on its Facebook profile, and the media stated that the funeral will be held on Saturday, January 17, reports Detektor.
Brajić was tried in the State Court with Ranko Kaurina, Branko Dženopoljec and Draško Topić. They were blamed for the attacks on Briševo and other villages in the municipalities of Prijedor and Sanski Most inhabited mainly by the population of Croatian nationality. According to reports, at least 61 victims aged between 16 and 81 were killed in the attacks on July 24 and 25, 1992.
Slobodan Taranjac was also accused with them, but the trial was separated from him, as reported by Detektor.
Blaženko Marijan, president of the Association “Dom Briševo – Dobri”, told Detektor that it is a great disappointment for victims and survivors when someone dies during the trial in which they have been waiting for justice for many years.
“Our people from the village are simply so beaten that they don’t even want to talk about it anymore. They can’t fight it anymore. (…) People are really bitter. They say: ‘We have talked about it so many times, and we have never had anyone convicted and processed properly,’” he says.
Marijan states that after 34 years, nothing has been resolved, and that many people have died, while others are sick.
The president of the Sanski Most Detention Center Association, Sadmir Alibegović, told Detektor that 33 years have passed since the beginning of the crimes in the Sanski Most area and that now it is no longer a question for the victims, families and inmates, how long the criminals will be sentenced to.
It is important for them that they are found guilty, explains Alibegović, but he criticizes the state and entity prosecutors for waiting more than 30 years for someone to be prosecuted.
“Many witnesses have died. Many cases will be stopped at the very stage of the investigation due to the death of witnesses”, he says and adds that the prosecutors are so careless and that they “need the New Year” to come, as it was at the end of 2025, in order to indict Biljane and other places where the crimes were committed.
Alibegović states that the victims lose all hope in the institutions that one day they will be able to process all the crimes.
“Brajić died. The crimes committed by the units under the command of his battalion are well known to the people of Sanja. Branko Basara died in Belgrade, the commander of the Sixth Sanja Brigade who was the commander of Brajić as well. Many will die, we will also die, and we will not wait for the verdicts to be handed down, so that the minimum of justice is met,” says Alibegović.
Detektor previously wrote that the case against Basara was handed over to Serbia for processing.
Brajić’s trial began in May 2024, and the last hearing in this case was held in October of the same year, Detektor writes.
