CRIME AGAINST SERBIAN CIVILIANS IN A REFUGEE CONVOY REMAINS UNPUNISHED TO THIS DAY

JAJCE, SEPTEMBER 13 /SRNA/ - A memorial service was held today in the village of Bravnice near Jajce for the 81 Serbian civilians from Donji Vakuf who were killed in a refugee convoy by members of the Croatian Army, the HVO, and the so-called Army of BiH.

The youngest victim was three-year-old Dragan Janković. In 1998, the remains of 57 victims from Bravnice were exhumed from the mass grave at Carevo Polje near Jajce. The memorial service was conducted by priest Miladin Samardžić, who told SRNA that children, elderly people, and women were killed at this site and that memorial services have been held here since 2018. Marinko Zeljko, a survivor of the crime originally from Donji Vakuf, said that as an eight-year-old, he found himself in that convoy and was severely injured, and subsequently captured. "This is a special feeling to come to a crime scene with just one question - why, after 29 years, has no one been held accountable for this crime? I wonder if I will even live to see someone answer for everything that happened that day," Zeljko said. The Mayor of the municipality of Jezero, Snežana Ružičić, emphasized that Bravnice, a Serbian village now part of the municipality of Jajce, is a sad meeting place where civilians were killed on this day in 1995. She urged the Prosecutor's Office of BiH to act on this case, which was submitted in 2005, and the perpetrators have never been brought to justice. "I will appeal to the institutions of Republika Srpska to help build a memorial at this site, since as far as I know, the municipality of Jajce has not accepted any solution for this to be done," said Ružičić. Bojan Trgić, originally from Donji Vakuf, mentioned that a film titled "The Forgotten Crime in Bravnice" has been made about this event, which premiered last year in Gradiška and a week ago in Novi Sad. In the acquittal of Croatian Army Generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markač by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, it is stated that from September 8 to 15, 1995, the Croatian Army and HVO units, in cooperation with the so-called Army of BiH, conducted Operation Maestral with the aim of "liberating the area towards the cities of Drvar, Šipovo, Jajce, Bosanski Petrovac, Bosanska Krupa, and Ključ". According to the verdict, the 4th Guards Brigade of the Croatian Army, led by General Damir Krstičević, also participated in Operation Maestral. In 2005, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Republika Srpska submitted a report to the Prosecutor's Office of BiH against individuals with the initials T.B., S.S., D.K., and M.P., as well as several unidentified members of the 4th Guards Brigade of the Croatian Army, alleging war crimes against civilians. They are suspected of having ordered, failed to prevent, or punish the perpetrators, or of having directly committed the killing and wounding of several civilians with firearms and grenades fired from a rocket launcher at a refugee convoy.