MEMORIAL SERVICE ON SUNDAY FOR KILLED SERBS FROM FAKOVIĆI

BRATUNAC, OCTOBER 3 /SRNA/ - On Sunday, October 5, a memorial service will be held at the local cemetery in Fakovići near Bratunac for 49 residents, 25 of whom - both civilians and soldiers - were killed on October 5, 1992, the Bratunac Veterans' Organization announced.

The service will take place at 11:00 at the memorial unveiled in 2023 in remembrance of and gratitude to the residents who gave their lives for Republika Srpska. This will mark the 33rd anniversary of the suffering of this Serb village on the banks of the Drina and will be an occasion to remember the many Serb victims from Fakovići who perished in the Defensive-Patriotic War. On October 5, 1992, Muslim forces from Srebrenica and nearby Muslim villages raided the village, cut it off from Bratunac, and killed, looted, and set fire to everything they could. Following a morning attack on the village of Magašići, northwest of Bratunac, Muslim forces from Srebrenica and nearby villages shifted the focus of their offensive to the other side of the Bratunac municipality, targeting the Serb village of Fakovići, where they carried out a raid, killing everyone they could. Unlike in other villages that they raided at dawn, the enemy changed tactics in Fakovići and launched the attack at noon, when they committed a massacre and set fire to the captured and slain residents. Twenty-five residents were killed, most of whom were burned and massacred. The oldest victim was 82-year-old Danilo Đurić, whose remains have still not been found. The population sought safety by retreating toward the Drina River and neighboring Serbia. As in previous raids and massacres in Serb villages, members of the Muslim armed forces, after killing the residents, looted movable property and set fire to immovable Serb property in Fakovići. Most of the residents killed on October 5, thirty-three years ago in Fakovići, were buried at the cemetery in Bajina Bašta, Serbia, since it was not possible to hold funerals in the village due to combat operations. During the last war, around 200 Serb houses in Fakovići were looted and torched, a third of which have still not been rebuilt. This marked a continuation of the ethnic cleansing of the Serb population from the central Podrinje region, which began in April of that year and continued in the following months through persecution, killings, and the looting of all Serb property in the Bratunac and Srebrenica municipalities. After attacks on Magašići, Zagoni, Loznica, Gniona, Osretak, Vijogor, Ratkovići, Brežani, Zalazje, Sase, Krnjići, Podravanje, and numerous other Serb hamlets in Bratunac and Srebrenica, Muslim forces moved on to Fakovići to reach the Drina River, aiming to completely destroy the Serb population and property, cutting off Bratunac and Skelani from other parts of Republika Srpska. No one has been held accountable for the crimes against Serb civilians in Fakovići, nor for the numerous other crimes committed against Serbs in central Podrinje.