PROTEST LETTER TO RISTIĆ OVER MUNICIPAL AWARD TO ČAKANOVIĆ

SARAJEVO, MARCH 12 /SRNA/ – Branimir Kojić, president of the Organization of Families of Captured and Fallen Soldiers and Missing Civilians of Srebrenica, has sent a protest letter to Veljko Ristić, head of the municipal Commission for Awards and Recognitions, saying it is humiliating for Serb victims that an award for humane conduct should be given to Suljo Čakanović, who was photographed in Kravica in 1993.

Kojić said that Čakanović was triumphantly photographed in Kravica on Orthodox Christmas in 1993 and believes that Ristić bears the greatest responsibility for humiliating all those killed in Podrinje. Kojić demanded that Ristić return his mandate, saying he cannot be a worthy representative of a political party whose headquarters are in Republika Srpska. He also called on Ristić not to attend memorial services in the municipality of Srebrenica any longer, stating that his actions have offended the families of Serb victims. Kojić asked who the next recipient of the award might be and listed several individuals whom he claims are responsible for the suffering of Serb civilians. "Who is next, Ristić? Perhaps Naser Orić, Zulfo Tursunić /posthumously/, Kemal Mehmedović and many others who brought grief to Serb families?" the letter states, referring to the award presented to Čakanović on the occasion of Srebrenica Municipality Day. A protest letter was also sent to the mayor of Srebrenica Miloš Vučić. In the attack on the village of Kravica near Bratunac on January 7, 1993, on Orthodox Christmas, 69 Serbs, mostly civilians, were killed, while dozens of people were wounded. More than 100 children were left without one or both parents, and a large number of houses and auxiliary buildings were destroyed or set on fire. Even 33 years after the suffering of Serbs, no one has been held accountable for the killings and crimes in Kravica, nor for other crimes in many Serb villages in the middle Podrinje region, except for two Bosniaks who were convicted of three individual murders in the Bratunac area.