NUŽDIĆ: REMEMBRANCE AND RESPECT OWED TO SERB VICTIMS IN MIDDLE PODRINJE

BANJA LUKA, JUNE 30 /SRNA/ – The Acting Director of the Republic Center for Research of War, War Crimes and Missing Persons Viktor Nuždić says, despite the enormous scale of the crimes committed by Muslim forces against the 3,267 Serbs killed in the Middle Podrinje and Birač region, only four have been convicted before the Court of BiH for crimes throughout Podrinje, with a total sentence of 29 years in prison, leaving the bitter impression that justice in BiH has not been equal for everyone.

"We will not allow the victims of Podrinje to be forgotten, nor their suffering to be erased from historical memory. We owe them truth, remembrance, and respect," Nuždić told SRNA ahead of the 34th anniversary of the suffering of Serbs in the region. Nuždić said acquittals handed down by both the Hague Tribunal and the Court of BiH have further deepened the sense of injustice among the families of the murdered Serbs. "They have been sent the painful message that there is no justice for Serb children, such as Slobodan Stojanović and the Dimitrijević brothers, nor for the murdered members of the families of Brane Vučetić, Slavka Matić, Cvjetko Ristić and many others whose names, unfortunately, are rarely mentioned today," Nuždić stated. He said that, while working on the Atlas of Crimes Against Serbs committed in 1992, the Republika Srpska Center identified 76 mass execution sites where four or more people were killed, of which 26 sites, or one-third, are located in the Middle Podrinje region, which, he said, clearly testifies to the scale of Serb suffering. Nuždić reminded that Serb villages in Podrinje were devastated during the Second World War following mass crimes committed by Ustasha units of Jure Francetić's Black Legion and Muslim militias. "Unfortunately, half a century later, during 1992 and the first months of 1993, the Serb people in Podrinje once again experienced a tragedy that left deep and lasting scars," Nuždić pointed out. Nuždić said the crimes committed in Kravica and Skelani in early 1993 hold a particularly painful place in the collective memory, stressing that the systematic silencing or downplaying of the suffering of Serbs in Podrinje during 1992 and 1993 cannot contribute either to the truth, to an objective understanding of the past, or, even less, to genuine reconciliation among peoples. He said that, unfortunately, this approach has been encouraged by certain Bosniak political representatives, as well as by part of the international community. "Judicial institutions, which were entrusted with delivering justice and restoring confidence, bear particular responsibility," Nuždić stressed. He said the Republika Srpska Center has for years systematically documented these crimes, collected testimonies, archival material and available photographs of the victims, emphasizing that the circumstances of each victim's death have been recorded and that thorough research has reconstructed the events in which they lost their lives. Nuždić said this documentation, together with documentary films in whose production the Center actively participated, represents a permanent testimony to the truth and a lasting historical obligation toward the innocent victims. He said the Serb victims of the Middle Podrinje and Birač region are permanently embedded in the foundations of Republika Srpska, which guarantees the Serb people survival, security and the right to live freely in these areas. A memorial service for the 3,267 Serb soldiers and civilians killed in the Middle Podrinje and Birač region during the Homeland-Defense War will be held in Bratunac on Saturday, July 4. Nuždić said that during the Homeland-Defense War, Muslim units from Srebrenica most often attacked Serb villages on major Orthodox holidays, and that on Petrovdan /St. Peter's Day/ in 1992 they attacked the villages of Zalazje, Biljača, Sase and Zagoni, killing everyone they encountered while looting and burning Serb property.