AFTER THREE DECADES THEY MADE IT TO SEE TRIAL FOR CRIMES IN JOŠANICA TO START

BANJA LUKA, DECEMBER 15 /SRNA/ - Today, 32 years since the crime against 56 brutally murdered in Jošanica on St. Nicholas Day 1992. were marked with a prayerful remembrance of the martyred Serb civilians and soldiers and the laying of flowers, and after three decades, the survivors made it to see the trial of the perpetrators to begin.

On the day when they were supposed to break the Slavic cake, the Muslim army from Goražde brutally massacred several old men, 21 women and three children by torturing and cutting off body parts. They had no mercy for two-year-old Danka Tanović, ten-year-old Dragana Višnjić and her three-year-old younger brother Dražen. The oldest victim in this massacre was the ninety-year-old Rade Pljevaljčić. The memorial service was held at the monument in the Jošanica hamlet of Hodžići for 73 locals who died in the Patriotic War. Among them were 56 brutally murdered on St. Nicholas' Day in 1992. Those gathered once again said that by believing in God's justice, they also hope for earthly justice. A witness to the massacre of Serbs in Jošanica, Dušanka Lalović, then Višnjić, is one of the few survivors from her family. Her father Tomo and numerous relatives and neighbors were killed. As a witness to the crime and as the secretary of the municipal Organization of the Families of the Fallen, Lalović has not lost hope for decades that the perpetrators of this crime will receive the punishment they deserve. After more than three decades, she made it to see for the trial to finally begin. "This year, the court proceedings against the accused for the crime in Jošanica began, and it continues. We hope for a fair trial and adequate punishments for the perpetrators of this terrible crime in Jošanica," Lalović said. Along with the 16 Višnjićs, nine members of the Kulić family were also killed, five each from the Grujičić and Blagojević families, then four Davidovićs, three each from Jegdić, Pljevaljčić and Stojanović, two from Mićević and Ivanović and one member each from the Škipina, Stevanović, Jagodić and Tanović families. The trial of members of the so-called Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who were accused of this crime, began in February of this year. The accused are Ferid Buljubašić, Ahmed Sejdić and ten other commanders and members of the so-called Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina.