EVEN AFTER 33 YEARS STILL NO JUSTICE FOR SERB VICTIMS KILLED IN ZALAZJE ON ST. PETER'S DAY

SREBRENICA, JULY 12 /SRNA/ – Family members of Serbs killed on Petrovdan 1992 in Zalazje near Srebrenica has said today that even after 33 years, there is no justice for the Serb victims, that wounds remain unhealed, and that they believe God’s justice will not bypass the perpetrators.

On the occasion of marking 33 years since the killing of 69 Serb civilians and soldiers on Peter's Day 1992, a memorial service was held today at the monument and ossuary for Serbs killed in the past two wars in Zalazje, and flowers were laid. The commemoration was attended by Maja Gačić, advisor to the Serb member of the BiH Presidency, Srebrenica Mayor Miloš Vučić, Deputy Mayor of Bratunac Ninko Tešić, President of the Socialist Movement Aleksandar Vulin, Vice President of the Serbian Radical Party Aleksandar Šešelj, and representatives of war veteran organizations. Srebrenica Mayor Miloš Vučić said this is a sad day for the Serb people in Srebrenica. "St. Peter's Day has been sorrowful for 33 years now, as the pain and grief for those who defended their people and Republika Srpska do not cease. The additional pain is that no one has been prosecuted, let alone convicted, for the killings of prisoners who were alive. This shows what the judiciary is like and what the attitude towards the Serb people is," Vučić emphasised. He said that remembrance must be nurtured and that he will do everything to asphalt the road to Zalazje so that locals and delegations can visit more often to light candles and pay respects to the fallen. Dragica Lazarević lost her husband Momir and brothers Branko and Petko on St. Peter's Day; they were captured in Zalazje. "Brother Petko was found beheaded in a garbage dump. It is tragic what is being done to the Serb people – there is no justice for them, because no one is held accountable for the killing of Serbs. These are the laws and rules imposed on us by the West – to preemptively blame one side, and then courts deliver verdicts without examining the legality of such judgments," said Dragica. She emphasised that the wounds do not heal. "Here in Zalazje, my mother's brothers and family were slaughtered in 1943, and in the recent war, my husband, two brothers, brothers-in-law, and cousins were killed here," Dragica said through tears. She added that many of those killed were unmarried and left no descendants. "Mara Jeremić never lived to find her son Marko. She found Radovan and buried him 13 years ago and then died of grief without ever burying Marko’s remains," Dragica said. Before the memorial service, family members of the fallen, comrades-in-arms, and municipal delegations from Srebrenica and Bratunac laid flowers at the cemetery in Bratunac, where most of the killed are buried, as well as at Serb execution sites in Biljača and Sase. The memorial service in Zalazje concluded the five-day program of memorial, spiritual-humanitarian, and cultural-sports events "St. Peter's Day Days", organised by the Municipal Committee for Commemorating Serb Suffering on the occasion of 33 years since the killing of Serbs from Srebrenica. On St. Peter's Day 1992, strong Muslim forces from Srebrenica under the command of Naser Orić continued the systematic and planned ethnic cleansing of Serbs in this and the neighboring Bratunac municipality, which began in April. They attacked several Serb villages, killing, looting, and burning everything in their path. Apart from the 69 killed on St. Peter's Day 1992, another 22 Serbs were captured or went missing, of whom 10 are still listed as missing, and many were wounded. After torture and abuse in Srebrenica prisons, all were killed, and the remains of 10 of them were accidentally found by the Tuzla Missing Persons Search Team on June 10, 2011, in Zalazje while searching for Muslim victims. More than a year later, those remains were identified and buried in 2012 on St. Peter's Day; two were found and buried earlier, while the search continues for the remaining 10 Serbs who went missing that day.