MEMORIAL SERVICE HELD FOR 20 KILLED SERBS FROM HRANČA

BRATUNAC, JULY 25 /SRNA/ – A memorial service was held in Bratunac for 20 Serbs from the Bratunac settlement of Hranča who were killed during the Defensive-Patriotic War, seven of whom were killed on this day in 1992 when Muslim forces attacked the village from several directions, murdering Serb civilians near their homes.

This marked 33 years since the killing of seven Serb civilians from this settlement, among whom were three women: Živanka Lukić, Dostana Cvjetinović, and Ljubica Mirković. Hranča was surrounded by Muslim villages, and the attack was carried out from all sides. Surviving villagers said the attack began around 3:30 p.m. with shooting from multiple directions accompanied by shouting and banging as they stormed the village, killing indiscriminately while yelling: "Capture them alive, save ammunition." Seven villagers were killed in their yards, while most of the residents managed to escape down the Glogovska River towards Bratunac. Villager Dragomir Mitrović disappeared 10 days before the attack on Hranča and has not been found since. He was captured by Muslim soldiers while tending sheep, and all trace of him was lost. On that day in 1992, Milenko Mlađenović, a resident of Hranča, was severely wounded, suffering a gunshot wound through his lungs. "While I was conscious, I was asking for water. I thought I was dying and those were my last moments. Luckily, in all that chaos, they didn’t give me water, and I survived after a long recovery," Mlađenović remembered. He said the attack came from all sides, accompanied by terrifying noise, giving the impression of a huge number of attackers. "After the war, some acquaintances – Bosniaks – told me that about 600 members of Muslim military formations from Srebrenica and surrounding villages participated in that attack, led by Naser Orić," Mlađenović said. Gordana Stevanović said her mother, Ljubica Mirković, was shot from behind while fleeing about 200 metres from their house towards Bratunac, where she was cut down. The president of the Bratunac Veterans' Organisation, Zoran Gvozdenović, said that the crime in Hranča was another in a series of unpunished crimes committed by Muslim forces against Serbs in this municipality and region during 1992. "We must not and will not forget the victims because remembering them reminds us of the creation and defense of Republika Srpska and the freedom it guarantees the Serb people on the left bank of the Drina River," Gvozdenović stated. He said that the Muslim soldiers cowardly killed unarmed civilians, revealing their character and intent to destroy all things belonging to the Serbs. The president of the Organisation of Families of Captured and Killed Soldiers and Missing Civilians in Bratunac, Radojka Filipović, said an atrocious crime occurred on this day. She pointed out that no one has been prosecuted for the killings of civilians and the numerous mass crimes against Serbs in the Bratunac and Srebrenica area. According to her, the case regarding Hranča is labelled as complex by the BiH Prosecutor's Office and is gathering dust: "The Prosecutor's Office is waiting for the witnesses and perpetrators to die so the case can be closed as if nothing happened," Filipović told SRNA. She emphasized that families are outraged at the work of the BiH judiciary, its selective approach to war crimes cases, and its administration of justice, noting that for years the Prosecutor’s Office and Court have prosecuted Serbs while obstructing indictments and proceedings against perpetrators of crimes against the Serb people. "This can be characterised as judicial dictatorship and terror against the families of Serb victims and the Serb people, lasting more than two decades," Filipović said. She added that through such selective and biased work, with foreign support, the Bosniak side seeks to write a false history unacceptable to the Serb people. Filipović said crimes like these will always be spoken of to keep the memory of the victims alive, passing on the truth about Serb suffering and judicial injustice. She reminded that attacks had been carried out over several days on Zagoni, Gornji Magašići, and Hranča, that eight Serb civilians were killed in Gornji Magašići on July 20, 1992, and highlighted other massacres where dozens of Serbs were killed in a single day. In Hranča, as in other villages around Srebrenica and Bratunac, Muslim forces killed the residents they found, looted their movable property, and burned down houses and immovable property. A group of men resisted until help arrived from Bratunac, which enabled the evacuation of a few severely wounded villagers, as the attackers left no Serbs alive whom they managed to reach, regardless of whether they were civilians or young. In addition to the eight killed on this day, 21 people of Serb nationality were wounded and 50 Serb houses were burned down in Hranča.