KOJIĆ: CHRISTMAS KRAVICA CRIME - PART OF STEMATICALLY PLANNED EXTERMINATION OF SERBS

SREBRENICA, JANUARY 4 /SRNA/ – The crime committed against the Serb people in the Bratunac village of Kravica on Christmas Day in 1993 was part of a well-planned, systematic attack aimed at erasing this place and the Serbs from the face of the earth, while the judiciary, even after 33 years, continues to protect the perpetrators, Branimir Kojić, the head of the Municipal Organisation of Families of Captured and Fallen Soldiers and Missing Civilians of Srebrenica, told SRNA.

Kojić emphasized that Kravica and the Podrinje region are symbols of Serb identity and courage. He says that tomorrow, at the memorial site in Kravica, a commemorative service will be held for 163 Serbs from this village and neighbouring villages who were killed in the Defensive-Patriotic War, 49 of whom were killed by Muslim forces from Srebrenica on Christmas Day. Kojić says that on that day, 688 Serb-owned houses were burned and that, according to testimonies from Muslims, Kravica was looted and burned for 15 days after Christmas, until the attack on Skelani on January 16, 1993. "On Christmas Day alone, 101 children from Kravica were left without one or both parents, but that is still not enough for either foreign or local courts to try the monsters who were killing Serb civilians in Podrinje," said Kojić, whose father was killed in the Kravica area. He pointed out that 33 years after the crime, those who posed for photos in Kravica after the bloodshed are still free, and that many of them today are "respected" businessmen, councilors, and members of parliament. "Some of them - Naser Orić, Smajo Mandžić, Vehid Dedić, Suljo Čakanović, Riad Salihović triumphantly posed, wanting to show the world that killing Serbs on the greatest Orthodox holiday goes unpunished. We know that Kemal Mehmedović, a beheader from the Srebrenica village of Pale, is safe in Austria, which clearly shows that the perpetrators of crimes in Kravica and Podrinje are protected by the entire world," Kojić said. He added that many who committed crimes against Serbs today present themselves as victims and call themselves "survivors of genocide," while publicly boasting that they took part in the attack on Kravica, a symbol of the identity of Serbs in that area. "The Kravica crime was well planned and was part of a systematic attack on Serb-controlled positions, as evidenced by the fact that in just one month, 186 Serbs were killed in attacks on three Serb villages - Bjelovac, Kravica, and Skelani," Kojić said. He also reminded that the criminal Vehid Dedić is today a councilor in the Bratunac Municipal Assembly, who was stating before camera that, as a member of the El-Mujahideen detachment, he participated in the attack on Kravica, that `Kravica was taken with heart,` and that he was ready "to kill anyone who bore a Serb name, even a child weighing two kilograms." "Kravica is a textbook example of the failure of the judiciary and the burying of heads in the sand by all those who should prosecute and pass judgments so that our victims would finally be treated equally, because until now they have been treated as second-class victims," Kojić assessed. He said that he would never accept the deception and hypocrisy imposed by various courts and imposed laws. "As long as my father, and all those killed in Podrinje, are not treated equally, and as long as all families of Serb victims do not see justice, there will be no peace here, nor will it be possible to truly move forward," Kojić said. He believes that the crime in Kravica must be included in school textbooks in order to prevent the suffering of Serbs in the future.