MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR SERBS KILLED IN BREŽANI TO BE HELD ON TUESDAY

SREBRENICA, JUNE 28 /SRNA/ – A memorial service will be held on Tuesday, June 30, in the Srebrenica village of Brežani for the 32 Serbs from the village who were killed on the same date 34 years ago by Muslim military formations from Srebrenica and neighbouring villages, the Municipal Committee commemorating the suffering of the Serb People announced.

Flowers will be laid at the memorial, tribute will be paid to the victims, and the suffering of the village and its residents will be remembered. The memorial service will begin at 12:00 noon at the village memorial. Continuing the ethnic cleansing of the Serb population that had begun in April 1992, Muslim forces from Srebrenica, after destroying a number of Serb-populated villages, committing crimes and forcing the Serb population out, raided the Serb village of Brežani in the early hours of June 30, 1992, where they massacred local residents, killing everyone they encountered. Neither civilians nor immobile and deaf-mute residents were spared, who were killed and burned in their homes while asleep. Some villagers were reportedly captured alive, mutilated and burned, while the village was looted and set on fire. The oldest victim was 88-year-old Stanko Milošević, while the youngest was 15-year-old Ljubomir Josipović. Five of those killed were women. The bodies of Dostana Lazić, the deaf-mute Krstina Lazić, and Stanko Milošević, who disappeared during the attack, have never been recovered. None of the villagers who were captured alive in their homes that morning survived. Only those who managed to escape under the cover of darkness and morning fog, using their knowledge of the terrain and the scattered layout of the village, survived by hiding in nearby woods, tall grass, vines, thorn bushes and bracken. From their hiding places, the survivors witnessed the killings of civilians, while those captured were tortured, mutilated and burned alive. No one has yet been held accountable for the killings in Brežani or for other mass crimes committed against Serbs in the Central Podrinje region. Family members of the victims and Brežani residents have for years pointed that the judiciary of BiH has obstructed efforts to prosecute those responsible, despite extensive evidence and surviving witnesses who saw the torture and killings and identified some of the perpetrators. They are ready to testify about who tortured and mutilated the captured Serbs, most of whom were civilians from Brežani, but the Prosecutor's Office and the Court of BiH have neither summoned them to testify nor launched investigations against perpetrators. Many of the Serb-owned houses burned during the attack have still not been rebuilt, and even after 34 years, their owners have nowhere to return.