MEMORIAL SERVICE HELD FOR KILLED SERBS FROM GORNJI MAGAŠIĆI

BRATUNAC, JULY 20 /SRNA/ - A memorial service was held today in Gornji Magašići near Bratunac for 24 Serb victims, eight of whom were killed at their homes by Muslim forces from neighbouring villages and Srebrenica on this day in 1992.

The oldest victim was 85-year-old Blagoje Popović, while the youngest was a 17-year-old pregnant woman, Ljiljana Ilić. A commemoration was held at the memorial site to honour the victims, marking 34 years since Muslim forces entered this Serb village, looted it, and burned it down, killing all the residents they found there. The crime committed on this day in 1992 in Gornji Magašići near Bratunac by members of Muslim forces from Srebrenica and surrounding villages was one of the most horrific in terms of brutality, as all those killed were civilians and were killed in their own homes. In broad daylight, six women and two elderly men were massacred in their family homes, and the village was looted and burned. No one has been held accountable or prosecuted for this crime, as well as for all other mass crimes committed against Serbs in the Bratunac municipality. Radenko Božić from Gornji Magašići recalled how the village suffered on this day 34 years ago. "A ceasefire had been announced, and on the first day of that ceasefire, Muslims from neighbouring villages surrounded the village, felled a large tree across the only road for retreat, and killed eight Serb civilians, including the elderly Popović couple in the basement of their house," Božić said. Ljubko Ilić was five years old and staying with his aunt in Serbia when his village was attacked. Among those killed was his mother, Ljubinka. "We were in Serbia when we were told that my mother had been killed and that the village had been burned down. She was 49 years old. I was not aware of what had happened. Before that, we used to look forward to coming to the village, but later it no longer made any sense because everything had been burned," Ljubko recalled. He does not believe in the BiH judiciary, because survivors have given statements several times and evidence exists regarding the crime against civilians and the perpetrators, but the Prosecutor’s Office has never issued an indictment because it is protecting the perpetrators.