
Image: Worker erasing the word genocide from the memorial in Visegrad. At least 100 members of the Republika Srpska Special police forces backed the Visegrad authorities in its desecration of the Islamic cemetery in Visegrad.
Bosnian Serb authorities backed by police officials have removed the word “genocide” from a memorial plaque erected in the eastern Bosnian town of Visegrad for the Bosniaks killed during the 1992-1995 war.
The mayor of Visegrad, Slavisa Miskovic, said the word genocide was offensive to local people because there “is no proof of verdict about genocide in Visegrad”.
The Bosnian town is the site of one of the most horrendous war atrocities committed by Serb paramilitaries, led by Milan and Sredoje Lukic in 1992. Fifty-nine Bosniak elderly and women were detained in a house, along with 17 children, and burnt alive.
The memorial, erected in the Straziste Muslim cemetery, reads: “To all killed and missing Bosniaks, children, women and men, victims of genocide in Visegrad”.
However, authorities described the memorial as “illegally erected” and previously attempted to remove the word “genocide” last December. The move was postponed after Bosniaks’ protests.
A 1991 census showed that the population of the town was 25,000 – 63% were Bosnian Muslims.
According to documents of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), some 3,000 Bosniaks were murdered during the 1992-1995 violence, including 600 women and 119 children.
Visegrad was subjected to “one of the most comprehensive and ruthless campaigns of ethnic cleansing in the Bosnian conflict”, according to the ICTY.
Read more: Ibtimes.com
VGM warned about the possibilities of the memorial to be demolished.
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