“Genocide” erased from Visegrad memorial

 

 

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.

Read also: Letter of support: Responsibility to protect genocide memorial in Visegrad

Dzombic: We will act promtly

Visegrad: 20 years on

 

Bosnia twenty years on: victims return to Višegrad to bury their dead

Richard Newell , 20 June 2012

Saturday morning, May 26, 2012, a convoy of ‘Centrotrans’ buses leaves Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Hercegovina, heading eastwards into Republika Srpska to Višegrad, a town straddling the Drina, a beautiful river whose green waters cleave northward through the deep, wooded valleys of eastern Bosnia. The buses are headed to the 20th anniversary commemoration of the town’s ethnic cleansing.
 
During 1992, Bosnian Serb nationalists, locals who were aided by Serbia proper in the form of the Yugoslav National Army, ‘cleansed’ the town and the surrounding hamlets of their Muslim neighbours. Their remains can now (not) be found at the bottom of the green Drina or in mass graves around the locale.

The people filling the buses this grey morning are relatives, refugees and victims, all going back to commemorate or to bury family and friends.

 What took place in Višegrad has yet to be officially labelled as genocide. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) trials have failed to designate the crimes with that status, yet it is difficult to see it any other way. 

Some 3,000 Bosnian Muslims were identified, seized and then slaughtered by a mixture of local police and the Army of Republika Srpska. On June 14th, 1992 in a house on Pionirska Street, Višegrad, fifty-nine Bosniak women and children, along with the elderly, were burnt alive. Milan and Sredoje Lukic, cousins and leaders of the local Serb nationalist militia, then repeated the crime thirteen days later in Bikavac where sixty Bosniak civilians were locked into a house and then burned alive.

Up in Vilina Vlas, a spa close to the town, a rape camp was established; some reports claim that as many as 200 women were held there. It is now a spa once again. You can buy postcards of it in the tourist shop just off the Mehmed Paša Sokolović Bridge. 

This bridge–the beautiful, famous bridge built in 1571 by the Ottoman empire, immortalised and seemingly immortal–is at the heart of a Nobel prize-winning book,The Bridge on the Drina, penned by long time Višegrad resident, Ivo Andric. The bridge was the centre-piece of Višegrad’s beauty, standing unmoved by time and tide with a deft, yet solid elegance as empires rose and fell around it.
 Rumour has it, though, that some among the town’s older generations no longer walk on it. Perhaps they remember when it was awash with blood as their Muslims neighbours were brought to be killed on it, their throats slit before they were pushed into the writhing river below.

This event is both a commemoration and a burial. Sixty six people are to be buried, their remains gathered from Lake Perucac, a man-made lake downriver towards Srebrenica. The remains of other victims are gathered from other sites. All DNA identified, they are to be laid to rest in the Muslim Straziste cemetery which stands just off Ulica Uzitskog Korpusa street, named after the Uzice Corps, the Serb-led corps of the Yugoslav National Army that took the town in 1992. Next to the cemetery hangs the ubiquitous flag of Republika Srpska.

Višegrad is now a Bosnian Serb town. The cemetery is the only land left to the people who have either lived or died there as Muslims. There are two token mosques, but neither is used.

The Centrotrans buses, having crossed the beautiful, waterlogged heights of Romanija, bring several thousand people back to a place they once considered home. 
It had rained during the night and the ground is damp; the freshly dug graves have water at the bottom. The prior week, a team of volunteers had come out and cleaned the cemetery, cutting the grass and branches and clearing the place for today.

 As the ceremony begins, a monument, an enlarged replica of Nisan, the headstone erected above Muslim graves, is unveiled, inscribed with text on all four sides. It stands under a newly erected flagpole from whence the Bosnian flag now hangs. The monument is unveiled by two girls who had come to bury their grandfather. They are being filmed by Al Jazeera Balkans as the Bosnian national anthem is heard throughout the town.

The ceremony is long. For non-Bosnians and non-Muslims, it is difficult to follow. Even more difficult is interpreting the mood of the people. Similar to many other such ceremonies across Bosnia, imams stand, chew gum and chat as prayers are called and people are buried. The weeping of widows, sisters and mothers is mixed with general conversation. People answer cell phones with a loud, jocular “Hej, gdje si? Sta ima?” In In previous years people would sit and watch, eating sandwiches, although this custom is now banned. The ceremony culminates with the burials of sixty-six Muslims in the now familiar timber coffins with a green cloth-covered frame, numbers and a name displayed on the front. 
Sixty-six people, twenty years later.

After this everyone descends through the silent town. Children leaving school stand and stare. They do not remember a Višegrad with a Muslim population; they do not remember a war. They know only what they are taught by their parents and in school. The rest watch impassively from windows and balconies. Everyone is hyper-sensitive to any signs of trouble or provocation. There are none. The younger adults of the town do not hide their smirks, however. We pass “Andricgrad,” a new mini- town being built by movie director Emir Kusturica and funded in part by Milorad Dodik, President of Republika Sprska, personally. It will be the set for a film production of Bridge on the Drina. One imagines that in the now homogeneously Serb town of Višegrad the director may well have to reinterpret Andric’s depiction of the town (and its bridge) to reflect the new Muslim-less history that is now commonplace in Republika Srpska.

The crowds gather on the bridge, filling it. The sides are lined with roses, and from the parapet of the bridge two long strips of red cloth dangle. Then, more speeches. The cafe adjoining the bridge makes a great place from which to view the proceedings; it is filled with both residents and people who have come for the ceremony. Some of the locals leave; others sit back and watch. Two lads in particular grin and raise their glasses to each other. The cafe owner turns the music up to drown out the speeches; the bouncy euro-techno beat of “Du hast den schonsten arsch der welt ” [“You have the most beautiful arse in the world”] drifts out across the river. On the bridge the speeches continue for another half an hour before finally the roses are cast into the water to the sound of Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” seeping out from the cafe.

The Centrotrans buses are now lined up and waiting, and the bridge empties quickly. It is a two and a half hour trip back to Sarajevo.

 Turning back to look as the buses pull away, the bridge stands immortally, hopefully a silent, terrible witness, a monument unintended. And beneath it the green Drina continues to flow.
 I doubt Višegrad will ever be beautiful again.

 

The abysses behind the façades of eastern Bosnia

Author: Martin Woker, Visegrad
Uploaded: Monday, 21 July, 2008

A moving report translated from ‘Neue Zürcher Zeitung’ (Zurich) outlines the problems faced by those who would like to market the Bridge over the Drina in the small town of Visegrad in eastern Bosnia. The Visegrad authorities are hoping for a boost from the fact that the bridge has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. But the town is a place still burdened by the terrible crimes committed there in the recent war.

Sometimes a paint-job renovation can really work wonders. Thus, for instance, in the shady garden of the Hotel Visegrad in the small town of the same name in eastern Bosnia. The furniture has been freshly painted and the façade of the inn also glows in new colours. The tables are well occupied at lunchtime today, mainly by locals, as one can tell from the licence plates of the cars in the parking lot. Five years ago the place still looked completely run-down and was hardly frequented by visitors. Its garden restaurant is located next to the eastern end of the stone bridge, which was built 420 years ago to make a difficult and dangerous river-crossing easier on the highway leading from Sarajevo to Istanbul. This spring, UNESCO’s secretary-general, Koichiro Matsuura, visited and bestowed a certificate on the bridge, which had been inscribed on the World Heritage List the previous year. Since that time, Bosnia-Herzegovina is now represented by two sites on UNESCO’s list: the bridge over the Neretva in Mostar, and the one over the Drina in Visegrad.

A stage for three and a half centuries

Unlike the bridge in Mostar, which was completely destroyed in the recent war and became a much-photographed object once again only after being rebuilt four years ago, the Bridge of Mehmed Pasha Sokolovic in Visegrad is at least in part an original structure that bears witness to ‘the cultural exchanges between the Balkans, the Ottoman Empire and the Mediterranean world, between Christianity and Islam, through the long course of history,’ in UNESCO’s formulation. What is understood by such cultural exchanges was described by the author (and

diplomat) Ivo Andric, who grew up in Visegrad living with his aunt and died in 1975, in his most famous work, The Bridge on the Drina. The novel was part of his Bosnian trilogy, which earned him the Nobel Prize for literature in 1961. Andric’s works were required reading in the schools of the former Yugoslavia.

‘The bridge is about two hundred and fifty paces long and about ten paces wide save in the middle where it widens out into two completely equal terraces placed symmetrically on either side of the roadway and making it twice its normal width. This was the part of the bridge known as the kapija, the gate. Two buttresses had been built there on each side of the central pier which had been splayed out towards the top, so that to right and left of the roadway there were two terraces daringly and harmoniously projecting outwards from the straight line of the bridge over the noisy green waters far below. … That on the right as one came from the town was called the sofa. It was raised by two steps and bordered by benches for which the parapet served as a back steps, benches and parapet were all made of the same shining stone. That on the left, opposite the sofa, was similar but without benches. … On this part of the terrace a coffee-maker had installed himself with his copper vessels and Turkish cups and ever-lighted charcoal brazier, and an apprentice who took the coffee over the way to the guests on the sofa. Such was the kapija.’

In the 400 pages that follow, the kapija to a certain extent forms the stage for a lively tableau, extending over three and a half centuries, of life in Andric’s home town and of its Muslim, Christian and Jewish inhabitants. For a long time the bridge freed Visegrad from its geographically marginal position and brought travellers from all the world to the little town. The aim of the present local authorities is to find a way to latch on to this tradition. Opposite the hotel stands a new pavilion, recently built and still closed and empty but already marked as a tourist information centre. Right around the corner, built in a daring Yugo-modernist style, is the tall Robna kuca. That is what almost all department stores were called in the former Yugoslavia. In Visegrad, where the sparse traffic makes pedestrian zones unnecessary, this relic of a vanished era has not only survived but, it appears, it has even gotten a new paint job. Nevertheless, this Visegrad is hardly a boom town, but thanks to the bridge that is supposed to change soon.

Bold plans

At least that’s how the future looks to Milan Milicevic, the town’s current mayor and a member of the Serbian Democratic Party, founded by Radovan Karadzic. The chain-smoking town father first presents the visitor with an English edition of Andric’s novel, autographed by the mayor himself. Then he lays out his bold plans, which are to culminate in a close partnership with the

city of Mostar and are to include a project to rebuild a narrow-gauge railroad that was abandoned in the 1970s. All that is to be for the enjoyment of future hordes of tourists, who can come here to admire a newly re-established Orthodox monastery and, of course, the bridge, which is to be artfully restored in the near future by a Turkish firm, at a cost of 3 million euros.

At present, says Milicevic, most of the visitors come from Serbia or from the Republika Srpska, as the entity created during the recent war calls itself. But the first Japanese and Germans have already been sighted. An upswing in tourism is expected, he says. But where in Visegrad are all these foreign visitors supposed to stay overnight? Those coming from the Dalmatian coast could not possibly do the excursion as a day-trip. No problem, says the mayor. In the town and its vicinity there are three hotels with more than 400 beds.

One of these stands in a lonesome, wooded side-valley a bit further downstream and is part of a spa resort called Vilina Vlas. On the steps leading into the barely 30-year-old building (also built in the unmistakable Yugo-style) two cigarette-smoking gentlemen are standing, one of them with crutches. They are here to take the cure in the healing waters of the hot springs, which contain radioactive elements. The hotel is still awaiting privatization. The city administration, its present owner, has had some of the walls freshly painted, which however has not really improved matters. Seven cars and a tour bus (with Serbian licence plates) stand in the parking lot. Most of the 160 beds are not taken, despite the moderate price charged for room and board. Unthinking visitors from rich Europe might possibly appreciate the down-at-the-heels exoticism of the place. Unless they thought first to enter its name into an internet search engine.

Whoever does that will encounter abysses of human perversion that would shake even the most blunted sensibilities. Those who come across the research of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network [BIRN] concerning the events of April 1992 in Vilina Vlas will find themselves transported into a wartime reality that could not be more terrible or more repulsive. The hotel served as the headquarters for the Serb militia in Visegrad during that period, while they were carrying out the so-called ‘ethnic cleansing’ of the area. At the same time it also served as a provisional prison for abducted Muslim civilians, mainly women and girls who were systematically raped in the hotel rooms. There are credible witness testimonies of the most severely abused female captives, who saved themselves from their tormentors by leaping across the balcony railings and committing suicide. The principal perpetrator and leader of the militia was a man born in the region, 25 years old at the time, by the name of Milan Lukic, who in the early spring of 1992, when fighting first broke out in the Drina valley, left his place of residence in Zurich in order to turn the idea of a Greater Serbia, promoted by figures such as Vojislav Seselj and other war criminals, into a reality in his homeland.

What was required to achieve this aim was the expulsion of all non-Serbs from Visegrad and its surroundings. In the 1991 census, 62 percent of the slightly more than 21,000 inhabitants had identified themselves as Bosniaks (Muslims), while only half as many were Serbs. Thus, just as in other regions of Bosnia affected by ‘ethnic cleansing,’ terror was employed as the principal method of driving out the Muslim majority population in Visegrad. The indictment issued against Milan Lukic by the UN tribunal in The Hague lists a series of executions and murders of Muslim civilians. Women, men, old people and children died locked inside houses which were set on fire by Lukic’s militiamen. Rapes, however, are not mentioned in the indictment.

Unpunished crimes

Bakira Hasecic, president of the association ‘Women Victims of War in Bosnia and Herzegovina,’ has bitter things to say about this fact. She herself comes from Visegrad, a survivor of rapes and other abuse along with her two underage daughters, and she is sure that she would always recognize Milan Lukic again, since he is missing an index finger. The event that prompted the founding of the association was a one-day organized return of Muslim women to Visegrad to visit their destroyed homes. What caused most indignation during the visit, says Hasecic, was that she and the other women recognized three of their former tormentors, although the men were now wearing the uniforms of the regular police of the Republika Srpska. The three later may well have been brought before a court. But the shock the women suffered finally prompted them to establish the association. Prior to that, the subject of rapes had been treated as strictly taboo in Bosnia. ‘It was very difficult for us to admit it publicly,’ says Hasecic, ‘we had to lay bare our souls to do it.’

That conversation took place two years ago, on the occasion of a showing of the award-winning Bosnian film Grbavica, which is based on the theme of a girl born as a result of a wartime rape and her relationship with her mother. At the time, Hasecic and other women victims from Visegrad could not understand why Milan Lukic, who was arrested in Argentina in the summer of 2005, was not charged also with rape, even though there was more than enough judicially relevant evidence for it. According to a report by BIRN, the prosecutors in The Hague have recently asked the court to expand Lukic’s indictment to include charges of rape, torture and abuse of prisoners. The acceptance of this request by the court would mean a partial success for the association of women victims: a result of their tirelessly maintained public pressure.

Function as a meeting place lost

Their insistence on reminding the public of the countless atrocities which took place only 16 years ago, and which for the most part have not led to prosecutions of those responsible, necessarily brought Hasecic and other victims of the war into the foreground of UNESCO’s festive certification of the bridge. On the bridge they placed a memorial tablet (which has long since been removed again), and they read out a list of the names of all the victims of the war from the Visegrad region: 3,000 according to their count, while other sources speak of between 1,200 and 1,500 dead. In any case, Visegrad is no longer the town described by Andric. Only a very small number of the expelled Bosniaks have returned to their rebuilt houses. Their exact number is unknown. The ‘ethnic cleansing’ of the region has been accomplished; what remains is a town robbed of its Balkan multiculturalism and thereby deprived of its richness.

On the day after the murder of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Franz Ferdinand, on 28 June 1914, writes Andric, an official announcement was posted on the kapija: ‘… printed in fat letters and framed with a broad black border. It announced to the people the news of the assassination of the crown prince in Sarajevo, and expressed outrage over this misdeed. But not one among those who passed in front of the announcement stopped to read it, but all passed by the poster and by the guard posted there with their heads lowered, walking as fast as they could.’

As of three months ago, a plaque placed at the end of the bridge announces its world-wide significance as a heritage site. The inscription arouses the interest of very few tourists who have come to visit the bridge on this early summer day. The locals who would pass it with their heads bowed are not to be seen. The historic structure has lost its function as a meeting place. The last time that the kapija served as a stage, for the time being, was during the summer of 1992. It was a stage for the murder of innocents, whose bodies disappeared into the Drina. But there is neither a novel nor an inscription to bear witness to that. And it is also not mentioned in the new tourist guidebooks that are gradually starting to appear again in Bosnia. Could it be that the paint-job renovation has achieved the effect it aimed for? Let us hope not.

Translated by András Riedlmayer from Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 11 July 2008. Martin Voker is the newspaper’s South-East Europe correspondent

Source: Bosnian Institute

Destruction of mosques in Visegrad Municipality

During the aggression on Republic of B&H, all the mosques in the Visegrad Municipality were systematically destroyed by the Bosnian Serb Army(Vojska Republike Srpske).

1.Gazanfer-begova Dzamija (1590.)

Image: The Gazanfer-begova/Gazander Bey’s Mosque also known as  Atik dzamija/Old Mosque  before the war.

Image: The site where the  Gazanfer Bey’s mosque in the center of the town. Destroyed in 1992, today it is a park.

2.Careva/Bikavac Dzamija (1571)

Image: The Bikavac or Careva/Emperor’s mosque in Visegrad. Burn ablaze and bulldozed by Bosnian Serb Army in 1992.

Image: The Careva dzamija/Emperor’s Mosque also known as the Bikavac mosque, was originally built in the sixteenth century and was renovated in 1910 and 1947.

Image: The Emperor’s Mosque set ablaze by Bosnian Serb Army in Visegrad, June 1992.

Image: The site where the Emperor’s mosque stood. Picture taken a few years after the war’s end.

Image: The Careva mosque in the center of Visegrad. Destroyed in 1992 by the Bosnian Serb Army. Reconstructed by the Islamic Community of Bosnia and Herzegovina with funding by Visegrad’s Bosniak diaspora.

3. Drinsko Dzamija (1895.)

Image: Mosque in Drinsko, Visegrad. Built in 1885, burnt down in 1941 by Yugoslav Serb Royalists popularly known as  “Chetniks” led by Draza Mihailovic. After 26 years the Communist regime finally gave permission to restore and reopen the mosque (1967). The mosque was destroyed by Bosnian Serb Army in 1992, rebuilt and reopened a few years ago.

Image: The Drinsko Mosque in 2002.

Image: Mosque in Drinsko. Destroyed in 1992 by Bosnian Serb Army.Reconstructed by the Islamic Community of Bosnia and Herzegovina with funding by Visegrad’s Bosniak diaspora.

4. Barimo

Image: An Islamic school(mekteb) in Barimo. Destroyed by the Bosnian Serb Army in 1992.

5. Holijaci

Image: An Islamic school(mekteb) in Holijaci. Destroyed by the Bosnian Serb Army in 1992.

7. Orahovci (1566.)

Image: Mosque in Orahovci. Destroyed by the Bosnian Serb Army in 1992.

8. Žlijeb (1550.)

Image: A mosque in Zlijeb. Destroyed by the Bosnian Serb Army in 1992.See more on Žlijeb mosque here.

Image: An Imam‘s house in Zlijeb. Destroyed by the Bosnian Serb Army in 1992.

9.Dobrun (1445.)

Image: The Dobrun Mosque, totally destroyed in 1992 by the Bosnian Serb Army. Rebuilt and opened in 2006 by funds from Visegrad’s Bosniak diaspora.

All these buildings were destroyed in a systematic way, by Visegrad Serbs, most of whom were neighbors to their Bosniak victims. All of them, whether they were armed civilians,members of  “para-military” units, or members of the Visegrad Brigade, were members of the Republika Srpska Army or it’s Police force. This was organized and planned by the Visegrad Municipality, i.e. by the Serb Democratic Party Crisis Committee. No one has answered for the destruction of mosques in Visegrad.

Note: Pictures were taken from MIZ Visegrad.

Updated: 1.11.2009

Crisis Committee Visegrad(Krizni Stab)

Image: The Serb Democratic Party flag, which formed the Crisis Committees in municipalities as a mechanism in executing their genocidal plan.

Crisis Committees were formed by a SDS Glavni Odbor(General Committee) decision on 19.12.1991 (”Uputstvo o organiziranju i djelovanjuorgana srpskog naroda u BiH u vanrednim okolnostima ”, SDS Glavni Odbor, Sarajevo, 19.12.1991.Source: Rule 61, ICTY Archive)

According to the General Committee’s decision of 19 December, all SDS municipality committees were given an order to form a Crisis Committee. The functioning of the Crisis Committees was coordinated with the Assembly of the Bosnian Serb people and with the SDS General Committee. According to this document, the head of the Crisis Committee was the president of the SDS municipality committee. The Crisis Committees consisted of high-level SDS leaders: Secretariat of the SDS municipality committee(made up of the President, Vice-President and the Secretary of the SDS), municipality delegates in the Assembly of the Bosnian Serb people, members of the General Committee from that municipality. According to this document, the Crisis Commitees were ordered to cooperate with the command centers of the Yugoslav Peoples’ Army(JNA).

On 26.4.1992, the so-called Serb Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina brought a decision ”Uputstva  za rad krizni stabova srpskog naroda u opstinama” on how the Crisis Committees should function.

The Crisis Committees were considered the most effective mechanisms of control in the occupied territories of B&H, and through these Crisis Committees a conjoint control of civil and military organs of the para-state institutions of the Serb Republic of B&H was established. In this way they had an active role in planning and executing genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes against Bosniaks, Croats and other citizens of B&H.

Below is a list of high-ranking Bosnian Serb officials in Visegrad, some of whom were members of the Crisis Committee. They are suspected to have masterminded the genocide in Visegrad including: destruction of mosques, confiscation of Bosniak property, cooperating with the Visegrad Brigade and Police Force in ethnically cleansing Bosniak villages, organizing rape centers, making lists of educated Bosniaks and those possessing arms and providing them to Visegrad Brigade Special Units like the “Avengers”, “White Eagles” etc.

Note: This list was published by the Association of Raped Women.  Information on the Crisis Committees was obtained from Edina Becirevic’s book.

1. Savović Branimir, aka Brane, son of  Milorad, born 10.06.1953. in Sarajevo, economist,worked in the Visegrad Municipality before the war, from April 1992 president of SDS, Mayor of Višegrad, and head of the Crisis Committee. Offically registered in Višegrad,  Kralja Petra I  Street, number 13, according to intelligence sources he is staying in  Čačka, Srbija
2. Nešković Dušan, son of Dragomira, born in 23.02.1957. in Donje Vardište, member of the SDS delegates’ club inVisegrad , wroks in Upravi prihoda(Revenue Management) Višegrad Municpality, is registered in Višegrad,  Street Vojvode Stepe 10.
3. Miličević Miladin, son of  Milić, born in Granje,Višegrad. Member of the SDS Executive Committee Višegrad, secretary of the Višegrad Municipality Assembly during the war, and in one period commander of the  Dobrun Battalion within the Višegrad brigade VRS. Registered in Višegrad, Street Kralja Petra I br. 24.
4. Savić Aleksandar, aka Aco, son of Stanimir, born 02.06.1954. in  Višegrad, member of the the Executive Committee SDS Višegrad i Executive Committee  of the Municipality Assembly Višegrad. During the war he was deputy commander  for moral in the Visegrad Brigade.He now works as the director of the museum within the Dobrun Monestary. Registered in Višegrad, Street Vojvode Stepe 18.
5. Papić Krsto, son of  Milinko, born 27.10.1956. in Prelovu,  Višegrad. Member of the the Excecutive Commitee SDS Višegrad. Troop commander in  Prelovo village which was part of the Visegrad Brigade.
6. Petrović Jelisavka, daughter of Milan, born  09.05.1943. in  Stari Trg, Kosovska Mitrovica.Professor, Vice-President of the Municipality Assembly Višegrad. Member of the the Executive Committee SDS Višegrad. Registered in Višegrad,  Street Ive Andrića 8.
7. Tasić Ljubomir, aka Ljupko, son of Dragan, born 12.07.1956. in  Bosanska Jagodina, Višegrad. During the war he was a member of the SDS delegates club in Višegrad Municipality and member of the SDS Executive Committee in Visegrad.Member of the Crisis Committee and Dobrun troop commander within the Vsiegrad Brigade. Lives in his place of birth, owns a private construction and transport firm.
8. Kojić (Nešković) Snežana, daugther of  Radomir, born 10.01.1962. in Sase, Višegrad. During the war she was the president of the  SDS delegates club in Višegrad Municipality and member of the SDS Executive Committee in Visegrad.Works in the Visegrad Municipality, lives in Mezalin, Visegrad.
9. Perišić Risto, son of Milovan, born 14.11.1951. in Potpeć,  Foča. Pre-war professor, head of the Public Security Services(SJB-Služba Javne Bezbjednosti) Višegrad,member of the Crisis Committee and SDS Executive Committee in Visegrad.Officially registered in Visegrad, Street Zmaja Jove Jovanovića 21. According to intelligence sources, he is staying in Užice, Serbia. Is marked as ”A” category by ICTY and OZP.
10. Tomić Dobro, aka Boban, son of  Vitomir, 27.11.1949. in  Dugovječ, Rudo, head of the criminal department in SJB Višegrad. Today he is a pensioner, living in  Višegrad.
11. Ninković Srećko, son of Dragoljub, born 03.02.1963. in  Višegrad. Inspector in SJB Višegrad. Currently working in the indirect taxtation section in Visegrad. Registered in Okolište, Višegrad.
12. Pandurović Vinko, commander of the Visegrad Brigade.
13. Dragičević Luka, born 1956. in  Višegrad, army officer, replaced the seat of Vinko Pandurevic, living in Visegrad, Street Kralja Petra. Penzioner  and an activist of the Serb Radical Party.
14. Masal Dragiša, son of  Stavan, born 20.11.1951. in  Masali, commander of the tactical group within the Visegrad brigade. Registered in Višegrad, Donje Vardište.
15. Gavrilović Drago, son of  Milan, born 02.05.1956. in  Korivnik. Locksmith by profession. In the first 20 days of the war, he was head of the Territorial Defense in Visegrad, now he is working in the hydro power plant. Registered in, Street Stevana Sinđelića 107 Višegrad.
16. Knežević Dražen, son of  Dragoljub, 24.04.1964. in  Višegrad, lives in  Višegrad, Street Okolišta 40. Battalion commander in the Visegrad brigade. Director of the Electric-power plant in Vsiegrad. Died in a car accident near Visegrad in 2009.

U.S. Congress remembers Zepa and Avdo Palic

[Congressional Record: July 24, 2009 (Extensions)]

[Page E2004-E2005]

From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

[DOCID:cr24jy09-254]

JULY 25, 1995 MASSACRE IN ZEPA, BOSNIA

______

HON. ANDRE CARSON

of indiana

in the house of representatives

Friday, July 24, 2009

Mr. CARSON. Madam Speaker, tomorrow, the international community will

remember a tragic day in the genocide that ravaged Bosnia and

Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. For over three years, the town of

Zepa, Bosnia remained under siege by the Republika Srpska, despite

being named a safe haven for

[[Page E2005]]

Bosnians by the United Nations Security Council.

Over this period, innocent Zepa residents lived under constant

threat, both of the near constant artillery fire and from the rampant

starvation and disease that arose from squalid living conditions.

Thousands lost their lives and countless others were injured during the

three year siege until finally, on July 25, 1995, the town fell to

paramilitary forces and the remaining residents were killed or

forcefully expelled from their homes.

On this heartbreaking anniversary, it is clear that atrocities and

genocide should never be permitted to continue unfettered. In

remembering the innocent victims of Zepa, I believe that the United

States, together with the United Nations and our allies around the

world, must reaffirm its commitment to ceaselessly pursue the

perpetrators of these terrible war crimes. The international community

must come together to not only remember the innocent victims of this

massacre, but to also redouble its pursuit of lasting peace and

security in some of the world’s most volatile regions.

[Congressional Record: July 29, 2009 (Extensions)]

[Page E2060]

From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

[DOCID:cr29jy09-17]

THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE FALL OF ZEPA

______

HON. RUSS CARNAHAN

of missouri

in the house of representatives

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Mr. CARNAHAN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the

anniversary of the fall of Zepa during the war in Bosnia in 1995. Just

a few weeks ago, I attended the Srebrenica genocide remembrance

ceremony in Bosnia and Herzegovina to commemorate the thousands of

innocent lives lost during the war. It is important to remember these

innocent people who lost their lives as Bosnians move forward.

This siege on Srebrenica, however, was not an isolated event. On July

25, 1995, Zepa, another U.N.-declared safe haven, also fell to the same

forces that took Srebrenica just weeks earlier. The thousands of

inhabitants and refugees in Zepa were forced to suffer, and die through

a constant downpour of shellfire.

In addition to the vast numbers who perished due to the barrage of

fire and starvation, an unknown number were taken away never to be seen

again, including the Colonel of the Bosnia and Herzegovina army, Avdo

Palic, who negotiated the evacuation of approximately 5,000 civilians.

Today, a little more than 14 years after the fall of Zepa, I urge us

all to remember not only the fall of Zepa, but also the destruction of

the other towns of Srebrenica, Zepa, Sarajevo, Gorazde, Bihac, Tuzla,

Prijedor, Bjeljina, Visegrad, Foca, and Kozarac, and many others, all

of which experienced significant loss. We must remind ourselves of the

innocent lives that were lost, and honor their memory.

Madam Speaker, while we cannot erase the pain of these losses, let us

support the efforts of the families of the missing to learn the fate of

their loved ones, and let us support the justice that is necessary for

the building of a stable, prosperous, and unified Bosnia and

Herzegovina.

[Congressional Record: July 27, 2009 (Extensions)]

[Page E2020-E2021]

From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

[DOCID:cr27jy09-37]

REMEMBERING THE FALL OF ZEPA

______

HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

of new jersey

in the house of representatives

Monday, July 27, 2009

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Madam Speaker, on Saturday July 25 Bosnians

commemorated the fourteenth anniversary of the tragic fall of Zepa. The

town of Zepa was one of the six United Nations-declared safe havens in

Bosnia during the war of aggression from 1992 to 1995. In May 1993, a

United Nations Security Council resolution held out to this town in

eastern Bosnia the promise of protection from the forces of Republika

Srpska. In Zepa the local residents, people from the surrounding area,

and refugees from other cities and towns gathered to be shielded from

Serbian aggression.

But, Madam Speaker, the men, women, and children seeking refuge in

Zepa were not shielded. The forces of Republika Srpska, who had laid

siege to Zepa in the summer of 1992, were not impressed by UN safe

havens, and neither the UN nor anyone else was committed to defending

the safe havens. On July 25, 1995, the forces of Republika Srpska

overpowered Zepa’s defenders and began to occupy the town.

In July Avdo Palic, colonel of the Bosnian government force defending

Zepa, performed a hero’s work in evacuating as many civilians as he

could, despite operating under constant shelling and the threat of

starvation from the forces of Republika Srpska. Palic participated in

negotiations which resulted in the safe evacuation of approximately

5,000 Bosnian civilians. On July 27 Palic traveled to the UN Protection

Force Compound, in order to secure the evacuation of Zepa’s remaining

inhabitants: he has not been seen since and his fate is still unknown.

Madam Speaker, looking back on the tragedy of Zepa, we remember the

loss of countless innocent lives. Our government cannot give back to

the survivors the precious lives of the family members and friends of

the people of Zepa, Srebrenica, Sarajevo, Bihac, Gorazde, and Tuzla,

but it can support their pursuit of justice. Our government must do

everything it can to discover the fate of Avdo

[[Page E2021]]

Palic and the other men and women who went missing in the genocide

committed against the Bosnian people. To be sure, we must continue to

look for Ratko Mladic and other criminals and genocideurs, but we must

not forget their victims and their need for closure.

Never Forget!

Colonel Avdo Palic

Dragan Davidovic sings fascist songs

General director of the Bosnian Serb entity of Republika Srpska`s Radio Television Dragan Davidovic sung Chetnik (Serb WW2 Nazi-collaborist) songs to a Chetnik unit near Grbavica, Sarajevo in 1996. At that time he was the Minister of Faith in the Radovan Karadzic-led  Republika Srpska Government. Interestingly, during his rule, hundreds of mosques and other islamic architercture was systematically destroyed by the Bosnian Serb Army.

Watch video: “Get ready, get ready Chetniks”

PROSECUTION: LIFE SENTENCE FOR MEN WHO STOLE 3,000 YEARS OF LIFE

In its closing argument, the prosecution has called for a sentence that will ensure that Milan and Sredoje Lukic ‘will remain in prison for the rest of their lives’, a sentence that will send a clear message that there is no mercy for those capable of committing such heinous crimes. Milan Lukic’s defense contends the prosecution has failed to prove Milan Lukic’s responsibility beyond reasonable doubt, asking for his acquittal. Sredoje Lukic’s defense will deliver its closing argument tomorrow.

Milan and Sredoje Lukic

‘There is only one sin, and that is theft. All other sins are variations on that theme and murder could be seen as theft of life’. Prosecutor Dermot Groome used this quote from a book Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini in his closing argument at the trial of Milan and Sredoje Lukic. Groome urged the judges to deliver the sentence that would make sure the accused ‘will spend the rest of their lives in prison’ because they ‘stole more than 3,000 years of life’ in June 1992 from the Visegrad Muslims.

Milan and Sredoje Lukic are charged with setting up the two living pyres in which about 140 people were burned to death, and with the murder and abuse of Visegrad Muslims in 1992. Murder is, as Groome put it, ‘a theft of life’, not only of the victims but also of their families and the community as a whole. If the crimes at issue in this case are seen from that point of view, the prosecution noted, it will be understood ‘that the people in Visegrad suffered inestimable loss because of the actions of the two accused and the scale of the theft’.

The prosecution wants the judgment handed down to Milan and Sredoje Lukic to ‘send a clear message’: all those who ‘might contemplate committing similar crimes and use vulnerable victims’ that they would be arrested and criminally prosecuted. They will have the right to a fair trial but if they proven guilty’ there will be ‘no mercy’ for them as they would ‘be punished to the maximum extent of the law’.

Jason Alarid

Jason Alarid, Milan Lukic’s US lawyer, contested in his closing argument the evidence of the surviving victims and other prosecution witnesses describing them as ‘liars’, ‘lunatics’, ‘alcoholics’ and ‘hysterical persons’. Alarid challenged the identification of his client and questioned whether the living pyres in the Pionirska Street and in Bikavac actually happened. According to him, it has not been established whether there was a fire there and the victims have not been identified. In Alarid’s view, the prosecution has failed to contest the ‘irrefutable evidence on the alibi’ of Milan Lukic: therefore, all the witnesses who claimed that they saw the accused at the crime scene ‘lied’. The prosecution, Alarid contends, failed to investigate the Visegrad crimes properly and has not been able to call evidence which would prove his client’s guilt beyond reasonable doubt. This is why, the defense counsel argued, Milan Lukic should be acquitted on all counts in the indictment.

The defense of the second accused, Sredoje Lukic, will deliver its closing argument tomorrow afternoon.

Dutch handwriting expert Wil Fagel

Before the closing arguments, the last prosecution witness, Dutch handwriting expert Wil Fagel took the stand. Fagel concluded that the signature of former police commander in Visegrad, Risto Perisic, was forged on the document corroborating Milan Lukic’s alibi for the fire in the Pionirska Street. In the cross-examination of the Dutch handwriting expert, the defense implied that Perisic intentionally signed the document differently in order to be able to deny the authenticity of his signatures later and avoid any responsibility for the crimes. In its final brief the defense contends that Milan Lukic was indicted to direct the attention away from ‘the true leaders in Visegrad in 1992’, including Risto Perisic.

Source: Sense-agency

CNAB Condemns Holocaust and Genocide Denial by Serb Delegates

Friday, 15 May 2009 19:11

Congress of North American Bosniaks Condemns Holocaust and genocide denial by Bosnian Serb delegates

Congress of North American Bosniaks (CNAB) expresses regret that the initiative in Parliamentary Assembly of BiH to have January 27th declared as Holocaust Remembrance Day and July 11th, as Srebrenica Remembrance Day failed to obtain support from delegates from Bosnian Serb delegates from a smaller of the two entities in Bosnia, Republika Srpska (RS).

By rejecting this parliamentary initiative, RS delegates blocked Bosnia and Herzegovina from joining other European states that are commemorating January 27th.

CNAB is saddened by the fact that this rejection came only days after we celebrated May 9 Victory against fascism.

CNAB reiterates its strong condemnation of genocide and Holocaust denial.

CNAB

Preventiva in Visegrad?

*Preventiva – the network of guards and contacts protecting Karadzic.

On 26.01.2005. an anonymous email arrived at Nezavisne Novine ( a newspaper in Banja Luka) which claimed that Preventiva was planning assassinations in Republika Srpska. The author of the email distanced himself from the murder of Bosniaks in Visegrad and even called it “genocide“. He claimed that he was a member of the war Presidency in Visegrad municipality and that he “could not help the poor people who suffered in Visegrad” because the main people in charge were “Brane Savovic and Risto Perisic“.

Milan Lukic led away in a police car in Argentina after being arrested.

The author also named  a few Visegrad Serbs who were supposedly targeted for assassinations: Drazen Perendija, Stojan Papic, Mile Lukic and  Mile Peric.

The letter continues naming members of the “Preventiva“:

Milan Josipovic, former Police commander and  Drazen Knezevic, policeman as the leaders for Eastern Bosnia. Policemen Lelek, Goran Nedic, Srecko Nedic, Novak Poluga, Miro Moljevic and ex-policemen Rakovic and Milicevic.

For the Sarajevo-Romanija region Milovan – Cicko Bijelica. For the Banja Luka-Posavina region Radomir Njegus and for Hercegovina Zoran Mandic.

For financial support, the main persons in charge Brane Smiljic, aka Zika, from Visegrada; Pecikoza, former director of  a firm called “Terpentina”;former director of  Dam “Visegrad” Marjanovic.

According to the letter all important meeting were held in Zlatiboru, in the apartments of Branimir Savovic, Brane Smiljica and Riste Perisica. The core of the organization are Branimir Savovic, Radomir Njegus, Risto Perisic, Cicko Bijelica, Milan Josipovic and Momcilo Mandic,who was in charge for contact with the State Security of Serbia.

The letter also states who is in charge of supplying the organization with weapons: former commander of the  Visegrad brigade Luka Dragicevic and Milan Kosoric, who during war-time supplied Serb Democratic Party with weapons from Serbia. Persons in charge for logistics: Radoje Tasic, journalist from Visegrad, and lawyer Radomir Tanaskovic.

As for the author, at the end of the letter he claims that his role during the war was to gather material support mostly from outside of Bosnia. He mentions that he worked with Miroslav Kojic.

He also admits that he is writing this because he found out that Branimir Savovic and Risto Perisic are planing to plant him an indictment at the Hague so as to save themselves. He also notices that not a single member of the war Presidency has been indicted for war crimes.

War-time picture of Milan Lukic in a military uniform in Visegrad.

VGM Editor’s Note: On 8. April 2005 an email signed by Milan Lukic arrived at “Nezavisne Novine” in which he blames some leading Visegrad Serbs for killing his brother Novica. This letter where he calls Savovic and Perisic “communist scum”, is not important because of its content as it is for other reasons. Namely, thanks to this  email, Hague investigators were able to track down Lukic in Argentina. And also “Nezavisne Novine” published that this letter and the last letter giving details about “Preventiva” came from the same server. So most certainly Lukic is the author of the previous email.

*Read: How he slipped into hiding by Ed Vulliamy

*Read:Lukic set to face trial for Visegrad Terror by Nerma Jelacic

*Full letter in Bosnian here.