Acting Director of the Republika Srpska Centre for Research of War, War Crimes and Missing Persons Viktor Nuždić said that, despite what he described as the large-scale crimes committed by Muslim forces against 3,267 Serbs killed in the Middle Podrinje and Birač regions, only four individuals have been convicted before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina for crimes committed across the entire Podrinje area, receiving a combined sentence of 29 years in prison.
According to Nuždić, the outcome leaves a strong impression that justice in Bosnia and Herzegovina has not been applied equally to all victims.
“We will not allow the victims of Podrinje to be forgotten or their suffering to be erased from historical memory. We owe them truth, remembrance and respect,” Nuždić told Srna ahead of the commemoration marking the 34th anniversary of the suffering of Serbs in the region.
He said that acquittals handed down by both the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina have further deepened the sense of injustice among the families of the victims.
“They have been sent the painful message that there is no justice for Serb children, such as Slobodan Stojanović and the Dimitrijević brothers, nor for the murdered family members of Brane Vučetić, Slavka Matić, Cvjetko Ristić and many others whose names, unfortunately, are rarely mentioned today,” Nuždić said.
He noted that while compiling the Atlas of Crimes Against Serbs for 1992, the Centre documented 76 mass killing sites where four or more people were killed, with 26 of those locations—approximately one-third—situated in the Middle Podrinje region, which he said clearly illustrates the scale of Serb suffering.
Nuždić recalled that many Serb villages in Podrinje were devastated during the Second World War following mass killings committed by Ustasha units of Jure Francetić’s Black Legion and Muslim militias.
“Unfortunately, half a century later, during 1992 and the first months of 1993, the Serb population of Podrinje experienced another tragedy that left deep and lasting scars,” he said.
He identified the crimes committed in early 1993 in Kravica and Skelani as particularly painful chapters in the collective memory, arguing that systematically ignoring or minimizing the suffering of Serbs in Podrinje during 1992 and 1993 cannot contribute to truth, an objective understanding of the past or genuine reconciliation.
According to Nuždić, responsibility for this approach lies partly with certain Bosniak political representatives, as well as segments of the international community.
“Particular responsibility rests with the judicial institutions that were expected to deliver justice and restore confidence,” he said.
Nuždić explained that the Republika Srpska Centre has spent years systematically documenting these crimes by collecting witness testimonies, archival records and available photographs of the victims. He said that the circumstances surrounding each victim’s death have been recorded and that extensive research has enabled the reconstruction of the events in which they lost their lives.
He added that this documentation, together with documentary films produced with the Centre’s active participation, represents a permanent testimony to the truth and a historical obligation toward the innocent victims.
Nuždić said that the Serb victims of the Middle Podrinje and Birač regions are permanently embedded in the foundations of Republika Srpska, which he described as the guarantor of the Serb people’s survival, security and right to live freely in the region.
A memorial service for the 3,267 Serb soldiers and civilians killed in the Middle Podrinje and Birač regions during the Homeland Defense War will be held in Bratunac on July 4.
According to the article, Muslim units from Srebrenica frequently launched attacks on Serb villages during major Orthodox holidays throughout the Homeland Defense War. On Petrovdan in 1992, they attacked the villages of Zalazje, Biljača, Sase and Zagoni, killing civilians, looting property and setting Serb homes on fire.
Source: RTRS
