Bosniaks mark anniversary of Sjeverin massacre in Serbia

Members of a Bosnian Serb Army unit stopped a bus passing through the area and took 17 Bosniaks from it on October 22, 1992. They were taken to a place near the town of Visegrad where they were tortured and killed on the shores of the Drina river.

The commemoration took place near a monument erected for the victims next to the motorway and was attended by the victims’ families, representatives of Serbia’s Islamic Community, representatives of the local government, political parties from Priboj and human rights NGO’s.

Hanka Dautovic, who lost her youngest brother, Zafer Hadzic, in the massacre said she only wants to find his remains to bury them properly . Zineta Hodzic, whose husband was killed, expressed doubt that anything would be done to find the remains of their loved ones.

The remains of only one of the victims have been found so far.

Flowers were thrown into the Lim river and prayers were said for the victims.

Four members of the Bosnian Serb unit were sentenced for involvement in the massacre in Belgrade in 2005 and their commander Milan Lukic, was sentenced at the war crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague to life in prison for other crimes committed against Bosniaks in Visegrad but not for the Sjeverin massacre. The Serbian judiciary has not done anything, claiming it does not have jurisdiction over the crime because it was committed in Bosnia.