Adem Omeragić's house in Pionirska Street in Višegrad 28 years ago, on June 14, 1992, was the scene of a horrific crime where at least 60 Bosniak civilians, mostly women, children and the elderly, were burned alive.
A special military formation commanded by the criminal Milan Lukić, the leader of the White Eagles or the Avengers, captured them in the Visegrad villages of Koritnik and Sase. Thirteen days later, on June 27, the Avengers imprisoned and burned 72 people in the house of Meha Aljić in Bikavac. In a short time, nearly 140 people were burned in two live pyres in the city. Paradoxically, none of the neighbors heard, saw, or even smelled the burnt human bodies. Despite this, the truth came out, and the city of Višegrad became a paradigm of the crime of burning civilians during the aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina.
"The culmination of the monstrous crimes against the Bosniaks of Višegrad was the burning of half of the civilians at the end of June 1992. After they had robbed them, they locked them in the basement of the house in Pionirska Street, nailed the windows and doors, and set the house on fire. The youngest victim was a baby from for two days, which was not even named. Those who tried to escape through the windows were shot, and all but eight people were burned alive. Ismeta Kurspahić was killed while trying to escape from the house. The Appeals Chamber of the Hague Tribunal found that the possible cause of death was a gunshot wound. The panel concluded that there were men standing outside who shot people who were trying to escape from the house. The remains of Ismeta Kurspahić were exhumed in the primary mass grave at the Stražište cemetery in Višegrad in 2009. The Trial Chamber of the Hague Tribunal established that the criminal Milan Lukić was the one who closed the door, put an incendiary device in the room and thus set the house on fire, as well as that he shot into the windows of the house. Milan Luk ić was sentenced to life imprisonment, and his cousin Sredoje Lukić was sentenced to 27 years in prison, while Mitar Vasiljević was also sentenced to 15 years for participating in the crime, who was released after serving 2/3 of his sentence and was welcomed as a hero in Visegrad. , reminds Ermin Kuka, senior research associate of the Institute for Research of Crimes against Humanity and International Law of the University of Sarajevo.
Where are the bones of the murdered?
Radomir Šušnjar, who was arrested in France in 2014, was also sentenced to 20 years in prison for the burning of civilians in Pionirska Street before the Court of BiH, and in April 2016 the Court in Paris made a decision on his extradition to the judiciary of BiH.
"These are the main perpetrators of the crime who have been legally sentenced, but they certainly had the support of other soldiers who have not yet been discovered and prosecuted. The long-term vow of silence of the perpetrators of this terrible crime, but also of all the neighbors of Višegrad citizens of Serbian nationality, is worrying. It was impossible to do that heinous and monstrous crime, carefully planned and organized, and only a few individuals know about it," Kuka believes.
He adds that the memory of the crime in Pionirska Street is also a message from the surviving victims to all those who have information to find out where the remains of the burned Bosniak civilians are.
"Each victim, regardless of which national, ethnic or religious group he belonged to, deserves to be known and to mark the place of his eternal rest. This will also mean
give peace to the survivors, so that they know where their loved ones are buried, and it can also be an incentive for the restoration of radically damaged inter-ethnic trust and coexistence," Kuka points out.
Crime near Olov
At the time of the crime in Pionirska, members of Serbian military formations put a number of Bosniaks from Višegrad into trucks and buses and drove them towards Olov. The convoy was stopped near the village of Kolakovići, on the road Knežina - Olovo, the women and children were forced out of the vehicle and told to go to the Muslim village, and the men to return to Višegrad.
"They were released because the residents of Kolakovic captured the president of the SDS Olovo and the Serbian Municipality of Olovo, Duke Milovan Žigić, and eight men from his guard and demanded negotiations on the release of refugees from Višegrad. During the negotiations, there was a shooting in which Miladin Gavrić, the brother of the commander of the third battalion of the 2nd rmtbr Nedja Gavrić. In the end, an agreement was reached, the refugees were transferred to Olov, and the duke and the guard were released. However, the separated men were taken to the village of Kalimanići in Sokolac and shot a day later. Their bodies were found in the Paklenik pit "Only Ferid Spahić, who was at the back of the column at that moment, survived this crime," Kuka points out.
Due to participation in the murders of 49 people on June 15, 1992 near the Paklenik pit, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina sentenced Miloš Pantelić to 15 and Predrag Milisavljević to 20 years in prison. Terrible events as part of the tragic history of Bosniaks at the end of the 20th century are actually a continuation of the atrocities committed in the Second World War in Eastern Bosnia, claims Kuka.
"The Chetniks committed numerous crimes even then, imprisoning Muslims in houses which they burned. In Kopači near Goražde in November 1941, more than 100 civilians were burned, in the village of Drokan near Višegrad in March 1942, 84 people were set on fire, in Kamenica near Višegrad in the spring of 1942, 44 people were burned, in Klašnik near Višegrad in the spring of 1942, 26 civilians were burned, in the village of Stari Brod near Višegrad, over 400 civilians were burned in November 1942. Insensitivity, monstrosity and brutality are the hallmarks of this inhuman act," Ermin Kuka points out.