Mladen Grujicic, the head of the Association of Families of Detained and Fallen Veterans and Missing Civilians of Srebrenica, welcomes the final issuance of an indictment against Naser Oric and says it is shameful and sad that this has been awaited for 20 years, asserting that the indictment is not comprehensive and fails cover one percent of the crimes against Serbs committed by Oric and his subordinates.
“It seems that they are again trying to conduct formal court proceedings and by prosecuting three murders neglect the numerous mass crimes that Oric and his subordinates committed against the Serbs in central Podrinje area in a joint criminal enterprise,” Grujicic told Srna.
He says Oric will answer “for one tree in the completely cut down forest” because he will be prosecuted for the murders of three Serb prisoners, while being responsible for several dozen imprisonments with some 60 Serbs from the Srebrenica and Bratunac area still registered as missing.
“Dozens of detained Serbs and hundreds of Serb civilians – elderly men, women and children – were killed under his command and upon his orders and it is appalling that the indictment does not cover all of it,” said Grujicic.
This indictment too is an attempt to minimise the Serb victims and neglect the scope of the committed crimes, he said.
“Why won’t the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina include the reports, statements and testimonies for all crimes that Oric and his criminal group committed against the Serbs in Srebrenica and Bratunac between April 1992 and the end of the war? Why are they afraid of the facts?” asked Grujicic.
He considers this yet another attempt of obstruction and application of double standards by the BiH Prosecutor’s Office, which ignores the mass crimes against Serb civilians and murders in Gniona, Karno, Ratkovici, Brezani, Magasici, Ranca, Zalazje, Sase, Krnjici, Podravanje, Fakovici, Bjelovac, Kravica, Skelani and neighbouring villages, and overlooks the ungrounded incarceration, torture and execution of all Serbs who stayed in the urban part of Srebrenica at the beginning of the war, loyal to the Muslim authorities.
Grujicic asked: “Why is the Prosecutor’s Office afraid to incorporate in the indictment all those cases and crimes committed against Serbs, obviously intending to completely destroy the Serb people in these parts and wipe out all traces of their existence and culture?” He expects the indictment to be expanded in case the BiH judiciary has maintained any dignity or professionalism.
Grujicic noted it was ironic that Oric would be prosecuted for only three Serb victims of more than 3,000 killed, half of whom were civilians, and submitted that Oric should be tried for genocide as it is obvious that there was a genocidal intent that was successfully carried out by the Muslim formations under his command, killing and destroying everything Serb.
Families of the Serb victims have been expecting for two decades to see the killers of their loved ones finally brought to justice and hope that the BiH judiciary will this time act professionally and not succumb to pressures from the Bosniak political leaders and corrupt representatives of various international organisations, and that the indictment will be expanded to cover all crimes committed by Oric and his followers, said Grujicic.
On their withdrawal from Srebrenica in 1995, the Muslim troops slaughtered the elderly Ivanka Mirkovic at her doorstep so that she would not testify about the torture and killings of Serbs, because she could see and hear their screams and cries for help, because she lived in the vicinity of a police station and jail where the Serb prisoners were taken to be abused and murdered.
“Apart from the ethnic cleansing in the urban part of Srebrenica, the Muslim formations killed and burnt everything Serb by raiding the villages surrounding Bratunac and Srebrenica, wanting to wipe out all traces of the Serb existence in these parts,” Grujicic said.
At the beginning of the war, in Gniona, Gostilj, Cumavici, Osredak, Viogor and some other hamlets, Oric and his subordinates captured the entire Serb population they found in the villages and locked them up in a hen house in Potocari where they tortured and abused them.
All prisoners were civilians.
“Murders of Serb civilians in the first year of the war happened nearly every day in this area and there is evidence to prove this, including the names, dates, places and manner of execution.
“There were no Muslim civilian casualties in Srebrenica or its vicinity except in a possible exchange of artillery fire, which shows that Serbs and the Serbian army did not intend to destroy the Muslim people who then changed their name and called themselves Bosniaks,” noted Grujicic.
The BiH Prosecutor’s Office has issued an indictment against Naser Oric and Sabahudin Muhic, charging them with war crimes against prisoners of war.
The indictment reads that Oric and Muhic killed three Serb prisoners in Zalazje, Lolici and Kunjerac in 1992.
Source: SRNA
Photo: Nezavisne.com
