Flowers were thrown into the Buna River near Mostar and a memorial service was held in the Old Church in Mostar to mark the 24th anniversary of the killings of 30 Serbian civilians and soldiers in this community and the deaths of 386 Serbs from the Neretva River valley who were killed in mid-June, 1992.
Soldiers of the Croatian Defence Council, the Croatian armed forces and the Croatian Army expelled Serbs from the Neretva River valley in June of that year.
The president of the Nevesinje Municipal Organisation of Families of Captured and Killed Soldiers and Missing Civilians, Aljonka Dzeletovic, says that a horrific crime was committed on June 14, 15 and 16, 1992, against all Serbs who were found there – some in their homes, some on military assignment.
“The fate of 85 persons is still unknown and they are listed as missing. We have 54 bodies in the memorial ossuary in Nevesinje which need to be identified. Their fate is not known because of obstructions by the bodies at the BiH level dealing with this issue, primarily by the Missing Persons Institute, which is the most responsible for this idleness,” Dzeletovic has said.
Eighteen civilians and 12 soldiers were killed in Buna on this day, and the bodies of ten persons have not yet been found.
“There are rumours that a grave in which they were buried is known, but the prosecutor’s office has not given the order to open the grave because they do not want victims to be found. There are witnesses who say that Serbian victims from Buna were buried under a monument to Croatian soldiers in Buna,” Dzeletovic says.
Momcilo Medan, whose son was killed on this day in Buna, does not believe that those responsible for this crime will ever be punished because, he says, no one has yet even raised the issue of responsibility.
Slavica Slavic, who has been searching for her brother Sinisa Maric for 24 years now, says that they found only one of his bones which they buried in Nevesinje.
“As far as Buna is concerned, there is a video recording of their killings. Anyone can see this video recording, but no one has yet answered for this crime,” Slavic says.
The Nevesinje Municipal Organisation of Families of Killed and Captured Soldiers and Missing Civilians has organised the marking of the 24th anniversary of the killings of Serbs and the ceremony was attended by families of those killed, representatives of the Pale, Sokolac, Rogatica and Gacko veterans’ organisations, representatives of the Republika Srpska Red Cross, and representatives of the Nevesinje and Istocno Sarajevo Municipalities.
The St. Trinity Cathedral in Mostar was burned down on this day. The Zitomislic Monastery and all other Serbian churches and thousands of Serbian homes were also burned down in June of that year.
