SREBRENICA, June 11 /SRNA/ – President of the Organization of the Families of Captured and Fallen Serb Soldiers and Missing Civilians from Srebrenica, Mladen Grujicic, has told Srna that the families of missing and murdered Serbs from Srebrenica, among whom more than half were civilians, have been waiting for justice for years as well as for the prosecution of the perpetrators of crimes committed against their next of kin, including a person who ordered such crimes, Naser Oric.
Oric led a criminal group. He commanded and made decisions about life and death in Srebrenica during the wartime. There are testimonies that he led and ordered killings and crimes against Serbs aiming at their continuous destruction,because neither civilians were spared,” said Grujicic.
He said that Oric, among others, led the attack on the Serb villages of Zalazje and Sase on St. Peter’s Day in 1992, when 69 Serbs were murdered and 20 went missing, out of which seven were alive at the time but have been also missing since then.
“No one has been found responsible for either this crime, as well as for other crimes against Serbs around Srebrenica and Bratunac, or for the crimes against those civilians who remained loyal to the Muslim authority but were executed in Srebrenica.
It is a high time to stop waiting and to have the perpetrators prosecuted for the crimes in which more than 2,000 Serbs, among whom more than half were civilians, were brutally massacred and killed in different ways, “said Grujicic.
According to him, Oric should be held responsible for the crimes committed in Zalazje, but also for crimes in Gnionica, Osredak, Viogor, Karno, Ratkovici, Brezani, Krnjic, Magesic, Zagoni, Fakovici, Podravanje, Bjelovac, Kravica, Skelani and surrounding villages in which hundreds of Serb civilians were killed in 1992 and 1993.
Families of murdered and missing Serbs expect that Oric will be finally handed over to the Prosecutor’s Office of Serbia and persecuted for the crimes he committed.
“Only just verdict for Oric and other members of a joint criminal group he led, may lead to revealing the truth about wartime events in and around Srebrenica and the justice, that the families of Serb victims have been waiting for more than two decades, may be finally served,” said Grujicic.
He has stated that the families expect that Oric will be prosecuted instead of being “honored” as he was in the Hague Tribunal.
“It would be a new blow to the families of the missing persons and humiliation of the Serb victims and the Serb people in general, as well as the humiliation of truth and justice likewise the achievements of a civilization,” said Grujicic.
According to him, justice and reconciliation cannot be reached by one-sided and selective approach because the fact that the crimes were committed against members of all peoples in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is true, is generally accepted.
In order to serve the justice and allow co-existence and reconciliation and re-gain the trust among the peoples, it is necessary to prosecute all crime perpetrators, including Oric and other members of his criminal group responsible for many crimes against Serbs in the central Podrinje.
“No reconciliation and trust among the peoples of this region will be regained without bringing the crime perpetrators to the justice, especially those who committed mass and heinous crimes and ethnic cleansing,” concluded Grujicic. /end/vos