Balkans | Two other Bosnian civilians were killed by Serbs in the war for Bosnia and Herzegovina

After the funeral, two victims who were killed and identified by Serbs were buried in Prijedor, northern Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Fred Sekirić and Izet Mesić, born in 1960, who were killed in the country’s 1992-1995 war and identified 31 years later, were buried in tears after funeral prayers led by Islamic Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina President Husein Kavazovic.

Denis Beserović, a Bosnian member of the Presidency Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who attended the funeral, said he paid tribute to the victims and said a three-month-old baby was also killed in the massacre.

Describing the massacres as “a tragedy that is hard to describe,” Beserović said: “It is our responsibility to protect the rights of the victims, and we have an obligation to develop a culture of remembrance and remembrance. We must always find the strength to fight for truth and justice against those who deny the Holocaust. There is not much justice in the world, But we must try as much as possible to fight for it legally.” He said.

Denis Beserović also stated that he would support the creation of a memorial center for the victims.

The spokesman for the Institute of Missing Persons in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Imze Fadlić, said that Mesić’s four brothers and his father were also killed in the Serb attacks.

Messik’s brother, Merzit Messik, stated that their pain would not subside, but the fact that there was a grave where they could pray calmed them down.

What happened in Priedor?

In March 1992, when the war in Bosnia had just begun, ethnic Serb Simo Drljaca, appointed head of the State Security Service (UDBA) in the former Yugoslavia, armed 1,775 Serbs working in 13 police stations in Prijedor within a month.

On the night of April 29, Serb forces captured the city of Prijedor, which at that time was mostly Bosnian. Heavily armed Serb forces attacked villages around Prijedor on 23 May 1992. 3,176 civilians, including 102 children, were killed in the massacre of Prijedor and its environs.

With the announcement broadcast on local radios on May 31, 1992, Serbs were ordered “to hang non-Serbs white sheets on their windows and tie white ribbons on their arms when they go out”. Non-Serb civilians who had to follow the instructions of the invading Serbs were identified in this way. Those who were identified were taken to concentration camps and subjected to massacres, torture and rape.

About 30,000 civilians were deported from Prijedor to concentration camps in Omarska, Keraterm, Kozarak, Trnopolje and Mangaka at that time. Tens of thousands of people have been exiled from their country of origin.

Bosnian civilians who lost their lives in the Prijedor massacre and whose identities were identified are buried after the funeral ceremony held on July 20 every year.

AA