Invited by the “Suza” Association of Families and Friends of Missing Persons from Rogatica and supported by the Centre for Nonviolent Action, on 19 June 2023, a mixed group of war veterans from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia, former members of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH), the Croatian Defence Council (HVO), the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS), the Croatian Army (HV), and the Army of Yugoslavia (VJ), and peace activists from the region attended the commemoration marking 31 years since the start of persecution of non-Serbs in Rogatica.
According to information established by courts, in a wide-ranging and systematic attack carried out by the Republika Srpska Army, police and paramilitary units in the spring and summer of 1992, several hundred Bosniak civilians were killed in the area of Rogatica, many were detained and the remaining non-Serb population was expelled. According to information from the “Suza” Association, some 1500 people were killed, and according to data of the BiH Institute for Missing Persons, the remains of around 300 persons from the Rogatica area have not been found to date. War crimes in the Rogatica area were prosecuted before the ICTY, where the political and military leadership of Republika Srpska (Radovan Karadžić, Momčilo Krajišnik, Ratko Mladić) was found responsible for these crimes, as well as in several trials before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the High Court in Belgrade, where the trial of Rajko Kušić, former commander of the VRS Rogatica Brigade, is ongoing.
According to the protocol of the commemoration organisers, the first part of the programme took place in the Rogatica village of Rakitnica, followed by a procession from the Rogatica Municipal Building to the Šudžadinova Mosque where a religious service was held.
Today, we are here to express our support for the families and friends of the victims, on the day when they mark the suffering of the Bosniak population in the area of Rogatica, to join their appeal addressed to competent institutions, as well as individuals who may have any information about the fate of the missing, asking them to help finally find the remains and at least in this way ease the agony of families that has been ongoing for three decades now. Together with peace activists from the region, and among them war veterans and prison camp survivors, the Centre for Nonviolent Action works with representatives of victims’ associations in an effort to ensure we commemorate victims together and honour them irrespective of their ethnicity, that we come together to mourn lost lives and highlight the importance of recognising the suffering of every single person. We have chosen the path of respect, solidarity, understanding and dialogue that we believe will contribute to building a culture of memory that will lead to restoring trust among our peoples, which is the foundation for building lasting peace and reconciliation in our region – said Amer Delić, a war veteran from Zavidovići and member of the team at the Centre for Nonviolent Action.
In its invitation to attend this year’s commemoration, the “Suza” Association focused on the need to make additional efforts to find the remains of those who were killed. Attending the commemoration, veterans of HV, HVO, the Army of RBiH, VRS, and VJ and peace activists joined in the call to competent authorities to make additional efforts to find the remains of the victims.
It’s important that we are in Rogatica today, that people from all sides in the war are here, that they have come here to send a message of compassion with the pain of those who lost their loved ones. This is a symbolic contribution to reconciliation, because reconciliation among people means stopping hatred. Any statement that follows ‘reconciliation’ with ‘but’ is just looking for an excuse to avoid reconciliation. People who have gathered here come with pure hearts to express compassion. For those who share the national identity of the perpetrators of these crimes, that means saying: ‘Not in my name. This was not done in my name.’ And that is an important message to hear in order to put an end to fear and hostility so that those on the other side are seen as human, because there are still many people who in their pain can only see the enemy in the other. This is a sad fact, almost 30 years after the war, that needs to be changed and we still have a lot of work to do – said Nenad Vukosavljević, a peace activist of the Centre for Nonviolent Action.
In 2017, activists from the Centre for Nonviolent Action marked the unmarked site of suffering at “Rasadnik” in Rogatica, which was a site of detention, inhuman treatment and killing of around 40 prisoners.
Today, we are here in the village of Rakitnica, near Rogatica. We have come to honour all the innocent Bosniak civilians who were killed. As war veterans from all the armies from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia, we have come here to pay our respects to those who were killed here and it is very important for us to be able to do this at all such sites in BiH, and there are many, too many of them. But we have to keep coming and offering a hand of peace to each other as a way to contribute to moving on with our lives – said Mirko Zečević Tadić, a veteran of HVO from Brčko.
Under the organisation of the Centre for Nonviolent Action, peace activists and war veterans from the region have attended commemorations in BiH in Gornji Vakuf, at Site 715 near Zavidovići, in Stog near Vozuća, in Novi Grad/Bosanski Novi, Sanski Most (Hrastova glavica), Sijekovac near Brod, Laništa near Brčko, Trusina near Konjic, Ahmići near Vitez, Grabovica, Uborak and Sutina near Mostar, Briševo and Zecovi near Prijedor, Korićanske stijene, Stupni Do near Vareš, Boderište near Brčko, the bridge over the Sava in Brčko, Bradina near Konjic, Skelani near Srebrenica, the Silo in Tarčin near Hadžići, Lozje near Goražde, and in Serbia in Grdelička klisura near Leskovac, Varvarin near Kruševac, Aleksinac, as well as in Croatia in Pakrac, Varivode and Gošić near Knin.
I cannot tell you how much it means to me that these people have come here to share our pain. They could see right here how the families fell mute, how they couldn’t even speak, I couldn’t get anyone to explain what happened, because they have been through this tremendous suffering and tragedy. It means a lot to me that the veterans and peace activists came to visit us – said Maida Ćurevac from the “Suza” Association of Families and Friends of Missing Persons from Rogatica, adding that they expect additional support especially from the media and prosecutor’s office.