{"id":232981,"date":"2021-05-25T13:05:16","date_gmt":"2021-05-25T11:05:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/war-veterans-attend-commemoration-in-bradina-near-konjic-visiting-all-sites-of-suffering\/"},"modified":"2024-01-09T09:20:52","modified_gmt":"2024-01-09T08:20:52","slug":"war-veterans-attend-commemoration-in-bradina-near-konjic-visiting-all-sites-of-suffering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/war-veterans-attend-commemoration-in-bradina-near-konjic-visiting-all-sites-of-suffering\/","title":{"rendered":"War Veterans Attend Commemoration in Bradina near Konjic: Visiting All Sites of Suffering"},"content":{"rendered":"

War veterans from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia, former members of the Army of RBiH (ARBiH), the Croat Defence Council (HVO), the Croatian Army (HV), the Army of RS (VRS) and the Army of Yugoslavia (VJ), attended the commemoration for Serb civilians killed in Bradina near Konjic, on 25. 5. 2021.<\/p>\n

According to the victims\u2019 association, on 25 May 1992 and the in the days following, more than 40 people were killed. The bodies of 25 persons were exhumed from the mass grave found adjacent to the local church in Bradina, while other remains were found at various locations and five persons are still unaccounted for. In the months after 25 May, some of the civilians were also imprisoned in inhumane conditions, subjected to beatings, various forms of torture, and some were killed.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday we come to Bradina, as we go to many other places, to pay our respects to all victims, express our solidarity with the families of those killed and call for the prosecution of the perpetrators and for finding the missing. Although we are former fighters, today we come here as peace activists, as people who have witnessed the brutality of war and want to make sure that our children never see such suffering repeated. It is particularly important that today we have an opportunity to honour victims in Bradina as one of the major execution grounds of the Serb people,\u201d said Amer Deli\u0107, a war veteran of ARBiH and member of the Centre for Nonviolent Action.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A trial against 15 people accused of crimes against the Serb population in the Konjic area, including the population of Bradina, is currently under way at the Court of BiH. They stand accused of crimes against humanity as members of the Army of RBiH, HVO, MUP RBiH, the BiH Territorial Defence and paramilitary formations. According to the indictment, they are charged with having \u201cplanned, ordered, instigated, aided and abetted by act or omission the persecution of the Serb civilian population on political, ethnic, cultural and religious grounds, in breach of the rules of international law by way of murders, rape, imprisonment and other severe deprivation of physical liberty, torture and other inhuman acts of similar nature committed with the intent to inflict severe suffering or serious physical or mental injury, or health damage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three people, Esad Land\u017eo, Zdravko Muci\u0107 and Hazim Deli\u0107, have been convicted by the ICTY for crimes against the Serb population of the Konjic area.<\/p>\n

Speaking on behalf of the Serb Orthodox Church Parish of Konjic, hiereus Dejan Gr\u010di\u0107 said that the liturgy and congregation in Bradina aimed to show that the place was still alive.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you for coming, for showing interest, your support means a lot to us. Your support is also a demonstration of interreligious dialogue and brotherly love, because by visiting sites such as this in each other\u2019s communities, we express brotherly love and understanding. It is often easier to visit places where members of our own people were victimised, but it is more difficult to go where \u201cothers\u201d suffered,\u201d said Dejan Gr\u010di\u0107, commenting on the arrival of the mixed group of war veterans to Bradina.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u0110oko Pup\u010devi\u0107, a veteran of VRS from \u0160amac, said that it was important to come to all places of suffering and honour all victims.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople were killed in their homes simply for being of a different nationality, a different identity. As veterans of all the different armies, we have come here today to express solidarity with the families of victims in Bradina and pray for all those who were killed. It is important to condemn not just this one, but all crimes committed in our region,\u201d Pup\u010devi\u0107 said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Under the organisation of the Centre for Nonviolent Action, veterans from the region have attended commemorations in BiH in Gornji Vakuf, at Site 715 near Zavidovi\u0107i, in Stog near Vozu\u0107a, in Novi Grad\/Bosanski Novi, Sanski Most (Hrastova glavica), Sijekovac near Brod, Lani\u0161ta near Br\u010dko, Trusina near Konjic, Ahmi\u0107i near Vitez, Grabovica near Mostar, Skelani near Srebrenica, Bri\u0161evo and Zecovi near Prijedor, Kori\u0107anske stijene, Stupni Do near Vare\u0161, Boderi\u0161te near Br\u010dko, the bridge over the Sava in Br\u010dko, and in Serbia in Grdeli\u010dka klisura near Leskovac, Varvarin near Kru\u0161evac, Aleksinac, as well as in Croatia in Pakrac, Varivode and Go\u0161i\u0107 near Knin.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a group of war veterans from once warring armies, we have come to Bradina today primarily in the interest of the future of this region. Looking back, a lot of blood was spilled and there were many wrongdoings, but our coming here after all these negative things is truly important. We do not come as cowards, we are now heroes of peace offering a hand, wherever we go and we do not look to distinguish victims, to see what side they were from. We honour all victims and call on everyone to have the decency today to bow their heads and say a prayer in their own way for all the victims,\u201d said Stanislav Krezi\u0107, an HVO veteran and prison camp survivor from Mostar, following the commemoration.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Photo gallery\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Media reports:<\/p>\n

KLIX.BA<\/a><\/p>\n

N1 BIH<\/a><\/p>\n

FENA.BA<\/a><\/p>\n

BUKA<\/a><\/p>\n

IMPULS<\/p>\n

TNTPORTAL.BA<\/a><\/p>\n

ABRASMEDIA.INFO<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

War veterans from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia attended the commemoration for Serb civilians killed in Bradina near Konjic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232886,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,72],"tags":[311,285,337,1838,1947,304,146,182,2149,1904,238],"class_list":["post-232981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-activities","category-excomb","tag-activism","tag-bosnia-and-herzegovina","tag-combatants","tag-commemoration-en","tag-former-combatants-en","tag-peacebuilding","tag-reconciliation","tag-veterans","tag-war-veteran-cooperation","tag-war-veterans-in-peacebuilding","tag-war-veterans"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232981"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":241290,"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232981\/revisions\/241290"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}