{"id":236311,"date":"2022-10-22T15:31:41","date_gmt":"2022-10-22T13:31:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/three-decades-since-the-crime-in-sjeverin-near-priboj-families-still-waiting-for-justice\/"},"modified":"2022-11-21T12:36:56","modified_gmt":"2022-11-21T11:36:56","slug":"three-decades-since-the-crime-in-sjeverin-near-priboj-families-still-waiting-for-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/three-decades-since-the-crime-in-sjeverin-near-priboj-families-still-waiting-for-justice\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Decades since the Crime in Sjeverin near Priboj: Families Still Waiting for Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the thirtieth anniversary of the abduction and killing of 17 civilians from Sjeverin near Priboj, a funeral service was held and a commemoration in memory of the victims. The commemoration was attended also by peace activists and war veterans from Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia.<\/p>\n

The crime in Sjeverin took place on 22 October 1992 when, near Mio\u010de, a group of 17 Bosniaks, including one woman, was taken off a bus they were riding to Priboj for work. They were then taken by truck to Vi\u0161egrad where they were all killed. The day before, on 21 October 1992, Sabahudin \u0106atovi\u0107 had similarly been abducted from his home.<\/p>\n

A full 30 years after the crime, the remains of only one victim were found. After 30 years of waiting, it was decided that a funeral service would be held for all the victims even though their remains had not been found. The service was led by the Grand Mufti of the Islamic Community Husein ef. Kavazovi\u0107.<\/p>\n

Mehmed \u0160ebo, Zafer Had\u017ei\u0107, Medo Hod\u017ei\u0107, Medredin Hod\u017ei\u0107, Ramiz Begovi\u0107, Dervi\u0161 Softi\u0107, Mithad Softi\u0107, Mujo Alihod\u017ei\u0107, Alija Mandal, Sead Pecikoza, Mustafa Bajramovi\u0107, Hajrudin Sajtarevi\u0107, Esad D\u017eihi\u0107, Idriz Gibovi\u0107, Ramahudin \u0106atovi\u0107, and Mevlida Kold\u017ei\u0107 were abducted and executed on that day in 1992.<\/p>\n

The families of the victims have spent thirty years not just in their sorrows, but in a struggle to find the remains of their loved ones and have their status as civilian war victims recognised. The state of Serbia, as well as the European Court of Human Rights, refused all attempts to reach any measure of justice on account of very bureaucratic and procedural reasons. The state of Serbia due to the fact that the abduction took place in the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina (where the bus had to pass on its way to Priboj), and the European Court because at the time of the abduction, Serbia was not party to the European Convention on Human Rights. The District Court in Belgrade sentenced Milan Luki\u0107 and Oliver Krsmanovi\u0107 each to 20 years in prison, and Dragutin Dragi\u0107evi\u0107 and \u0110or\u0111e \u0160evi\u0107 each to 15 years in prison, for the crime committed in Sjeverin, among others. Luki\u0107 was sentenced by the ICTY to life imprisonment for crimes committed in Vi\u0161egrad, but his numerous wrongdoings did not include the crime from Sjeverin.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I stood before a mirror to think about what needs to be said today, first to myself and then to all of you here, my throat closed up because there is little that could be said and that hasn\u2019t already been said in these past 30 years. We will not give up the fight for truth and our rightful recognition as victims. We as families expect the criminals and those that ordered the crime to be convicted, for the archives to be opened up, for our status to be recognised, so that we are not divided into first- and second-class citizens, for the law on civilian war victims to be amended, and for what happened to us to never happen to anyone again,\u201d said Omer efendija Hod\u017ei\u0107 in his emotional address. His father and aunt had been on that bus on their way to work, and he never saw them again.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In addition to the victims\u2019 families and religious leaders from the Islamic Community, the commemoration was also attended by a large number of citizens, and the organisers expressed particular gratitude to the Priboj Municipality that has provided support to marking the anniversaries and to raising a monument in Sjeverin. Paying their respects by throwing flowers from a bridge over the Lim in Mio\u010de was a mixed group of war veterans and activists of the Centre for Nonviolent Action Sarajevo-Belgrade.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese people that we remember today were citizens of Serbia, they were abducted and killed because of their ethnicity, and the silence of the state of Serbia, its ignoring of this crime and the one in \u0160trpci, both very similar, tells us that these were not just incidents by deranged criminals, but an organised action by state authorities. Citizens of Serbia were abducted and killed and the state of Serbia has a duty to shed light on their fate, to find where they were buried, to provide for a dignified funeral and memory of these people and reparations for their families. It is the least that it can do. For our part, we, the citizens of Serbia, must show solidarity with the families, we must support them in their struggle for justice and truth, and we must never again allow the killing of people in our name,\u201d said Katarina Mili\u0107evi\u0107, an activist from the Centre for Nonviolent Action, after the commemoration in Sjeverin.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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 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, Uborak and Sutina near Mostar, 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, Bradina near Konjic, Skelani near Srebrenica, the Silos in Tar\u010din near Had\u017ei\u0107i, Vitez, and in Serbia in Grdeli\u010dka klisura near Leskovac, Varvarin near Kru\u0161evac, Aleksinac, in Prijepolje for victims abducted from the train in \u0160trpci, as well as in Croatia in Pakrac, Varivode and Go\u0161i\u0107 near Knin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the thirtieth anniversary of the abduction and killing of 17 civilians from Sjeverin near Priboj, a funeral service was held and a commemoration in memory of the victims. The commemoration was attended also by peace activists and war veterans from Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236136,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,72],"tags":[337,1838,145,1947,304,2628,699,143,147,2627,182,159,1904,238],"class_list":["post-236311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-activities","category-excomb","tag-combatants","tag-commemoration-en","tag-dealing-with-the-past","tag-former-combatants-en","tag-peacebuilding","tag-priboj-en","tag-remembrance","tag-responsibility","tag-serbia","tag-sjeverin-en","tag-veterans","tag-war","tag-war-veterans-in-peacebuilding","tag-war-veterans"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236311","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=236311"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":236312,"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236311\/revisions\/236312"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nenasilje.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}