LINTA: HONORING WAR CRIMINAL CACO IS AN INSULT TO FAMILIES OF MURDERED SERBS

BELGRADE, OCTOBER 31 /SRNA/ - President of the Alliance of Serbs from the Region, Miodrag Linta, said that once again paying tribute to Mušan Topalović Caco, the killer of Sarajevo Serbs at Kazani, was an insult to the families of those murdered and a humiliation of the Serb people.

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He reminded that in 1992 and 1993, members of the unit led by this war criminal forcibly abducted Serb civilians from their apartments and homes, tortured and killed them, and threw their bodies into the Kazani pit on the slopes of Mount Trebević. Their only fault, he said, was that they were Serbs.

"The BiH Prosecutor's Office announced in 2015 that the remains of 27 people had been exhumed from the pit, 17 of whom had been identified, while the final number of those killed at Kazani has yet to be established," Linta said.

He pointed out that it is often said in public that the Kazani killings have never been fully investigated because the bodies of the murdered Serb civilians thrown into the pit were covered with lime.

"It is also unknown how many bodies were burned at the site. There is suspicion that some of the remains were moved to other locations," Linta said.

He said that Caco was killed on October 26, 1993, and that more than 10,000 people paid their respects when his body was transferred to the Kovači cemetery in 1997.

"This clearly shows the extent to which the glorification of Caco is present among a significant segment of the Sarajevo public. Instead of clearly condemning his responsibility for war crimes and showing respect for innocent Serb victims, many individuals and organizations in Sarajevo regard him as a true hero," Linta stressed.

Linta said it was particularly unacceptable that the memorial at Kazani states that it is dedicated to "murdered fellow citizens," without mentioning that the victims were overwhelmingly Sarajevo Serbs and without identifying those responsible for the crimes.

"In this way, the responsibility of members of the 10th Mountain Brigade of the so-called Army of BiH and their commander, Caco, is being concealed, and the national identity of the victims is deliberately left unspecified," Linta said.

He pointed out that 14 members of the unit had been convicted of murder, aiding and abetting murder, and failure to report a criminal offense, but that no one had been finally convicted of war crimes against the civilian population.

“This confirms that the families of those murdered have not received full justice, even after more than three decades. They are rightfully demanding that the full truth about the deaths of their loved ones be established and that those responsible for the crimes be clearly identified,” Linta said.

He warned that, unfortunately, Sarajevo continues to make distinctions between victims, organizing commemorations for some while pushing crimes against Serbs into the background.

"City authorities in Sarajevo and all relevant institutions should stop concealing the full truth about the crimes committed at Kazani and other execution sites, amend the memorial plaque to state that the vast majority of those killed were Serbs and that the crimes were committed by members of the 10th Mountain Brigade of the so-called Army of BiH, and publicly condemn any glorification of war criminal Mušan Topalović Caco," Linta said.

He stressed that it was important to know that Kazani was not the only site where Serbs were killed in Sarajevo, adding that, according to Milutin Mišić, a former member of the Steering Board of the BiH Missing Persons Institute, there are mass graves at at least five other locations in Sarajevo.

"Mišić accused the BiH Prosecutor's Office in 2017 of obstructing exhumations and efforts to establish evidence of war crimes committed against Serbs. The fate of all those killed and missing has yet to be clarified, and the exact number of Serb victims has not been established," Linta said, according to a statement released by the Alliance of Serbs from the Region.

The Kazani pit, located on the slopes of Mount Trebević above Sarajevo, is one of the largest execution sites of Sarajevo Serbs, who were brutally killed and thrown into this natural fissure in 1992 and 1993.

Serbs were killed by members of the 10th Mountain Brigade of the so-called Army of BiH, commanded by Mušan Topalović, known as Caco, a pre-war Sarajevo criminal.

It is suspected that more than 100 bodies of Serbs killed in Sarajevo were thrown into pits on Mount Trebević.

Former members of the Green Berets paid tribute to Mušan Topalović Caco in Sarajevo several days ago.