MUSLIM PHALANXES KILLED SERB CHILDREN, WOMEN AND ELDERLY PEOPLE IN ČEMERNO

ČEMERNO, JUNE 7 /SRNA/ - In an attack on Čemerno near Ilijaš 34 years ago, members of the then Breza territorial defense killed 30 Serb soldiers and civilians, most of whom were elderly people, women and children, while razing the village to the ground.

Muslim units from Korita, Mahmutović Rijeka and Orahovo attacked Čemerno in early hours on June 10, 1992.

During the attack on Čemerno, almost all residents were killed, and perpetrators had a clear order to destroy everything in the village.


SERBS FELT THREATENED AT THE BEGINNING OF THE WAR, BECAUSE THEY WERE SURROUNDED BY MUSLIMS

At the beginning of the war in BiH, the municipality of Ilijaš, like most local communities, was ethnically heterogeneous. Thus, some settlements within the municipality of Ilijaš were of mixed ethnic composition.

Čemerno was a Serb village, surrounded by the Muslim settlements, and according to the census from 1991, it had only 13 residents. However, due to the war events, a few Serbs from Breza, Okruglica and other places came to their homes or to their relatives.

The Serbs kept village guards in the village because they felt threatened, given that they were surrounded by Muslim settlements, according to the Atlas of Crimes Against Serbs in the Defense-Patriotic War, authored and published by the Republican Center for Research on War, War Crimes and the Search for Missing Persons.

Veliborka Trifković, who is originally from Čemerno, but lived with her husband in the neighboring village of Okruglica, states that Čemerno was surrounded by Muslim villages at the beginning of the war.

According to her, the Muslim villages were Mahmutović Rijeka, Orahovo and Slivno, with two to three Serb houses, as well as Korita and Okruglica, and the neighboring Serb village of Karaula had a slightly smaller Serb population.

Milivoje Era, who lived in Breza and was the president of the SDS Municipal Board, states that the situation in that municipality, after the multi-party elections, was difficult for Serbs, because it was a predominantly Muslim environment.

He says that the threats against him and his family were daily, which is why he sent his pregnant wife to Čemerno to live with her parents.


DISAPPEARANCE OF PERO BUNIJEVAC CAUSED FEAR AMONG SERBS IN ČEMERNO

In the Official Report of the Public Security Center /PSC/ of Istočno Sarajevo, it is stated that fear prevailed among the residents of Čemerno when Pero Bunijevac disappeared and has not been found to this day.

It was his disappearance that foreshadowed the fate of the inhabitants of Čemerno. In late May and early June, the flames of war spread more and more throughout BiH.

The criminal complaint filed by the Security Service Centre /SCS/ of Sarajevo states that on June 10, 1992, at five o'clock in the morning, members of the so-called territorial defense of BiH attacked the village of Čemerno and that on that occasion, using cruel methods - slaughter and torture - they killed all the villagers.

It became known after the death of the special platoon commander Osman Bajtarević that the attack on Čemerno was carefully prepared and that the residents of the neighboring villages of Korita, Mahmutović Rijeka and others played a major role in this action.

From the entries in his war diary, it is evident that the attack on Čemerno was prepared on June 8, and that it was considered difficult to carry out.

"The command issued an order to destroy the place Čemerno where four 120-millimeter cannons were located. The departure was on June 8 at 7:00 p.m. The task was given to the Second Platoon of the Second Company. We reached the first village around 8:00 p.m., where we waited for nightfall. There we counted ourselves. There were exactly 37 of us in number, dressed in uniforms. Night fell, so we moved on...", it is written in Bajtarević's diary.


MUSLIM PHALANXES HAD THE TASK TO EXTERMINATE SERBS IN ČEMERNO

Bajtarevic states that his group, in the attack on the village of Čemerno, had the task of destroying everything living, movable and immovable, houses, stables - pretty much everything that exists.

Petar Rašević, who was in charge of feeding the members of the Territorial Defense of the Serb Republic of BiH, went to the kitchen at around four o'clock on the critical morning, where he met Goran Bunjevac, who was wet, and offered him to change the clothes.

On June 13, 1992, members of the Republika Srpska Ministry of Interior wrote down his description of the attack by members of the so-called Territorial Defense of BiH on Čemerno.

"I immediately ran into my house and woke up the people in the house, and then woke up the people in the two neighboring houses. At that time, I saw that the enemy was coming from all sides, and that they had surrounded the village," Bunjevac said.

He and several villagers tried to reach the forest and saw gruesome scenes. According to his testimony, Zdravko Damjanović, who had a radio station, was captured first, followed immediately by Manojlo Đuka.

According to him, Muslim extremists gouged out Damjanović's eyes and pulled out Đuka's nails with pliers. Then they massacred both of them.

Bunjevac said that the criminals captured and slaughtered Novo Cvjetković, knocked sisters Ranka Damjanović and Radinka to the ground, stabbed them with bayonets about fifty times, and slaughtered their mother Spasenija next to them.

He testified that the perpetrators slaughtered and burned Ljubiša Lazendić, Miro Janković, and Miro Pantić.