OSTOJIĆ: WE PRAY THAT THE HAND OF GOD’S JUSTICE REACH CRIMINALS

TUZLA, MAY 15 /SRNA/ - The president of the Republika Srpska Veterans' Organization Radan Ostojić said today that Serbs who traveled to Tuzla to mark the 33rd anniversary of the killing of JNA soldiers at Brčanska Malta were searched as if they were terrorists, and that the heavy police presence shows just how “welcome” they are in what is supposedly an open city.

Ostojić emphasized that they came to commemorate the killing of 54 JNA soldiers in the Tuzla Convoy on May 15, 1992, armed only with a single rose and a candle they wished to light.

"We'll have to take those back with us so they don't get thrown away. The buses were searched at Banj Brdo as if we were terrorists," Ostojić told reporters.

He said they had come to a supposedly open city, free and welcoming to all people of goodwill, yet were met with a conspicuous police presence deployed for security.

"This is some modern form of openness and freedom that I don't understand, and from that, one can conclude just how welcome we are," Ostojić emphasized, adding that they will come again next year.

He pointed out that the scenario under which the recent war and all previous wars in the 20th century were conducted did not foresee justice for Serbian victims, and that justice for what happened in the Tuzla Convoy will probably never come.

"We pray to God that the hand of God's justice, that no one can escape, reach all criminals," Ostojić said.

He added that despite everything, they came to send messages of peace, which are expressed daily from Republika Srpska, while from Sarajevo come messages about some special units that are supposedly to be sent to Republika Srpska to bring order.

"We will not send our children to impose order in Tuzla, Zenica, or Sarajevo because we believe that the people who live there should do that themselves, while we will maintain order in our cities in Srpska," Ostojić emphasized.

According to him, the future in BiH should be built based on historical facts.

Slavko Novaković, a surviving participant of the Tuzla Convoy, called on the authorities in Tuzla to allow the construction of a monument at the site where JNA soldiers were killed in the Tuzla Convoy.

"I urge the institutions of BiH to finally prosecute this case and bring those responsible to justice," Novaković said, noting that even after 33 years, he still comes to Brčanska Malta under police protection.

On May 15, 1992, Muslim forces attacked a JNA convoy in Tuzla, which, based on a previously reached agreement, was supposed to peacefully withdraw from the Tuzla barracks.

During the attack, 54 JNA soldiers were killed, 78 wounded, and 44 captured, of whom five were later killed, while the others were tortured and mistreated.