ATTACK ON RATKOVIĆI NEAR SREBRENICA WITH SHOUTS "ALLAHU AKBAR"

SREBRENICA, JULY 7 /SRNA/ - Milena Stanojević from Ratkovići near Srebrenica, one of the few who survived the brutal attack by Muslim forces on this Serb village at the end of June 33 years ago, testifies for SRNA that Muslims killed her husband Stanoje on their doorstep, and slaughtered her father Obren Bogićević in front of the house.

Stanojević said that she survived the attack, in which Muslim soldiers killed twenty-four Serbs, by sheer luck, because she fled to a nearby grove where she hid.

She said that on June 21, 1992, Muslims invaded the village and started shooting from all sides.

According to her testimony, when Muslim soldiers entered the village, they began slaughtering, looting, and burning everything they came across.

AMONG THE KILLED WERE SIX OLD WOMEN, WHO WERE MASSACRED

According to the book "Testimony about the Unpunished Crime against Serbs in Podrinje", those they found in their homes were killed and burned. The locals who managed to hide thanks to the dusk listened to the terrible screams of their relatives and neighbors.

Among the killed Serbs from Ratkovići were six elderly and sick women who were massacred by Muslim forces from Srebrenica and the surrounding area.

An example of Western propaganda and distortion of the truth is related to the photograph of Dragina Prodanović, from Ratkovići, with the skull of her murdered son Živan, whom she recognized by the damaged tooth, which was circulated around the world, but with the false caption that it was of a Bosniak woman!?

The few surviving Serbs recall that 33 years ago, at around 4:30 in the morning, shooting and banging of metal objects began from all sides around the village. They say they heard shouts of "Allahu Akbar", "Catch them alive", "Slaughter in order - save ammunition"...

Ratkovići was completely burned and destroyed on June 21, 1992. Thanks to the morning fog and good knowledge of the terrain, some of the residents managed to hide and escape certain death.

Tomislav Živanović, one of the few who survived the attack on Ratkovići, said that the village was attacked from all sides at around five in the morning and that he fired until he heard gunfire behind him.

Then, thanks to his knowledge of the terrain, he managed to escape the encirclement and avoid death while the village burned and the people were massacred in their homes.

HUNDRED HOUSES BEFORE THE WAR, NOW ONLY 15

Milan Stanojević, a resident of Ratkovići, also remembers that fateful June 21, 1992, when his brother Nikola was killed and his sister-in-law Radenka was wounded. In three days, she managed to escape through the forest to Fakovići in the Bratunac municipality and survive the massacre.

According to Stanojević, out of the pre-war hundred or so Serb houses in the local community of Ratkovići and around 300 residents, only 15 houses have been rebuilt with the help of the Government of Republika Srpska and the owners' own funds. Only one person lives permanently in the village, and occasionally a few more people, during the summer season.

The fact that a large village once existed here is evidenced by a few walls with chimneys that still defy time, from which trees have grown or which have not completely overgrown with bushes and spurs, a partially restored village cemetery, and a monument erected above the village to the fallen villagers.

NO PUNISHMENT FOR CRIMINALS

Every year at the end of June, a memorial service is held at the monument, to which families and neighbors of the murdered come from various parts of Republika Srpska and Serbia to pay their respects to the victims, show that they have not forgotten them, and await justice for the crime that was committed here, for which no one has been held accountable.

Ibro Jakubović and Huso Salihović were charged with war crimes against Serbs in Ratkovići, but the District Court in Bijeljina acquitted them, citing the "lack of reliable evidence" as the reason for the decision.

Representatives of the Veterans' Association and the Organization of Families of Captured and Killed Soldiers and Missing Civilians of Srebrenica point to the obstruction of the extra-constitutional Prosecutor's Office and the Court of BiH when it comes to cases of crimes against Serbs.

"Nothing changes when it comes to prosecuting the perpetrators of the crimes in Ratkovići and crimes against Serbs from Srebrenica in general. Just one more year of waiting for justice that never comes. It is a shame for the BiH judiciary that in 33 years no one has been punished for the murders of civilians in Ratkovići, as well as for other mass crimes committed against Serb civilians in the Srebrenica municipality, where Muslim forces began ethnic cleansing in April 1992, destroying and killing everything Serbian," Branimir Kojić, president of the Organization of Families of Captured, Missing and Killed Serbs, told SRNA.

He pointed out that the BiH judiciary and Western media and politics continue to unilaterally interpret the nature of the war in BiH in a biased and unfounded manner, accusing the Serbs of everything.

"Foreign journalists and agents even misused the photo of Dragina Prodanović from Ratkovići with the skull of her murdered son Živan, which she recognized by the damaged tooth and which went around the world, but they signed that it was a Bosniak woman, not a Serbian mother, which confirms the bias of the West when it comes to the attitude towards the victims of the war in BiH," recalls Kojić.

Relatives of the murdered civilians say they will never give up on proving the truth about the crimes committed in Ratkovići and other Srebrenica villages.

Serbian civilians were killed and massacred here, as in other Podrinje villages, which shows the genocidal intentions and the desire of the then Muslim forces and policies to erase traces of Serb existence in this area, as they destroyed everything Serbian, even cemeteries.

The residents of Ratkovići do not trust the judicial authorities of BiH and emphasize that only God's justice can reach the perpetrators of the crime. /to be continued/