BiH JUDICIARY SILENT ON MASS ATROCITIES AGAINST SERBS IN FAKOVIĆI

BRATUNAC, OCTOBER 5 /SRNA/ - A memorial service was held today in Fakovići, near Bratunac, for 49 Serb victims from the village and its hamlets along the Drina River who were killed by Muslim forces 34 years ago.

Those gathered lit candles for the repose of the souls of the Serb civilians and soldiers who were killed, 25 of whom were killed on this day in 1992.

Delegations from the Municipality of Bratunac, the Bratunac Veterans' Organization and the Organization of Families of Captured and Fallen Soldiers and Missing Civilians from the municipality, the Birač Region Association of Former Camp Inmates, and the Bratunac-Srebrenica Association of Families of Missing Persons laid flowers at the memorial.

Zoran Gvozdenović, president of the Bratunac Veterans’ Organization, said that Muslim hordes from Srebrenica killed local residents, mostly civilians, in Fakovići and the surrounding hamlets. Most of the victims were buried in Bajina Bašta, Serbia, because the ongoing fighting made it impossible to bury them in the village cemetery in Fakovići.

"Here, Srebrenica's Muslims committed mass atrocities against the Serb population, killing and destroying everything they could. This must never be forgotten. We will pay tribute to the fallen and tell younger generations who killed them, and we will not give up our search for justice and accountability for this crime," Gvozdenović said.

He stressed that the memorial to those killed, located in the cemetery in Fakovići, was built as a lasting remembrance of the Serb victims from the village.

"The memorial bears the names of 49 fallen soldiers and civilians from Fakovići and the surrounding area who were killed during the Defensive-Patriotic War, 25 of whom were killed on this day in 1992," Gvozdenović said.

Stanoje Prokić took part in the fighting on that fateful day. He said that Serb villages along the Drina, from Žlijebac to Tegare, were attacked and that the only way for civilians to escape was to flee across the Drina. Many did not make it to the river because they were killed in their homes or while retreating toward the Drina.

Around 200 Serb homes were looted and burned down in Fakovići during the last war, about one-third of which have still not been rebuilt.

On October 5, 1992, following a morning attack on the village of Magašići, northwest of Bratunac, Muslim forces from Srebrenica and nearby villages shifted the focus of their operation to the other end of the Bratunac municipality, toward the Serb village of Fakovići, where they launched an incursion, killing everyone they could.

Unlike in the other villages they attacked in the early hours of the morning, the attackers changed their tactics in Fakovići and launched the attack at noon, when a massacre took place and captured and killed villagers were burned.

This continued the ethnic cleansing of the Serb population from the Podrinje region, which had begun in April that year and continued in the following months through the persecution, killings, and looting of everything belonging to Serbs in the municipalities of Bratunac and Srebrenica.

After Magašići, Zagon, Loznica, Gniona, Osretak, Vijogor, Ratkovići, Brežani, Zalazje, Sase, Krnjići, Podravanje and numerous Serb hamlets in the municipalities of Bratunac and Srebrenica, Muslim forces moved down to Fakovići in an attempt to reach the Drina, destroy the Serb population and property, and cut Bratunac and Skelani off from other parts of Republika Srpska.

Twenty-five local residents were killed, most of whom were burned and mutilated. The oldest victim was 82-year-old Danilo Đurić, whose remains have still not been found.

The local population found safety by fleeing toward the Drina River and neighboring Serbia.

As in previous incursions and massacres in Serb villages, after killing local residents, members of the Muslim armed forces looted movable property and burned down Serb homes and other property in Fakovići.