DRAGANA ILIĆ'S CLOSEST RELATIVES WERE KILLED BY MUSLIM SOLDIERS IN THE ATTACK ON FAKOVIĆI

BRATUNAC, JULY 12 /SRNA/ - Dragana Ilić testifies that her father Radomir, uncle Radoje, aunt Slavka, several relatives and grandfather Danilo Đurić were killed in an attack by Muslim forces on the Bratunac village of Fakovići 33 years ago.

"Muslim armed forces under the command of Naser Orić killed all the Serbs who arrived in Fakovići on October 5, 1992, looted and burned the village. Countless statements and testimonies were given, but unfortunately, no one was held accountable for the crime and the killings of civilians, and this injustice especially hurts the families of the victims," Ilić pointed out.

Muslim hordes from Srebrenica killed 25 locals, mostly civilians, in Fakovići and surrounding hamlets on that fateful October day in 1992. Most of those killed were burned and massacred. The oldest victim was 82-year-old Danilo Đurić, whose remains have not yet been found.

In Fakovići and the surrounding area, 49 Serbs were killed during the last war, and around 200 Serbian houses were looted and burned, a third of which have not been rebuilt yet.

On October 5, 1992, Muslim forces from Srebrenica and nearby villages, after a morning attack on the village of Magašići, northwest of Bratunac, directed the focus of their attack to the other end of the Bratunac municipality, towards the Serb village of Fakovići, where they raided, killing everyone they came across, according to the book "Testimony about the Unpunished Crime against Serbs in Podrinje".

Unlike other villages, which they raided at dawn, the enemies changed tactics in Fakovići and carried out the attack at noon, when a massacre occurred and the captured and killed villagers were burned.

This continued the ethnic cleansing of the Serb population from the area of the Middle Podrinje region, which began in April of that year and continued in the following months with persecution, murders and looting of everything Serbian in the Bratunac and Srebrenica municipalities.

After Magašići, Zagoni, Loznica, Gniona, Osretko, Vijogor, Ratkovići, Brežani, Zalazje, Sase, Krnjići, Podravanje and many Serb hamlets in the Bratunac and Srebrenica municipalities, Muslim forces descended to Fakovići to reach the Drina River, completely destroying the Serb people and property, cutting off Bratunac and Skelani from the rest of Republika Srpska.

The population found salvation by retreating towards the Drina River and neighboring Serbia.

As during previous raids and massacres in Serb villages, members of the Muslim armed forces, after killing the locals, looted movable and burned immovable Serb property in Fakovići.

No one has yet been held accountable for the crime against Serb civilians in Fakovići, nor for the other numerous crimes committed against Serbs in the Middle Podrinje region.

Most of those killed in Fakovići were buried in Bajina Bašta in Serbia because due to the fighting, it was not possible to bury them at the village cemetery.

In 2023, a monument was built and unveiled in the cemetery in Fakovići to permanently commemorate the Serb victims from this village. /to be continued/