MARKING 34 YEARS SINCE MUSLIM ATTACK ON AMBULANCE TO BE HELD ON TRANSFIGURATION DAY

LOPARE, AUGUST 17 /SRNA/ – A memorial service for fallen members of the Republika Srpska Army will be held at the Grabik site in the village of Jablanica near Lopare on Wednesday, August 19, marking 34 years since Muslim forces ambushed and attacked an ambulance transporting wounded soldiers with an “OSA” anti-tank rocket launcher.

The memorial service will be held at noon, followed by the laying of flowers.

A clean-up campaign was recently organised at Grabik around the memorial to the fallen soldiers and the area around the burned-out ambulance, where a serious war crime against Republika Srpska Army members was committed in 1992.

On the day of the Transfiguration of the Lord, August 19, 1992, members of the so-called Army of BiH ambushed and attacked an ambulance transporting wounded soldiers to the Lopare hospital.

After opening fire with infantry weapons and firing a rocket from an "OSA" launcher, the driver Božidar Abadžić, medic Vojislav Janković, wounded soldier Radomir Mićić and seriously ill soldier Vladan Božić were burned alive inside the vehicle.

Head of the Lopare War Veterans Organisation Risto Radić previously told SRNA that the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH had ignored a criminal complaint concerning the war crime committed by the so-called Army of BiH against four members of the Republika Srpska Army who were in an ambulance when killed on August 19, 1992, on Mount Majevica.

He stressed that the ambulance was completely burnt down in the attack and that the bodies of the fallen members of the Republika Srpska Army were nearly completely burned and charred beyond recognition.

"No action has yet been taken on the criminal complaint filed with the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH ten years ago against the perpetrators and those who ordered this war crime," Radić said.

A memorial drinking fountain and memorial house have been erected at the site, while the remains of the "Pinzgauer" ambulance were initially protected and painted. However, over the years it has again been exposed to corrosion and deterioration because it was burned.

"This vehicle was burned, and its further protection could possibly be done by sandblasting, but that would not produce any long-term results. That is what people who work in this trade have told us," Radić explained.

The Republika Srpska Research Centre of War, War Crimes and TRacing Missing Persons has called on the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH to finally do its job and ensure that those responsible for this brutal crime are brought to justice.
"Only in this way will the dignity of the victims be restored and it will be shown that the law applies equally to everyone," said Viktor Nuždić, Centre’s acting director.