MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR 24 SERBS KILLED IN KRNJIĆI TOMORROW

SREBRENICA, JULY 4 /SRNA/ – A memorial service will be held tomorrow in the village of Krnjići in Srebrenica for 24 Serb civilians and soldiers, 17 of whom were killed on July 5, 1992, in an attack by Muslim forces on this village.

The memorial service will be held at 12:00 in the churchyard of the Church of St. Prophet Elijah in Krnjići.

Surviving family members of the victims, along with delegations from the municipality and organisations stemming from the war from Srebrenica, will lay flowers at the memorial plaque located in the churchyard, which was erected with the support of the War Veterans Organisation and the Republika Srpska Government.

The head of the Organisation of Families of Captured, Killed Soldiers and Missing Civilians of Srebrenica, Branimir Kojić, told SRNA that participants in the gathering will once again draw public attention to the suffering of Podrinje Serbs, which has been ignored for years by the Prosecutor’s Office and the Court of BiH, thereby contributing to impunity.

"This obstruction leads to witnesses dying or disappearing, while perpetrators remain free citizens awaiting old age," Kojić said.

He pointed to discriminatory treatment by the BiH judiciary toward Serb victims, which through its biased work and double standards aim to rewrite history.

"Through dominance in the BiH judiciary and with the help of pro-Bosniak foreign judges, Bosniaks are continuously working to create a false version of history that suits only them, which is opposite to the truth, disgusting, unprofessional, shameful, and disgraceful," Kojić emphasized.

He recalled that Muslim forces from Srebrenica began ethnic cleansing in April 1992 and continued pursuing genocidal aims, destroying everything with Serb prefix and committing numerous mass crimes against civilians in Serb-populated villages.

On July 5, 1992, they raided peaceful Serb village of Krnjići and killed all residents they encountered, most of whom were elderly civilians.

Among the victims was, among others, the immobile retired village teacher Vaso Parača, whose body was burned in the fire set in his house by his former students.

Some victims were found mutilated and in an advanced state of decomposition more than 15 days after the killings.

In addition to the burned teacher Vaso, those killed included school director Rade Trimanović, elderly woman Soka Vujić, and priest Boban Lazarević, who was killed while performing a religious service.

As in other Serb villages around Srebrenica, all movable property was looted and immovable property destroyed in order to erase traces of Serb presence in the area.

During this campaign aimed at ethnic cleansing, Muslim formations had previously destroyed Serb villages such as Gniona, Gostilj, Studenac, Viogor, Kovačice, Osredak, Čumaviće, Orahovica, Pećišta, Bojna, Karno, and several villages in the Osat area during May and June 1992.

Villages including Ratkovići, Brežani, and a dozen other hamlets in the Srebrenica municipality were also destroyed, as well as Loznica, Zagoni, and several villages in the Bratunac municipality.

Muslim forces killed Serb civilians who were unable to escape.

No one has been held accountable for the crimes in Krnjići, nor for numerous mass crimes against Serbs in Central Podrinje committed by Muslim forces from Srebrenica under the command of Naser Orić.