MINIĆ: THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR CRIMES AGAINST SERBS FROM OZREN MUST BE PUNISHED

BANJA LUKA, SEPTEMBER 10 /SRNA/ – Republika Srpska Prime Minister Savo Minić has stressed that the Republika Srpska institutions are demanding that those responsible for crimes committed against Serbs from the Vozuća area, the Krivaja River valley, and southern and western Ozren in 1995 be punished.

Minić recalled that Minister of Labour, War Veterans and Disabled Persons Protection Radan Ostojić is taking part today in the Trails of Exodus march, which symbolically commemorates 1995, when the Serb population of Vozuća and the surrounding area was expelled from its centuries-old homes.

"The Republika Srpska institutions must be, and are, standing alongside the families of those killed and missing," Minić said.

He pointed out that 31 years have passed, yet the search continues for 129 Serb soldiers and civilians.

"Few have been held accountable for these crimes; even those who have, such as Sakib Mahmuljin, are not serving their sentences but are walking free, who knows at which resorts in Turkey. We are not seeking revenge. We are seeking the missing to be found, those responsible to be punished, and the memory of the heroes who suffered the most horrific fate to be preserved," Minić posted on X.

Vozuća Serbs were expelled from their centuries-old homes during an offensive by the so-called Army of BiH, conducted under the code names "Hurricane," "Farz," and "Badr el-Bosna".

The mass suffering of the Vozuća people occurred from September 10 to 24, 1995, as a result of an offensive involving 23,000 Muslim soldiers from the Second and Third Corps of the so-called Army of BiH and the El Mujahideen Detachment, as well as NATO bombing supported by its rapid-reaction units and a Pakistani contingent of international peacekeeping forces.

More than 30 Serb villages were burned, 1,920 Serb families comprising 7,680 people were expelled, and 459 Republika Srpska Army soldiers and civilians were killed, while the whereabouts of many others remain unknown.

The fall of Vozuća brought an end to the ethnic cleansing of Serbs from the Zenica and Tuzla regions.