NUŽDIĆ: SRPSKA WILL NEVER FORGET SERB VICTIMS OF SIJEKOVAC

BANJA LUKA, NOVEMBER 9 /SRNA/ – The fate of Milja Zečević symbolizes the suffering of Serb families in Sijekovac near Brod, which Republika Srpska will never forget, Viktor Nuždić, acting director of the Republic Center for Research of War, War Crimes and Search for Missing Persons, told SRNA.

Nuždić said Republika Srpska would never stay silent about the crimes committed in Sijekovac in 1992, nor allow the suffering of the Serb people to be pushed into oblivion.

"We ask for nothing more than truth and justice, but we will not accept anything less. A people that forgets its innocent victims risks losing part of its own historical memory. And it is our duty to make sure that never happens," Nuždić said.

He noted that the first mass crime of the war in BiH, in Sijekovac, came after the Croatian Army crossed the Sava River into Brod, singing Ustasha songs and shouting Ustasha slogans, just as had happened fifty years earlier.

"That scene was not just a prelude to war, but a painful reminder of the history of suffering of the Serb people, which, sadly, was repeating itself," Nuždić said.

He said nine Serb civilians had been killed in Sijekovac on March 26, 1992. They were killed on their doorsteps and in their own homes, where people should feel safest, where they should have lived, worked and raised their children, he said.

"Their only fault was that they were Orthodox Serbs. And it is precisely the fact that people were killed because of their name, faith and ethnicity that stands as the most terrible warning about an ideology of hatred that has once again raised its head," Nuždić said.

He said the tragedy of Milja Zečević, a woman who lost three sons and her husband, held a special place in collective memory.

"It is hard even to imagine the pain of a mother left without her three sons, without her family and support, without the loved ones who made up her world. Her fate is not just the personal tragedy of one woman and one family, but a symbol of the suffering of Serb families in Sijekovac and a testimony to a crime that must not be forgotten," Nuždić said.

He said Milja Zečević had become a symbol of a mother's suffering, but also of dignity and the strength to live with a loss that could never be made good.

"We can rightly call this a crime without punishment. How else can we describe the fact that for the killings, torture, abuse, looting, deportation to camps and destruction of the Zečević and Milošević families, the sentences handed down were so limited that only one man was held responsible for the full gravity of the crimes committed, and with a sentence of just 10 years in prison," Nuždić said.

He asked whether it was really possible that one man had planned, ordered and carried out all those atrocities. Who gave the orders, who took part in the crimes, who knew about them and who allowed the perpetrators to escape justice, he asked, adding that the victims' families and the Serb people had still not received answers to these questions.

Nuždić said the Republic Center for Research of War, War Crimes and Search for Missing Persons was continuously working to document and present the suffering of the Serb people.

"The crime in Sijekovac, like many other crimes against Serbs, has been included in the Atlas of Crimes Against Serbs, so that the facts about this suffering are preserved and made available to the public and to future generations," Nuždić said.

Milja Zečević will be buried today at 1 p.m. in Gornji Smrtići near Prnjavor, where the remains of her sons and husband are buried.

Her fourth son, who survived the massacre in Sijekovac, is also buried there.

Brod has declared a day of mourning to mark the death of Milja Zečević, a heroic mother.

Milja Zečević died on Saturday, November 7, aged 94. She died in the yard of her house, on the very spot where members of the HVO, the Croatian Army and paramilitary units had killed her sons and husband.

Milja Zečević had been awarded the Order of Miloš Obilić.