OZREN VICTIMS MUST NOT BE FORGOTTEN - SYMBOL OF SERB SUFFERING

BANJA LUKA, SEPTEMBER 9 /SRNA/ - Republika Srpska will not accept the forgetting or silencing of the crimes committed against Serb soldiers and civilians in Ozren and Vozuća by mujahideen and members of the so-called Army of BiH, acting director of the Republika Srpska Research Centre of War, War Crimes and Tracing Missing Persons Viktor Nuždić said.

"We will not accept victims being divided into `important` and `less important` ones. We will not accept Serb victims being spoken about only when it suits someone politically. Ozren is a symbol of endurance, suffering, resistance and remembrance," Nuždić told SRNA on the occasion of the forthcoming commemoration marking 31 years since the suffering and expulsion of Serbs from the Krivaja Valley.

According to him, following the attack on the Vozuća area in September 1995, a large number of the Republika Srpska Army members and civilians were captured.

"In terms of the brutality and sadism of the crimes committed against Serb prisoners, members of the El Mujahideen Detachment particularly stood out. It was a unit composed of foreign Islamic extremists that had operated in BiH since 1993 and was de jure subordinate to the Third Corps of the so-called Army of BiH," Nuždić said.

Nuždić pointed out that there is extensive evidence of the severe abuse of Serb prisoners, including beatings, torture and killings.

"Captured members of the Republika Srpska Army were subjected to various forms of brutal abuse, including severe beatings and electric shocks, as well as being forced to kiss the severed heads of other prisoners," Nuždić said.

He said that testimonies, evidence and verdicts exist regarding these crimes, but that the outcome remains devastating and painful for the families of Serb victims.

Nuždić recalled that the Hague Tribunal sentenced Rasim Delić to three years in prison, while Sakib Mahmuljin was sentenced to eight years in prison, but that he will, by all indications, spend the rest of his life at liberty because the BiH judicial institutions were unable to ensure that he serve even this miserable sentence behind bars.

He noted that the Serbs of Ozren and Vozuća also suffered during World War II, but that even Ustasha crimes failed to erase the Serb presence in these areas.

"Our homes, cemeteries and Orthodox holy sites, which have preserved traces of our people for centuries, still bear witness to this today," Nuždić concluded.

The Paths of Exodus march will be held in Ozren tomorrow as part of the commemoration marking 31 years since the suffering and expulsion of Serbs from the Krivaja Valley.

The commemoration is being organised by the Zavidovići People Association in Doboj.

The mass suffering of the people of Vozuća took place from September 10 to 24, 1995, during an offensive by 23,000 Muslim soldiers from the Second and Third Corps of the so-called Army of BiH and the El Mujahideen Detachment, with the support of NATO forces.

The entire Serb population of the Krivaja Valley was expelled or killed, and 30 Serb villages were burned. A total of 1,920 families comprising 7,680 people were expelled, while 459 Serb soldiers and civilians were killed or brutally murdered. 129 people are still missing.

The fall of Vozuća marked the completion of the expulsion and ethnic cleansing of Serbs from the areas of the Zenica and Tuzla regions.