SERBS FROM BREŽANI STILL WAIT FOR JUSTICE TO CATCH CRIMINALS

SREBRENICA, JULY 5 /SRNA/ - Mileva Rankić survived the attack by Muslim forces on the Srebrenica village of Brežani 33 years ago, but was left without her sons - twenty-year-old Miroslav and twenty-two-year-old Dragoslav, as well as her husband Milisav.

"They killed my children and husband here. We are lighting candles for their souls. They were killed by Naser Orić's army. They attacked, killed everyone they could find, robbed, burned everything down and no one did anything. No one is held accountable for so many people killed in their homes. Where is the justice and what are the courts doing?" asks this old woman.

Mileva has lost faith in justice and expects that those who killed her husband and sons on her doorstep will be met with divine justice instead of earthly injustice.

"Years had passed, and no one reacts and no one is held accountable for the murder of my daughter and the children of many Serbian women," says this mother.

In the Srebrenica village of Brežani, Muslim forces from Srebrenica and the surrounding area killed 32 Serbian civilians, 18 of them on the fateful June 30, 1992. Although a horrific crime was committed against the Serb people here, no one has yet been held accountable, which is a great shame for the BiH judiciary.

The victims were killed in the most brutal manner on their doorsteps. Some were killed, or rather burned, while sleeping in their homes.

This is one in a series of crimes without punishment, committed against the Serbs of this region as part of the planned ethnic cleansing and destruction of everything Serbian in this area, which the Muslim political and military leadership continuously carried out in the middle Podrinje.

Each year at the end of June, surviving members of the Rankić, Josipović and Milošević families visit the memorial plaques to their family members erected at the place where they were killed, a few hundred meters before the central monument where the memorial service is held.

Dragislav, Miroslav and Milisav Rankić, Ljubomir and Ljubiša Josipović, and Vidoje Milošević were killed there, and their remains were found, while 88-year-old Stanko Milošević has not yet been found.

The youngest victim of the massacre was 15-year-old Ljubomir Josipović. Among those killed were five women.

Muslims from Srebrenica nailed Vidoje Lazić to a cross in the middle of the village, and burned his eighty-year-old mother Dostana and his blind sister Kristina alive in their house.

Milorad Marjanović, who was in the village when the attack took place at 4:30 a.m., said that they attacked from all sides and killed everyone they could reach, and only those who managed to get to the forest and undergrowth survived.

"It was terrible. We were woken up by shells from Osmač that fell around the houses. There was shooting from all sides. The shooting, screaming, shouting, noise and banging various objects created an unbearable noise. They broke into houses and slaughtered, killed or burned people alive. They killed and burned civilians in their houses," Marjanović recalls.

He pointed out that Muslims under the command of Naser Orić invaded the village on June 30, 1992, killing, looting, burning, and no one was held accountable, which is a shame for the BiH judiciary, the Hague Tribunal and the entire world, according to the book " Testimony about the Unpunished Crime against Serbs in Podrinje".

"We restored the monument and wrote on new memorial plaques the history of the suffering of our village so that the younger generation knows and so that the victims are not forgotten, to pass on to the young so that they do not experience the same fate and suffering, because every year in Potocari, Muslim religious leaders call for revenge, saying `let revenge be justice', and they do not convict anyone for crimes against Serbs," Marjanović emphasizes.

That day, Milovan Milošević lost his nineteen-year-old son Vidoje and his father Stanko, who was 88 years old. Due to the consequences of being wounded that day, he can barely move with the help of crutches.

The President of the Brežani Local Community Council Milan Rankić told SRNA that out of 70 pre-war houses in Brežani, 30 have been rebuilt and that out of 350 pre-war residents, only about thirty has returned and are living in the village.

"The village suffered in both world wars, mostly in the last Defense-Patriotic War. Everything was destroyed, and no one was held accountable, nor will they be before the judiciary of BiH. We trust in God's justice, and it is slowly catching up with the criminals," said Milan.

While protecting civilians, he was one of the few men who managed to escape from the Muslim encirclement, and his uncle and two sons were killed alongside him.

Milan emphasized that there are no children in the village and that only elderly people live there.

Survivors say that the criminals captured and took away some locals alive and that they are still listed as missing.

Despite all efforts and searches, the remains of Stanko Milošević and the deaf-mute Dostana and Krstina Lazić have never been found, nor has anyone been held accountable for the crime in this and other Serb villages in the Srebrenica municipality.

The president of the Organization of Families of Captured and Killed Soldiers and Missing Civilians of Srebrenica Branimir Kojić said that the crime in the largest Serb village in Srebrenica was committed by Muslim neighbors from neighboring villages and from Srebrenica, and that it is unacceptable that no one has yet been held accountable.

"For the BiH judiciary and the Hague Tribunal, Serbs are second-class victims. They belittle us and our families. It is pointless to talk about it anymore, but we will never give up the fight for the truth and for the accountability of the criminals," Kojić stressed.

He said that Muslim units killed children, the elderly and women and that a village with about seventy villagers was attacked by more than a thousand soldiers, which speaks of clear genocidal intentions to destroy everything Serbian and erase all traces of Serbian existence.

Kojić said that another 49 Serbs from the Srebrenica municipality, three of whom are from Brežane, are listed as missing. /to be continued/