April is always particularly difficult for the Bosniaks of Semberija: Bijeljina was a prelude to crimes across BiH and genocide in Srebrenica

For NAP writes: Mustafa Gradaščević, Deputy Speaker of the Bijeljina City Assembly

By reciting Fatiha and laying flowers at the Selimovići martyrs' cemetery, Semberija Bosniaks commemorate April 2nd, the Day of Civilian Victims of the War in Bijeljina, every year. April days in Bijeljina are days of remembrance, sadness, and grief for our fellow citizens who were innocently killed at the beginning of the aggression against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The April events in Bijeljina were a dress rehearsal and a prelude to what would later happen across Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The list of those killed in Bijeljina and Janja shows the extent of ethnic cleansing in our region, where there was no war, no combat operations, and the front line was far away. Can those who deny the crimes at least ask themselves now - who then killed so many people and expelled many more, and why? If the truth was not clear to them then, is it now?

The first days of April in Bijeljina evoke dread, sadness, pain, and a sense of injustice. April for the Bosniaks of Semberija is always and repeatedly a reminder of the beginning of the exodus from these areas. Mass killings, persecution, taking people to camps, torture and abuse, destruction of mosques, looting of Bosniak property...

On March 31, 1992, the 27th night of Ramadan, the armed rampage of Arkan's killers and their local helpers began, which culminated on April 2nd and ended by Bajram. In the bloody campaign of the perpetrators, at least a hundred civilians were killed. During the years of aggression against our homeland, 1992-1995, the persecution of Bosniaks continued in the area of Bijeljina and Janja, and by the end of the war, according to reliable, but incomplete data, nearly 300 civilians were killed. 35,000 Bosniaks, Albanians, and Roma were expelled.

At the last session of the Bijeljina City Assembly, I submitted an initiative for the city administration to find a location in the city center where a monument to the civilian victims of Bijeljina from 1992-1995 would be built. Unfortunately, all councilors from the Serb people were against the initiative. This is proof that Bijeljina, as well as the Serb people in Bosnia, are not ready to face their unfortunately dark past, meaning they are not ready to go through catharsis. If we were a normal society, which we are not, we wouldn't have to debate these issues at all - I said at the Assembly session.

It is shameful and devastating that Bijeljina has monuments and street names dedicated to war criminals, butchers, and the greatest war monsters. Bijeljina has a square and a monument to Draža Mihailović, and a street named after Arkan's Guard, which committed the greatest atrocities and crimes in Bijeljina in early April 1992.

And finally, as things stand, there is no justice for the killed and expelled Bosniaks of Semberija. And if, by any chance, an investigation was launched against someone, as was the last case with Vojkan Đurković, the organizer of the expulsion of 35,000 Semberija Bosniaks, after some time the investigation is suspended due to "lack of evidence". The prosecution has no evidence despite thousands of living Bosniaks whom Đurković expelled to this day. The same case was with one of the commanders of the infamous Batković camp - Đoko Pajić. Lack of evidence!

The way the authorities of Bijeljina and the smaller Bosnian-Herzegovinian entity treat the murdered Bosniaks is no better than their treatment of those who survived and returned to their homes. Systemic and institutional discrimination is a daily reality for us who live in an area that arose as a consequence of the aggression against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and as a result of what the prosecution "lacks evidence" for.