Funeral in Vlasenica: No one to lower the coffin of seven-year-old Edis into the grave

A collective funeral for five victims from this area, killed during ethnic cleansing in the Vlasenica region in 1992, will be held today at the Rakita Martyrs' Cemetery in Vlasenica, reports the Patria News Agency.

This is the 12th collective burial of victims killed in the past war in the Vlasenica area.

Among the victims to be buried are 7-year-old Edis Hajdarević, 17-year-old Dijan Dragić, 34-year-old Salko Merić, Sakib Saračević, and Duda Dautović. All of them were killed in May and June 1992.

Neighbors will lower the coffin with Edis's body into the grave, as there is no one from his family. His father and grandfather were killed along with him, and his mother died in the Cerska area.

The victims were exhumed from the Ogradice mass grave. Since this grave was opened in 2003, the remains of 232 victims have been found, including 112 complete and 120 incomplete bodies. So far, 155 have been identified.

Nearly 2,600 residents of Vlasenica were killed in the genocide, including as many as 265 children.

Only three convicted for crimes

Only three individuals have been convicted for war crimes. Dragan Nikolić Jenki was convicted at The Hague, while Predrag Bastah, known as Car, and Goran Višković, known as Vjetar, were convicted before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Veljko Bašić, the former warden of the Sušica camp, through which over 8,000 Bosniaks passed, was acquitted by the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina due to old age.