Kermo: We are outraged and saddened, this is a humiliation for all victims

Dario Kordić, a war criminal serving a 25-year sentence in an Austrian prison for crimes in central Bosnia, particularly for the crimes in Ahmići on April 16, 1993, when more than a hundred Bosniak civilians were killed, will be released on Friday after serving two-thirds of his sentence.

Elvedin Kermo, president of the Association of Citizens Victims of War 92-95 “16 April” Ahmići, told the Bosnian news agency Patria that they are outraged by this decision of the Hague Tribunal.

- Let him not come near, let him not go near Ahmići. We are saddened and outraged. I saw it on the news today. Any comment is superfluous. It is sad – Kermo said.

This year, on April 16, the 21st anniversary of the suffering of Bosniaks in Ahmići, Vitez  and Donja Večeriska was marked.

Earlier, Kermo told Patria, when it was already mentioned that Kordić could be released, that it would be a humiliation for all victims, and the wounds would be reopened.

- Out of 25 years, he serves two-thirds and goes home. The saddest thing is that he is now a hero for the Croatian people who killed hundreds of Bosniaks in the Lašva Valley – Kermo said.

We remind you, the crime in Ahmići occurred in the early morning of April 16, 1993, during an attack by the special unit Jokers of the Croatian Defence Council (HVO), killing more than a hundred Bosniak civilians. The official website of the Association “16 April” lists 116 names of victims of the Ahmići massacre. Of that number, about 33 were women and children. The operation codenamed “48 hours of ash and smoke” also claimed the life of an 81-year-old woman, while the youngest victim was a baby only three months old. The massacre was uncovered by UN peacekeeping forces composed of the British army and Colonel Bob Stewart.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia ruled that the killings in Ahmići were a crime against humanity. According to the indictment transmitted by the UN, it is stated that during the attack, groups of HVO soldiers went from house to house killing and wounding Bosniak civilians, burning houses, barns and livestock behind them. This attack lasted several days and involved hundreds of HVO soldiers.
The night before the attack, Croats from those villages were evacuated. The HVO began the attack first from a distance by shelling Ahmići-Šantići, and then groups of soldiers went from house to house attacking civilians and their property, using incendiary tracer rounds and explosives. HVO soldiers burned almost every Bosniak house in Ahmići-Šantići, as well as two mosques.

For war crimes in Ahmići in 2000, five of the six Bosnian Croats were sentenced. Zoran Kupreškić was sentenced to ten years in prison, Mirjan Kupreških to eight, Vlatko Kupreškić to six, Drago Josipović to fifteen, and Vladimir Šantić to twenty-five years in prison. Dragan Papić was acquitted of all charges and the court ordered his immediate release.

The crime in Ahmići, the judges emphasized at the time, was not a combat operation but a planned and organized killing of Bosniak civilians. "What happened in that village on April 16, 1993, went down in history as one of the most horrific illustrations of inhumanity," the judges of the Hague Tribunal said.