Who are the criminals the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina will sentence next week: Bosniaks collected money for food for Pantelić

My colleagues and I gave blood for the sick mother of Ljupko Tasić just before the start of the Serbian aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina; we wanted to help, the woman had a tumor and was lying in the hospital in Foča.

I was surprised that Ljupko later forgot all the kindness that Bosniaks had shown to him and his family. When the Chetniks started killing in Višegrad in 1992, he became one of the biggest criminals in this town – says Bakira Hasečić, president of the Association “Woman – Victim of War”, for the Bosnian news agency Patria. The association represents women from Bosnia and Herzegovina who experienced various forms of torture during the Serbian aggression. And there are, she says, thousands of such women throughout the country.

The association also helps prosecutors and courts in the country more easily reach suspects for war crimes, as well as in collecting material when filing the indictment itself. She says that precisely when the indictment against Tasić was filed several years ago, some of the Association's documents were of crucial importance.

The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina will next week pronounce a verdict against Tasić for war crimes committed in Višegrad from 1992, as well as in surrounding places. Together with him, the Court will also pronounce sentences against Predrag Milisavljević and Miloš Pantelić, who are also charged with violations of the laws of war.

They were tried for the most horrific crimes committed against Bosniaks in Višegrad and surrounding areas during the Serbian aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina. According to conducted investigations and witness statements, they killed, raped, and abused hundreds of Bosniaks in the most monstrous ways. At the beginning of the aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina, these victims were first imprisoned in the local police station or other locations, tortured, and then killed or burned alive.

You know, says Bakira, the most important thing of all is that the criminals now receive that epithet of being criminals, because the association wants all future generations to see that justice is attainable and that misdeeds will be punished sooner or later.

Before the war, Bakira had contacts with the families of the other two criminals: Predrag Milisavljević and Miloš Pantelić.

- Predrag was my neighbor; we knew each other very well. His father worked with my father. My aunt lived with her family in the building where he lived. I was constantly in contact with him – says Hasečić.

- My cousin Mustafa, who lived just one floor below Predrag and even grew up with him, was first abused and then killed. Predrag's first neighbor Jasmina, who lived door to door with him, was also taken away. Other Bosniaks from the building where Predrag lived were also taken and killed, as well as other Bosniaks from the neighborhood.

She also knows the third defendant, Miloš Pantelić, whom the court will also sentence next week for crimes committed in Višegrad.

- Pantelić and his family lived very poorly; they were poor, and the neighbors often helped them survive. On one occasion, we collected money for them to renovate the dilapidated house they lived in. But when the conflicts started, he forgot all that; he was one of the most prominent criminals who killed Bosniaks – says Hasečić, writes NAP.