Collective Funeral Prayer in Bratunac: Six-Month-Old Almera to Be Buried Next to Her Mother Zineta

(Patria) - The remains of five victims of the past war are ready for burial following a collective funeral prayer to be held on May 12 at the Memorial Complex and Martyrs' Cemetery "Veljaci" in Bratunac.

These are victims of Bosniak nationality who were killed in 1992 in the areas of Bratunac and Ilijaš, with their remains exhumed in later years in Bratunac, Srebrenica, and Ilijaš. The remains of one victim to be buried this year in Bratunac were handed over by the Commission for Missing Persons of Serbia to the Institute for Missing Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The youngest victim to be buried this year is baby Paraganlija Almera. She was only six months old when she was killed in May 1992 together with her mother Zineta Paraganlija (1958). The remains of mother and daughter were found 29 years later during an exhumation carried out at the Joševa site in October 2021.

Final peace will also be found this year by Salkić (Hameda) Hamdija, born in 1971 in Hranča near Bratunac. He was only 21 years old when he went missing in the Ahatovići area in May 1992. His remains were identified in September last year, and he will be buried 33 years after being killed.

This year, following the collective funeral prayer, the remains of Mevludin (Ejub) Šehić will also be buried. He was born in 1958 in Dimnići, Srebrenica municipality. He went missing in 1992 in the Bratunac area, and his remains were handed over by the Commission for Missing Persons of Serbia to the Institute for Missing Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina in July last year. The handover was carried out based on the Protocol on Cooperation in Searching for Missing Persons between the Government of Serbia and the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the Working Rules and Procedures for the Implementation of the Protocol of the Commission for Missing Persons of Serbia and the Institute for Missing Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The oldest victim to be buried this year is thirty-eight-year-old Džemal (Selmo) Pitarević from Srebrenica. He went missing in October 1992, and his remains were found in three different graves at three different locations: at the Žanjevo site during exhumations carried out in 2018 and 2023, and at the Miholjevine site in 2020.