25th anniversary of horrific crime at Korićanske stijene marked

Organised by the Association of Camp Inmates of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the 25th anniversary of the horrific crime against Bosniaks and Croats at Korićanske stijene was marked, reports the Patria agency.

A large number of family members of the killed, as well as surviving camp inmates, representatives of veterans' organisations and political parties, paid tribute to more than 200 killed Bosniaks and Croats.

Twenty-five years ago, at the Korićanske stijene site on Mount Vlašić, over 200 men, camp inmates, mostly Bosniaks who were imprisoned in the Prijedor camps, were shot, and on 21 August 1992, they were brought to this location.

- Here we exchange the dead for the dead and the living for the living - with these words, members of the intervention platoon of the RS police from Prijedor lined up the camp inmates at the edge of the abyss, ordered them to kneel and shot them in the back, after which the bodies of the camp inmates fell into a chasm over 300 metres deep. To ensure that no one would survive, they shot and threw bombs at the bodies in the abyss.

The massacre at Korićanske stijene was survived by 12 people whose testimonies contributed to the prosecution and punishment of some of those responsible, and to the truth about this crime being recorded. All victims of this crime have still not been found. Eighty percent of the skeletal remains are still being sought.

The bodies of the killed camp inmates were transferred and buried at other sites, as evidenced by footage from the Prijedor Public Security Service made on 4 September 1992, however, those responsible for this crime and those who participated in the transfer of the bodies (members of the RS police and Civil Protection from Skender Vakuf) still remain silent about the location of this mass grave.

For the crime at Korićanske stijene, before the ICTY and the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the following were sentenced: Darko Mrđa to 17 years in prison, Damir Ivanković to 14 years, Gordan Đurić to 8 years, Ljubiša Četić to 13 years, Zoran Babić to 22 years, Milorad Škrbić to 21 years, Dušan Janković to 21 years, Željko Stojnić to 15 years, Saša Zečević to 23 years, Marinko Lepoja to 23 years, and Radoslav Knežević to 23 years in prison.

In memory of the brutally killed camp inmates, those gathered threw 200 roses from the edge of the cliff.