Oborci near Donji Vakuf: Bosniaks and Croats served as slaves throughout the war, then brutally killed

Twenty years ago, Chetniks executed 24 Bosniaks and four Croats in Oborci near Donji Vakuf, whom they had previously used as slaves for digging trenches, as well as for other difficult and dangerous physical labor.

The anniversary of their killings was marked on Sunday, and the families of the murdered reminded that no one has been held accountable for the monstrous murders to this day.

Survivors testify that the captured Bosniaks and Croats were killed by Boroja and Tanasić, both from Donji Vakuf, writes the Patria news agency.

Throughout the entire aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina, the prisoners were slaves to the Serb forces; they were taken to do the hardest work, dug trenches on the front lines, and the day before the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina liberated Komar and Oborci on the way to Donji Vakuf, the Chetniks took them out in groups from the building of the former railway station and shot them across the street in the schoolyard.

Only Mehmed Heremić, who testifies about the crimes of that time today, escaped from that group.

The name of the Chetnik unit to which the two executioners, Nenad Tanasić and Tihomir Boraja, belonged is known. Oborci was in the zone of responsibility of the First Krajina Corps of the Army of Republika Srpska. It is known who commanded this Corps, and the masterminds who ordered the execution of innocent people must also be known. Those in Mrkonjić-Grad who mobilized these men must be known, as must those who guarded them, and then left them to the killers to murder them. Unfortunately, there is still no justice, twenty years after the crime.

Raza Heremić, whose husband Adem was killed, as well as Aiša Dedić, whose husband Mehmed was killed, and several other relatives – went to the Court in Sarajevo in vain, called by phone even on Friday, September 11th of this year, but the answer is always the same – the crime in Oborci has not yet come up for trial.

Smajo Kaharević, whose brother Fejzulah was shot by the Chetniks, says that the Serb authorities have bought the silence of some of the closest relatives of certain murdered individuals with money, which further slows down the prosecution of the criminals.

In front of the old railway station building in Oborci, where the murdered were housed, and from where they were taken out in groups and shot, a Patria news agency reporter met a local imam. He says that no one invited him to the grave and the recitation of the Mevlud, and an uninvited guest's place is behind the door.

A beautiful new mosque has now been built next to the former railway station building.

One of the imams at the Mevlud – who is also the vice-president of the Association of Prisoners of BiH – promised that a monument to the murdered will be erected in the schoolyard, because the right place for a monument to the innocently killed is where their innocent blood was shed. The money for this has already been secured.