Sharp reactions to RTRS report on Tuzla Gate massacre

(Patria) - RTRS on Monday published a report in its central news broadcast stating that a grenade from the Army of Republika Srpska from Ozren did not explode at Tuzla Gate in 1995, but that it was a "simultaneous terrorist explosion and seven coordinated detonations."

"This is stated in the report by international experts who conducted simulations in Nikinci (Serbia)," RTRS reported, according to the Patria agency. 

"As many as 27 victims from Tuzla Gate can be conditionally designated as potential suicide bombers, as it was judicially determined that they lost their lives due to a close explosive impact," said Ilija Branković, who is identified as the head of the international expert team.

Branković stated that the experts from the team analyzed all terrorist attacks worldwide from 1950 to 2016, and that the event in Tuzla most closely matches the attack carried out in 1996 on a US military base in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, which killed 17 Americans and injured more than 70.

Referring to the same report, RTRS states that based on this fact, the real perpetrator of the attack on Tuzla Gate could be identified, emphasizing that Mahmud Abu Abdul Aziz, whom RTRS identifies as the founder of the El-mujahideen detachment in BiH, was arrested for the attack on the aforementioned base.

"It is completely clear, and based on other operational findings, that it happened by Bosniaks and that they carried out the attack on their own people in order to accuse Serbs at that moment, which would then provoke NATO intervention," said Milorad Kojić, director of the Center for Research of War Crimes of Republika Srpska.

Novak Đukić, commander of the Army of Republika Srpska convicted for the crimes at Tuzla Gate, said that his name should also be on the monument to those killed at Tuzla Gate, because, as he stated, he is also a victim of that crime.

The Kapija massacre, also known as the Crime against Tuzla Youth, is one of the most severe crimes committed against the civilians of Tuzla, which occurred on May 25, 1995. 
The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina concluded that Đukić, as commander of the Tactical Group "Ozren" of the Army of Republika Srpska, ordered the artillery unit to shell the city of Tuzla on May 25, 1995, which resulted in the massacre at "Kapija." In June 2014, the Court of BiH reduced Đukić's sentence from 25 to 20 years in prison, and his defense attorney informed the Court a few days later that the convicted person was undergoing treatment in Serbia. An arrest warrant for Đukić was issued in October 2014 because he did not respond to the summons to serve his sentence, after which Serbia was asked to take over the verdict. The High Court in Belgrade has so far postponed the hearing at which the takeover of the execution of the 20-year prison sentence should be considered. 

The court in Belgrade last postponed the start of proceedings against Novak Đukić after his lawyer stated that he was hospitalized due to "psychological problems."

Columnist Dragan Bursać reacted to the RTRS report with a column titled "The criminal wants his name engraved at Tuzla Gate."

Blogger Srđan Puhalo reacted with a satirical tweet: "If I understood correctly, the authorities from Republika Srpska, out of the 35,000 Bosniak civilians killed in the last war, 5,000 were killed by Croats, 3,000 by Serbs, and 27,000 by Bosniaks"!

The Mayor of Tuzla, Jasmin Imamović, called on the Serbian authorities to respect the final court decision in the case of the Tuzla Gate massacre and to "extradite the war criminal Novak Đukić to the BiH authorities."

"This war criminal fled to Serbia, and the authorities there, contrary to international law, refuse to extradite him to BiH and, in my opinion, are creating problems for all citizens of Serbia. To justify hiding one war criminal, Novak Đukić, the Serbian regime is endangering international law, stability, and peace in the Balkans, as well as the honor of all Serbian citizens, for which I am truly sorry," Imamović stated.