Remains of Victims from Burned Houses to Be Buried on May 12

(Patria) - A collective funeral prayer and burial of the remains of Bosniak victims killed by Serbian criminals during 1992 will be held on May 12 at the Memorial Complex and Martyrs' Cemetery "Veljaci" in Bratunac.

This year, one identified victim will find final rest, and the remains of several victims whose identification via DNA method has not been possible to date due to the condition in which the bodies were found will also be buried.

The remains of the only identified victim to be buried this year belong to Kajtaz (Šeća) Salkić, born in 1955 in Hranča. Salkić was 37 years old when he went missing in the Bratunac area in December 1992. His remains were exhumed in 2025 at the Glogova site, after 33 years of searching.

This year, the remains of victims from burned houses will also be buried, where the scale of the crimes and damage to the bodies prevented classical identification methods. By order of the Prosecutor's Office, as unknown persons, the remains found at two different locations will be placed in two graves.

In one grave, the remains exhumed in October 2004 at the Voljavica site, from the burned house of Jašar Omerović, will be placed. According to operational data from the Institute for Missing Persons of BiH, at least six people were burned in this house. Due to the poor condition of the burnt fragments, identification via DNA method was not possible - explained Emza Fazlić from the Institute for Missing Persons.

In the second grave, the remains exhumed at the Suha site during 2002 will be placed. They were found in the burned house of Osman Hodžić, where, according to operational data from the Institute, at least 18 people perished. Although there were 18 victims, DNA profiles, i.e., identities, were successfully isolated for only four people from the found remains.

The Institute for Missing Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina is still searching for 449 victims from the Bratunac area. So far, a total of 1,767 victims have been identified. The exhumations in which these victims were found were carried out at 418 locations.