22 Years Since the Crime in Štrpci: Masterminds Still at Large

Today marks 22 years since the crime in Štrpci, when 18 Bosniaks, 1 Croat and one black person were taken from train 671 on the Belgrade – Bar line and subsequently liquidated, writes the Bosnian news agency Patria.

Members of Serbian paramilitary units under the command of Milan Lukić, with logistical support from Serbia, committed this crime, and the majority of the Bosniaks were from Montenegro, Prijepolje, Podgorica, and there were also citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Of the 20 abducted passengers, the remains of only two bodies have been found in Lake Perućac. The only person prosecuted for the abduction of 20 innocent citizens in Štrpci is Nebojša Ranisavljević from Despotovac, who was released from prison in 2011 after serving his sentence. He was arrested in October 1996, and before the Higher Court in Bijelo Polje (Montenegro), on 9 September 2002, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison. During the trial, he stated that the group was commanded by Milan Lukić, who was convicted by the Hague Tribunal for crimes committed against Bosniak civilians in Višegrad during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but his indictment did not include the crime in Štrpci.

Although several direct perpetrators have been convicted, the names of those who ordered and organized this crime are still unknown.

According to eyewitness accounts, the passengers were taken out and led to the trucks completely calmly, without any incidents, without resistance, without any shouts or protests. All this took place in full view of ten police officers, members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia who were from Priboj and Prijepolje. The names of the police officers are: Miroslav Gazdić, Zoran Udovičić, Miroslav Vranić, Ljubiša Radomirović, Goran Bukvić, Željko Šalipur, Goran Vuković, Radojko Ješić, Nenad Cvijović and Periša Golubović. They were taken to Višegrad where they were brutally liquidated.

On the 16th anniversary of the crime in Štrpci, a memorial was erected in Prijepolje. A stone symbolically placed by the bridge on the banks of the Lim River serves as a reminder of the innocent victims, on which only 11 names (from Prijepolje) are inscribed, along with the words: "Whoever in this country forgets the Štrpci station and 27 February 1993 has given up on the future."

VICTIMS FROM THE TRAIN

On their final journey 22 years ago, the following boarded the train for Belgrade: Esad Kapetanović (19 years old), Ilijaz Ličina (43), Fehim Bakija (43), Šećo Softić (48), Rifet Husović (26), Ismet Babačić (30), Halil Zupčević (49), Adem Alomerović (59), Rasim Ćorić (40), Fikret Memetović (40), Favzija Zeković (54), Nijazim Kajević (30), Muhedin Hanić (27), Safet Preljević (22); Džafer Topuzović (55), Jusuf Rastoder (45), Zvezdan Zuličić (23), a student, Tomo Buzov; and the youngest among them, sixteen-year-old Sead Đečević.

The War Crimes Prosecutor's Office of Serbia has completed the pre-investigation procedure against five persons suspected in the "Štrpci" case and, based on the collected evidence, will file an indictment in the coming days, the Prosecutor's Office announced today.

As stated in the announcement, based on an order from war crimes prosecutor Vladimir Vukčević, the pre-investigation procedure in Serbia was conducted against Gojko Lukić, Ljubiša Vasiljević, Duško Vasiljević, Jovan Lipovac and Dragana Đekić on suspicion of having committed a war crime against the civilian population.

The joint investigation team spent a year and a half in the territory of Serbia and BiH examining more than a hundred witnesses and collecting evidence necessary for filing the indictment, reports the Tanjug agency.

In an operation by two prosecutor's offices on 5 December 2014, a total of 15 suspects were arrested - members of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) and the paramilitary formation "Osvetnici" (Avengers) – five in the territory of the Republic of Serbia and ten in the territory of BiH, on suspicion of having participated on 27 February 1993 in the abduction and murder of 20 passengers from the train operating on the Belgrade - Bar line.