Robbers who are plundering a village near Srebrenica have not yet been discovered, residents are keeping watch

Residents of the village of Sućeska in eastern Bosnia are in fear, but also more united than ever, writes the Patria News Agency.

For several nights, properties in this village, located 14 kilometers from Srebrenica towards Milići, have been plundered by a group of robbers, who are also frightening women living alone. Until the nineties of the last century, about 3,800 inhabitants lived in the village, but in the Srebrenica genocide in 1995, nearly 1,000 Bosniak men from this place were killed, so today in some houses in Sućeska, only surviving women, mostly elderly, live. The residents began to return to the village about fifteen years ago, living from agriculture and livestock, and explain that these are the first unpleasant incidents of this kind they have experienced as returnees. Their village has not been targeted by robbers before.

The villagers suspect that anyone could be behind the robberies and intimidation: from petty thieves and drug addicts being the robbers, to the authorities of the BiH entity of Republika Srpska being behind it all. Because, they claim, it is not in the authorities' interest for Bosniaks to return to RS. The villagers even suspect that the robbers have an accomplice who knows the village well, because they rob and flee without error.

The president of the Local Community of Sućeska, Salko Tursunović, explains that an unknown group of robbers broke into several houses in the village in just a few days, then into the elementary school, the mosque, they tried to rob the local clinic, and they also attacked a house where two women live. They did not want to rob them, but only to frighten them.

Salko Tursunović

One of the village residents, Behaija Halilović, says that thieves broke into his basement and car.

- I am the first returnee to the village, and I have had no problems so far. I got up around half past five and noticed that my basement and car had been broken into. The next night, they broke into the house of a neighbor, and then the following night into another neighbor's. Now the whole village is on watch, because we are afraid to fall asleep, they will kill us – said Halilović.

- I think someone who knows me stole from me. Because, they left my car documents, they even covered them so they wouldn't get wet – says Halilović.

Behaija Halilović

Fata and Mejra Mehmedović say that someone knocked on their door. But when they went to open it, the thieves started to flee.

Village resident Hasan Bečirović says it is difficult to say who could be behind it all. But he is sure that someone knows the village and the people in the village well. He also does not understand how the police cannot discover the robbers.

- There are many illogicalities in the whole case – says Bečirović.

Hasan Bečirović

Mujo Hasanović says that if someone wants to intimidate returnees, they will not succeed. The latest events have only further united the village, writes Patria.