Salkić: We are still searching for the bones of murdered civilians, and RS authorities are hiding the locations of mass graves

Ramiz Salkić, the Vice-President of the BiH entity RS, visited Vlasenica on Saturday, September 23, 2017, to mark the 25th anniversary of the horrific crimes committed in the Sušica concentration camp. More than 8,000 people passed through this camp in 1992. Given that civilians from all over central Podrinje, in addition to those from Vlasenica, were held in this camp, the exact number of victims has never been precisely determined.

Usually, 400-500 civilians were held in the camp, who were either killed after torture and abuse or transferred to the Serbian concentration camp in Batković. It is estimated that around 1,600 people were killed in the Sušica concentration camp.

In his address to those present in front of the barracks of the former Sušica concentration camp, Vice-President Ramiz Salkić said that Bosniaks have too quickly forgotten the messages that the martyrs wrote for them in their blood on the walls of the Sušica, Batković, and Karakaj concentration camps:

- The entire Bosnian society bears responsibility for the fact that war criminals who killed civilians in this country have not yet been punished. We are still searching for the bones of murdered civilians, and the authorities of the BiH entity RS are hiding the locations of mass graves. In this entity, in the 21st century, genocide is denied and the ideology of Radovan Karadžić is glorified. We are experiencing the twilight of civilization here. The Serbian concentration camp Sušica, near Vlasenica, was one of the largest camps for civilians in the last war. It must be a warning to us, a reminder that human society can touch its lowest point at certain times. We expect that in this entity, among the Serbian people, anti-fascist forces will strengthen, distancing themselves from the ideology of evil, from slaughter and killing, from genocide... Citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina need years of peace to free themselves from the consequences of the war and to finally move towards building a common future in a country that offers equal opportunities to everyone - said Salkić.

He reminded that the town of Vlasenica in eastern Bosnia was ethnically cleansed in 1992, and that more than 1,300 civilians from this town were killed during that time.