On Sunday, remembrance for the killed residents of Rogatica

By visiting the mass graves at the Paklenik pit and the Ivan Polje landfill, the 24th anniversary of the suffering of the non-Serb population from the Rogatica area will be marked.

- We will visit the Paklenik pit, where 73 of our fellow citizens and residents of Višegrad were exhumed, and we will lay flowers for all the victims, and then we will do the same at the grave at Ivan Polje, from where 65 people from Rogatica and surrounding villages were exhumed - says Mirsad Durmišević, a member of the Organizing Committee of the Association of Families and Friends of Missing Persons "Suza".

Durmišević announced the commemoration of the suffering for Sunday, June 19, on the anniversary when the largest number of residents of Rogatica lost their lives.

For participation in the murders of 48 people committed on June 15, 1992, near the Paklenik pit (Sokolac municipality), Miloš Pantelić was sentenced to 15 years, and Predrag Milisavljević to 20 years in prison by the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. No one has been convicted for the murders of civilians at Ivan Polje.

The president of the "Suza" Association, Majda Ćurevac, states that the families of the victims are outraged by the slow work of the judiciary. According to her, every year, including this one, the Association calls on judicial institutions to be more diligent.

- We are dissatisfied, we are truly dissatisfied with the prosecution of war crimes. (...) Every year we also appeal to the authorities to support the families of the victims in their pain and join the commemoration, so we will see who will come this year - says Ćurevac.

She adds that many suspects for war crimes in Rogatica are at large, including Rajko Kušić, the former commander of the Rogatica Brigade of the Army of Republika Srpska.

Kušić is charged with participation in a joint criminal enterprise, by cooperating with members of the police of the Public Security Station of the Serbian Municipality of Rogatica to organize the illegal detention of non-Serb civilian population in detention facilities.

According to the indictment, illegally detained civilians were killed, beaten, abused, taken to forced labor or unknown locations, and many have since been listed as missing.

The Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina previously announced that a large number of detained women and girls were raped and sexually abused. Kušić, as stated at the time, participated in over 150 murders in Rogatica and at the Paklenik pit site.

Durmišević states that the Association visits other locations every year as part of the commemoration, because a large number of residents of Rogatica were killed.

However, the final number of victims from Rogatica is not known, says Majda Ćurevac.

- I am from the Gračanica settlement. Some lists mention the suffering of 19 people from that part of Rogatica, but I can list a hundred - emphasizes Ćurevac.

She notes that numerous mass graves have been found in the Rogatica area, and one of the largest is located in Žepa.

Numerous Bosniaks from Rogatica, adds Durmišević, were expelled or detained in facilities in this and other cities, where they were psychologically and physically abused, writes BIRN, reports NAP.