CRIME IN BILJANI Only one person convicted for the murder of over 260 civilians

(Patria) - The day before July 11 and the commemoration of the Srebrenica genocide anniversary, we also remember the crime against civilians in Biljani near Ključ.

The attack on this village began in the early morning hours of July 10, 1992, and was led by the 17th Light Infantry Brigade of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) in cooperation with reserve and active police officers from the Sanica Police Department. Around 260 Bosniak civilians, residents of the village of Biljani, were killed. Among the killed were six children. The oldest victim was 85-year-old Bećo Ćehić, while the youngest victim was four-month-old baby Amila Džaferagić.

According to data from the Institute for Missing Persons of BiH, mass graves containing victims from Biljani were mostly discovered in late 1995 and 1996. The first mass grave discovered was Crvena zemlja I, from which sixteen victims were exhumed. The largest mass grave is the Lanište I pit, from which 188 victims were exhumed between October 5 and November 15, 1996. Thirty-four individual graves were found in the Biljani area.

In November 2006, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina sentenced Marko Samardžija, commander of the Third Company of the Sanica Battalion within the 17th Light Infantry Brigade of the VRS, to 26 years in prison for, "as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against the civilian population, knowing about such an attack, he assisted in depriving other persons of their lives (murder)." By a second-instance verdict, Samardžija was found guilty of detention and severe deprivation of physical liberty as a crime against humanity and sentenced to seven years in prison.

Marko Ademović and Boško Lukić, members of the crisis headquarters, were tried for this crime. They were convicted of crimes against humanity in Ključ, but acquitted for the attack on Biljani. The Prosecutor's Office of BiH also charged the former commander of the 17th Light Infantry Brigade, Drago Samardžija, with the crime in Biljani. Proceedings against him never began, and he died in Serbia in 2021.

Although the testimonies of survivors have shed light on the context of the Biljani massacre, Marko Samardžija remains the only person convicted for this crime.

UDIK appeals to the Prosecutor's Office of BiH and all other competent institutions to expedite the process of indictments so that the perpetrators are prosecuted and the victims can finally find peace.