UDIK Udruženje za društvena istraživanja i komunikacije
February 27 marks the 32nd anniversary of the murder of civilians abducted from train 671 on the route Belgrade – Bar. The crime named “Abduction in Štrpci” took place in 1993 when members of the Serbian paramilitary unit under the command of Milan Lukić, with the logistical support from the Republic of Serbia, kidnapped a group of passengers from Belgrade – Bar train at Štrpci station near Višegrad, on Bosnian territory. They kidnapped and later killed twenty civilians: eighteen Bosniaks, one Croat and one unidentified person. To date, the remains of only four victims have been found. Most of those killed were citizens of Serbia or Montenegro.
For this crime was sentenced Nebojša Ranisavljević to fifteen years in prison by Montenegrin court in 2002. Mićo Jovičić received a five-year sentence after pleading guilty before Bosnian state court in 2016.Milan Lukić was indicted for the Štrpci crimes by the Bosnian state prosecution in 2019. He was sentenced by the ICTY to life imprisonment for war crimes in Višegrad, but not for the murders of civilians in Štrpci. In October 2022, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina convicted seven former soldiers from the Bosnian Serb Army’s Second Podrinje Brigade.Obrad and Novak Poluga, Petko Inđić, Radojica Ristić, Dragan Šekarić, Oliver Krsmanović and Miodrag Mitrašinović were sentenced to 13 years each for participating, as co-perpetrators, in the murder of 20 civilians.The appeals chamber of the Bosnian state court confirmed the first-instance verdict in 2023.
In February 2023, Belgrade Higher Court sentenced Gojko Lukić, Duško Vasiljević, Jovan Lipovac and Dragana Đekić to a total of thirty-five years in prison. The accused Ljubiša Vasiljević died in July 2021.In October 2023, the Belgrade Court of Appeals quashed the first-instance verdict, and a new trial is ongoing.Jovan Lipovac died in February last year before the start of the retrial. In October 2023, the appeals chamber of the Bosnian state court confirmed the verdict sentencing the former commander of the Interventions Company of the Višegrad Brigade Boban Inđić to fifteen years in prison.
On this anniversary, we express our deep regret for the attitude of the Serbian authorities, and especially the court in Belgrade, towards the victims of this war crime and their families. After the shamefully low sentences, the Belgrade Court of Appeals quashed the first-instance verdict, and once again belittled the victims, and diminished their families’ hope for justice. This prolonged the agony of the families and extinguished their hope for justice. We appeal to all authorities in power to expedite this trial, to put an end to the denial of the crime and the torture of the families of the murdered. Serbia could and should show goodwill in the process of dealing with the past by recognizing the status of the murdered as civilian victims of war and providing their families with appropriate financial compensation.
On the 32nd anniversary, we remember the victims of kidnapping in Štrpci: Adem Alomerović, Džafer Topuzović, Esad Kapetanović, Favzija Zeković, Fehim Bakija, Fikret Memović, Halil Zubčević, Ilijaz Ličina, Ismet Babačić, Jusuf Rastoder, Muhedin Hanić, Nijazim Kajević, Rasim Ćorić, Rifet Husović, Safet Preljević, Senad Đečević, Šećo Softić, Toma Buzov, and Zvjezdan Zuličić.
Association for Social Research and Communication (UDIK) – Sarajevo
Center for Democracy and Transitional Justice (CDTJ) – Banja Luka
Woman’s Voice – Priboj
