NUŽDIĆ: CRIME OF BIBLICAL PROPORTIONS COMMITTED AGAINST SERBS ON MOUNT OZREN

ZAVIDOVIĆI, SEPTEMBER 10 /SRNA/ - The director of the Republika Srpska Center for Research on War, War Crimes and the Search for Missing Persons, Viktor Nuždić, stated that the Serbs from the area of Vozuća and Ozren endured an exodus of biblical proportions, adding that those who ordered and carried out this crime have still not been brought to justice, even 30 years later.

"Unfortunately, no Serbs are living in this area today, just as in most of the Federation of BiH," Nuždić told reporters in Stog, the destination of the "Paths of Exodus" march, organized to mark the 30th anniversary of the expulsion of Serbs from Vozuća, a settlement in the Krivaja Valley, and from the southern part of Ozren. He emphasized that it is particularly painful that, even after 30 years, so few verdicts have been issued for these horrific crimes against Serbs, and that those handed down to wartime generals of the so-called Army of BiH, Rasim Delić and Sakib Mahmuljin, have not been enforced. Nuždić pointed out that, due to such an approach by the judiciary at the BiH level, a significant number of Islamic extremists and mujahideen who committed these horrific crimes against Serbs are still present in the area. He stated that upon arriving in Stog, march participants were greeted with wartime flags of the so-called Army of BiH, showing that, for some, the war has evidently not ended even after 30 years. "I cannot understand how anyone could feel satisfaction from expelling the Serb population, beheading Serbs, and committing brutal, sadistic war crimes," Nuždić emphasized. The Serbs from Vozuća were expelled from their ancestral homes during the offensive of the so-called Army of BiH, codenamed "Hurricane," "Farz," and "Badr el Bosna." The mass suffering of the people of Vozuća occurred from September 10 to 24, 1995, as a result of an offensive by 23,000 Muslim soldiers from the Second and Third Corps of the so-called Army of BiH and the "El Mujahideen" unit, combined with NATO bombing supported by their rapid response units, as well as a Pakistani contingent of international peacekeeping forces. At that time, 30 Serb villages were burned, 1,920 Serb families comprising 7,680 people were expelled, and 459 soldiers of the Army of Republika Srpska and civilians were killed, while many others are still being searched for. The fall of Vozuća marked the end of the expulsion and ethnic cleansing of Serbs from the Zenica region, which had begun in 1992.