GRAORAC: WE WILL NOT GIVE UP ON PROSECUTING CRIMES AGAINST SERBS IN MRKONJIĆ GRAD

BANJA LUKA, OCTOBER 9 /SRNA/ – The town of Mrkonjić Grad and its residents have been waiting for justice for 30 years, even though it is well known who committed the war crimes against the Serb people, said Isidora Graorac, President of the Republika Srpska Organization of Families of Captured, Fallen Soldiers and Missing Civilians.

Graorac emphasized that the families of the victims will never give up their demand for the prosecution of those responsible for the crimes committed against Serbs in Mrkonjić Grad, stressing that there is ample evidence for everything. “Mrkonjić Grad has been waiting for 30 years—for justice, for trials, for war reparations for destroyed lives and property,” Graorac said ahead of the commemoration of 30 years since the aggression on 13 West Krajina municipalities. She pointed out that three decades have passed and questioned whether the Prosecutor’s Office and the Court of BiH have any explanation for why this case has not been made a priority. She noted that judicial processes drag on for years, that the accused are often released for medical treatment, or allowed to leave for third countries even after conviction, and asked what the authorities are waiting for. Graorac said that tomorrow the families of the fallen and missing will remember the dark days of October 1995, when regular Croatian forces committed crimes in Mrkonjić Grad, killing Serb civilians together with soldiers—whose bodies were later found in a mass grave. Tomorrow, Mrkonjić Grad will mark 30 years since the aggression on the 13 West Krajina municipalities and the crimes committed against 2,214 Serb civilians and soldiers by members of the Croatian armed forces and the so-called Army of BiH, for which, despite extensive evidence, no one has been adequately punished. The joint forces of the Croatian Army, HVO, and the so-called Army of BiH, supported by NATO operations, carried out an aggression on 13 West Krajina municipalities in September and October 1995. The attack targeted the municipalities of Grahovo, Glamoč, Kupres, Šipovo, Srbobran, Jajce, Ripač, Drvar, Petrovac, Ključ, Krupa na Uni, Sanski Most, and Mrkonjić Grad. According to data from the Republika Srpska Center for Research of War, War Crimes, and the Search for Missing Persons, 2,214 people of Serb nationality were killed during the aggression, 120,000 were expelled from their centuries-old homes, movable property was looted, and immovable property destroyed. Among the dead were 753 Serb civilians, of whom 149 are still listed as missing, as well as 1,461 members of the Republika Srpska Army, 79 of whom also remain missing. The largest mass grave in Mrkonjić Grad was discovered at the Orthodox cemetery, from which 181 bodies were exhumed.