MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR SERBS KILLED IN KRAVICA ON CHRISTMAS 1993 ON MONDAY

BRATUNAC, JANUARY 3 /SRNA/ – A memorial service will be held in Kravica near Bratunac on Monday, January 5, marking 33 years since the major suffering of Serbs in that village on Christmas Day, the Municipal War Veterans Organisation announced.

The memorial service will be held for 163 Serbs from Kravica and neighbouring hamlets who were killed during the Defensive-Patriotic War. Of that number, 49 were killed by Muslim forces from Srebrenica on January 7, 1993. According to the programme, the memorial service will begin at 11:00 a.m., followed at 12:00 p.m. by the laying of flowers at the memorial cross in Kravica in honour of 3,267 Serb civilians and soldiers killed during the war in the Central Podrinje and Birač regions. The organisers of the commemoration are the Bratunac Municipal War Veterans Organisation, the local community, and the Parish of Kravica. Ethnic cleansing in the Central Podrinje region began in April 1992 with the destruction of everything with Serb ptefix. Muslim forces from Srebrenica, under the command of Naser Orić, with support from units from the Bratunac, Vlasenica, and Zvornik areas, carried out attacks against Serb civilians and destroyed property throughout 1992. After numerous crimes committed in Serb-populated villages around Srebrenica and Bratunac during the first year of the war in BiH, these attacks continued in 1993. On Orthodox Christmas, forces entered Kravica, killing 49 residents and wounding about 80 others. Seven Serbs went missing at that time, five of whom have not been found even after 33 years. Two women were among those reported missing. On Christmas Day, the village was looted, 688 Serb-owned houses were burned in the wider Kravica area, and about 2,000 auxiliary buildings were destroyed. In a single day, around 1,000 residents were left without homes and fled toward the Drina River, crossing into Serbia to escape further violence. As a result of these events, 101 children were left without one or both parents. From the beginning of the war until mid-1995, the Muslim forces from Srebrenica constantly raided the Serb-populated villages around this place, Bratunac, Milić, Skelani and Zvornik, killing everyone they came across, looting and burning Serb-owned property, torturing, massacring, beheading the captured, displaying them in Srebrenica¸there was a case of Nenad Rankić being roasted on a spit. Such practice did not cease even after Srebrenica was declared a United Nations–protected zone in April 1993. Of the several dozen Serbs who remained in Srebrenica at the beginning of the war and were loyal to the then Muslim authorities, only one elderly woman survived. Another elderly woman, Ivanka Mirković, was found with her throat slit in July 1995 near her home located in the proximity of the police station that served as the prison camp for Serbs. Most of the missing persons have still not been found or exhumed, while no one has been held accountable for these crimes. At the beginning of the war, units under Naser Orić command expelled and killed Serb civilians from Srebrenica and nearby villages, including Dugo Polje, Pećišta, Kovačice, Gostilj, Gniona, Osredak, Viogor, and Studenac. Prison camps for Serbs were also established, including “Chicken Coop”, the one in Gornji Potočari, where residents of the Serb village of Čumavići were confined. Following the destruction of villages closest to Srebrenica, attacks expanded to more distant villages in the Srebrenica and Bratunac areas - Ratkovići, Karno, Krnjići, Brežani, Magašići, Zagoni, Zalazje, Sase, Biljača, Fakovići, Bjelovac, Sikirić, Podravanje, culminating in the attack on Kravica on January 7, 1993, and on Skelani nine days later. In those two locations, a total of 114 Serbs were killed, about 70 percent of whom were civilians. After Srebrenica was declared an UN-protected zone, attacksand raids in the Serb-populated vilages from the enclave continued instead of demilitarization. With the exception of three villages along the Drina River, all Serb villages in the Srebrenica area and more than 100 villages in the Bratunac and Milići municipalities were destroyed. Approximately 3,000 Serbs were killed, more than half of whom were civilians. Attacks and massacres most frequently occurred on major Orthodox religious holidays such as Christmas, St. Peter’s Day, St. George’s Day, and St. Vitus Day. Two days after the attack on Kravica, seven massacred bodies were found and buried, while another 42 were buried about two and a half months later. The villains did not spare even the sick and immobile, women, children and the elderly, while the captives succumbed to brutal torture. They did not leave anyone alive anywhere. The same happened in Kravica. Two days after the attack on Kravica, seven bodies were found and buried, while another 42 were buried about two and a half months later. According to survivor testimonies, a large number of Bosniaks who returned to the Srebrenica and Bratunac areas after the war, participated in the attack of the Srebrenica Muslim forced. Even 33 years later, no one has been held accountable for the killings and crimed committed in Kravica or for crimes committed in many other Serb villages in the Cengtral Podrinje, except for two individuals convicted for three separate murders in the Bratunac area. According to survivor accounts and historical records, the Christmas attack on Kravica is described as a continuation of crimes committed by Ustashas in the same area during World War II on St, Vitus Day when the Ustasha forces from the neighbouring villages set 38 Serb villagers on fire in the basement of a house in Zonići village near Kravice. One-year-old Jefa and 64-year-old Pavle and Vasilije Pavlović were among those set on fire.