NUŽDIĆ: DATA ON THOSE KILLED IN TUZLA CONVOY CONCEALED, PERSEVERANCE IN PROVING TRUTH NECESSARY

BANJA LUKA, MAY 14 /SRNA/ – It is an obligation to persist in documenting the truth about the crime against JNA members in the Tuzla Convoy, because information about the victims was concealed after the attack, while forensic examinations of the remains revealed horrific injuries, said Viktor Nuždić, acting head of the Republic Research Cntre of War, War Crimes and Tracing Missing Persons.

Nuždić recalled that the Republika Srpska Centre presented research on this crime in the publication "Atlas of Crimes Against Serbs During the Defensive-Patriotic War," stating that 51 persons were killed in the attack on May 15, 1992, that three more later died from their wounds, while 78 persons were injured. "Particularly grave is the fact that information about the victims was concealed after the attack. Not all bodies were immediately handed over to the JNA. Some were later exchanged, while others were buried without names or markings in the Trnovac mass grave," Nuždić told SRNA ahead of the marking of the 34th anniversary of the attack on JNA members in the Tuzla Convoy. He added that forensic medical examinations of the exhumed remains showed horrific injuries, including fractures o the skull, torso, and limbs. The attack, Nuždić recalled, was carried out in a planned and merciless manner. He explained that snipers first killed the drivers of military vehicles in order to stop the convoy, after which intense and concentrated fire followed. Regarding the vehicles that attempted to pass through the intersection, Nuždić stated that connected land mines were pulled out and activated, while soldiers were killed or wounded. He pointed out that, despite several proceedings, no one has been finally convicted for the crime against JNA members in the Tuzla Convoy, stressing that the silence of the judiciary and the absence of punishment for those responsible represent a new injustice toward the victims and their families. He recalled that proceedings against Ilija Jurišić ended with an acquittal, as did the case against Izet Smajić, who had been charged with the attempted murder of a wounded JNA soldier at Brčanska Malta. "The only conviction handed down was against Ivan Koler, not for the attack on the convoy itself, but for inhumane treatment of prisoners after the crime," Nuždić noted. Nuždić stressed that attacks on JNA members did not begin on May 15, 1992, in Tuzla, but were preceded by incidents at Bistrik, Veliki Park, Skenderija, Dobrovoljačka Street, as well as attacks on JNA soldiers in Tuzla before the crime at Brčanska Malta itself. "In all those places, the same bloody pattern was repeated - JNA soldiers were killed; to this day no one has been held accountable for those crimes. As in Sarajevo in early May, the withdrawal of the convoy in Tuzla had been agreed earlier," Nuždić said. He noted that representatives of both the civilian and military authorities had guaranteed the safe and peaceful withdrawal of the convoy along an approved route, while at the same time secretly preparing an ambush and armed attack in the Brčanska Malta area. Muslim paramilitary forces attacked the JNA convoy in Tuzla on May 15, 1992. Based on a previously reached agreement, the convoy was supposed to leave the Tuzla barracks peacefully.