OSTOJIĆ: TUZLA CONVOY CASE HAS BOTH PERPETRATORS AND VICTIMS, BUT NO JUSTICE

BIJELJINA, MAY 15 /SRNA/ - Republika Srpska Minister of Labor and Veterans' and Disabled Protection Radan Ostojić has stated today at the Pučile city cemetery in Bijeljina that Serbs were escorted under heavy security measures to the site where 54 young men were killed in the Muslim attack on the JNA convoy in Tuzla, as if they were a terrorist organization.

"It would have been easier for us to get to Tehran than to Tuzla today, and Sarajevo the other day. That is the freedom of movement and democracy in BiH," Ostojić said after a memorial service for the innocently killed JNA soldiers. Ostojić emphasized that the commemoration in Bijeljina today, following the one in Tuzla, marks a horrific crime committed against innocent JNA members who, based on a previously reached agreement, only wanted to leave the location where they had been stationed. "Their only guilt was that they were members of the JNA, and the reason they were killed was hatred," Ostojić told reporters. He noted that the first crimes in the war in BiH were committed against the Serb people. "After the referendum in which the Serb people did not participate, the declaration of independence of such a BiH, the killing of a Serb wedding guest at Baščaršija, the horrific crime in Sijekovac, and the crime in Dobrovoljačka Street, the crime against JNA soldiers at Brčanska Malta in Tuzla followed," Ostojić reminded. According to him, the question arises as to why Muslims, presented as the embodiment of those who loved the SFRY, decided to commit this crime, adding that the logical reason was the creation of a unitary BiH in which there was no place for either Serbs or the JNA. Ostojić stressed once again that there is no justice or rule of law in BiH, especially not for Serbs. "Here we have victims, as well as those who ordered and carried out the crime, but there is no justice," Ostojić said. A memorial service for 54 young men brutally murdered in the Muslim attack on the JNA column in Tuzla in 1992 was held today in Bijeljina in front of the memorial ossuary at the Pučile cemetery, where wreaths and flowers were laid. The memorial service was attended by envoy of the Republika Srpska president Bojan Savić, envoy of the Serb member of the BiH Presidency Boško Tomić, Republika Srpska Minister of Labor and Veterans' and Disabled Protection Radan Ostojić, Minister for Scientific and Technological Development and Higher Education Draga Mastilović, and Serbian Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veterans' and Social Affairs State Secretary Nikola Vukelić. Also attending were family members of the innocent victims, who have been waiting for justice for these brutal killings for 34 years, surviving participants of the Tuzla Convoy, representatives of local authorities, organizations preserving the tradition of liberation wars, and members of the Third Republika Srpska Infantry Regiment of the Armed Forces of BiH. Earlier, at Brčanska Malta in Tuzla, where 54 young men were brutally killed on May 15, 1992, a memorial service was held and flowers were laid for the victims of the crime. On May 15, 1992, Muslim forces attacked a JNA column in Tuzla which, based on a previously reached agreement, was supposed to leave the Tuzla barracks. On that occasion, 54 JNA members were killed, 78 were wounded, and 44 were captured, five of whom were later killed, while the others were abused and tortured.