MRKAJIĆ: MY UNCLE PETKO WAS KILLED BY BEING SCALPED

BRADINA, MAY 25 /SRNA/ – The head of the Association of Former Prison Camp Detainees of Sarajevo-Romanija Region, Slobodan Mrkajić, has said today in Bradina that Serbs from this area died in severe suffering in May 1992, stating that members of Muslim-Croat forces killed his uncle Petko by scalping him.

"I witnessed terrible scenes. The man stood for a few seconds, and his brain was on the pavement. Imagine those horrors and the monster who did it. It is difficult even to describe," said Mrkajić, who himself spent two years and eight months in six different prison camps. Mrkajić recalls that one of the victims was Vasil Vučić, a lawyer from Konjic, who was taken away, beaten, and eventually slaughtered. "Someone is now trying to deny these things," Mrkajić said, noting that he is collecting his own archive on crimes against Serbs from Bradina and the Konjic area, which he is storing in a monastery to preserve it. He stressed that Bradina Serbs did not attack anyone and that there was very little resistance to the attack by Muslim-Croat forces at the end of May 1992, when they were surrounded, many of whom were subsequently captured and killed. According to him, Bradina was left empty within 24 hours because Serbs were wither expelled, captured or ortured. "It is terrible how much Bradina was destroyed, as well as the Serb population in Konjic and the surrounding area," said Mrkajić, who is originally from Bradina. Speaking about the prosecution of those responsible for crimes against Serbs in Bradina, Mrkajić stated that an indictment and arrest warrant had been issued for Zdenko Grabovac, but that he fled to Croatia. "Statements were given to the Court of BiH, he was released pending trial, but he escaped, although he was the one who was torturing and killing the people," he said. Mrkajić added that Serb witnesses do not have the financial means to travel to the Court of BiH for hearings against those accused of crimes in the Konjic area, which is little known about this. "We are not asking for anything else except that the crimes that happened be spoken about. Monstrous things happened here - killings, torture, rape," he concluded. Over three days from May 25 to 27, 1992, Bosniak and Croat criminals threw 26 bodies into a pit in front of the Orthodox church in Bradina. Another 22 Serb civilians died in prison camps, while five persons are still missing. Among the 48 Serbs killed in Bradina, most were members of the Kuljanin family, also including members of the Vujičić, Mrkajić, Žuža, Kureš, Gligorević, Koprivica, Draganić, and Živak families. The remaining Serb population was expelled from their homes, their movable property was looted, and houses and the church were burned. Before the war, Bradina had 280 Serb houses with around 1,200 residents.