BiH PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE HAS HAD 34 YEARS TO FILE INDICTMENT FOR CRIMES IN RATKOVIĆI

SREBRENICA, JUNE 21 /SRNA/ – The village of Ratkovići near Srebrenica has marked today 34 years since the killing of 24 Serbs from this place, who nearly all were civilians, including six elderly and ill women.

They were mutilated by Muslim forces from Srebrenica and surrounding areas, with some being burned. A memorial service was held at a monument erected by surviving villagers in memory of their relatives and neighbours, followed by the laying of flowers. The Prosecutor’s Office of BiH has failed to gather evidence for a single crime committed against Serbs in the Central Podrinje region. No one within BiH judiciary is asking how it is possible that, despite so many mass crimes and the killing of more than 1,500 Serb civilians in this region, no evidence has been collected, or what the prosecutors handling these cases have been doing for the past three decades. Ibro Jakubović and Huso Salihović were charged with war crimes against Serbs in the village, but were acquitted by the District Court in Bijeljina, which cited a lack of reliable evidence linking them to the crime. The few surviving Serbs recall that today on June 21, 1992, at around 4:30 a.m., gunfire, shouting, and banging of metal objects erupted from all sides around the village. They say they heard cries such as “Allahu Akbar”, “Take them alive”, "Slaughter them one by one, save your ammunition"… A small number of villagers managed to escape death by hiding in the morning fog and using their knowledge of the terrain, watching from the underbrush, hidden behind various forms of cover, how Muslim soldiers kill their family members and neighbours, looting and setting fire to their property. Milena Stanojević escaped into a nearby wooded area and survived thanks to the darkness and fog. Her husband, Stanoje, was killed on the doorstep of their home, while her father, Obren Bogićević, was slaughtered in front of the house. She previously told SRNA that Muslim forces were firing from all directions and that, after entering the village, they began slaughtering people, looting, and burning everything they encountered. Those found inside their homes were killed and set on fire. Villagers who remained hidden thanks to darkness heard terrible cries and screams of their relatives and neighbors who were being slaughtered, sliced and killed with blunt objects. Tomislav Živanović, one of few survirors, said the village was attacked from all directions around 5:00 a.m. He said he resisted until he heard gunfire behind him, after which he escaped the encirclement by taking advantage of his familiarity with terrain, while the village was burning and the people were being massacred in their homes. The Ratkovići residents o not trust the judicial institutions of BiH, pointing out that the perpetrators of these crimes can only be brought to justice by God's judgment, which, according to what they have heard, is already happening. Representatives of the Organization of Families of Captured, Killed Soldiers and Missing Civilians of Srebrenica pointed to the obstructions done by the Prosecutor’s Office and the Court of BiH when it comes to the crimes committed against Serbs. The organization's head, Branimir Kojić, told SRNA that nothing had changed regarding the prosecution of those responsible for the crimes in Ratkovići or for crimes committed against Serbs in the Srebrenica area in general. He pointed out that the BiH judiciary continues to remain silent, while Western media and politicians keep presenting a one-sided interpretation of the war in BiH, tendentiously and without basis blaming the Serbs for everything. "Foreign journalists and agents even misused a photograph of Dragina Prodanović from Ratkovići holding the skull of her slain son Živan, whom she identified by a damaged tooth. The photograph was seen around the world, but they captioned it as depicting a Bosniak woman rather than a Serb mother," Kojić recalled. Ratkovići was completely burned and destroyed on June 21, 1992. Fortunately, not a single child was killed there, because there were no children in the village at the time; otherwise, they would not have survived as other civilians.