Action for Human Rights (HRA) announced that Thursday, July 6, marks the 31st anniversary of the war crime against the Klapuh family, which was committed on the territory of Montenegro by members of the Republika Srpska army.
Although it was the first war crime that was legally judged in Montenegro back in 1996, only one of the five convicted served a prison sentence.
"In order for the remaining three convicts, who are alive, to be brought to justice, it is necessary for the Republic of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) to cooperate with Montenegro. This will eventually happen if the Montenegrin Minister of Justice shows an interest in putting pressure on Serbia to respond to Montenegro's request for the extradition of convicted Zoran Vuković after more than seven years and find out BiH's final position on the application of the law towards Radomir Kovač and Zoran Simović in this case," the HRA press release states.
They add that the Minister of Justice Marko Kovač did not respond to a total of five letters on the subject.
"HRA joins last year's appeal by Aleksandar Saša Zeković, a human rights activist, that the remains of the Klapuh family be buried in a dignified manner, at the expense of the state and with state honors in the place determined by the family, especially considering the fact that the verdict has not been carried out after almost three decades "Hasan, Ferida and Sena Klapuh were buried at the temporary cemetery near Trebjesa, where those who have no family members are buried. They were buried by the municipality of Nikšić," the announcement states.
Hasan Klapuh, his wife Ferida and daughter Sena were killed in Plužine, on July 6, 1992, by members of the "Dragan Nikolić" detachment of the Army of the Republika Srpska (VRS), four of them, who for that murder, qualified as a war crime against the civilian population, convicted in Montenegro as early as 1996.
The higher court in Podgorica sentenced Janko Janjić, Radomir Kovac, Zoran Simović and Zoran Vuković to 20 years in prison each, and their helper Vidoje Golubović to eight months, for not reporting the crime and the perpetrators.
The trial was attended only by Golubović, who was the only one who served the sentence, while the others were tried in absentia because they were on the run.
The court established that the defendants transported three members of the Klapuh family from Foča to Montenegro for money. When they reached the Mratinje Dam, on the Piva River, they shot at them and pushed them down the cliff.
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