HRA about Štrpci: Finally reveal the masterminds from political and military circles

Action for Human Rights (HRA) called for the perpetrators from the political and military circles of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Republika Srpska to be finally revealed in connection with the war crime in Štrpci, for all perpetrators to be punished, for fundamental action to be taken to find the remains of all victims and that Montenegro, by amending the law, provides social protection to the families of victims of that crime as civilian victims of war.

Today marks the 28th anniversary of the war crime committed by members of the Army of the Republika Srpska at the railway station in Štrpci, on the border of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, by taking and killing 20 passengers from a train traveling between Belgrade and Bar. of which 18 Bosniaks, one Croat and one unknown passenger, according to HRA.

Relatives of the abducted passengers and their friends are laying flowers at the memorials in Podgorica and Bijelo Polje today - in Bijelo Polje, a memorial to the victims of that crime was erected in 2016, while in Podgorica there is a joint memorial to all civilian victims of the wars in the former Yugoslavia 1991-2001 .

Among the victims are: Esad Kapetanović, Ilijaz Ličina, Fehim Bakija, Sećo Softić, Rifat Husović, Halil Zupčević, Senad Đečević, Jusuf Rastoder, Ismet Babačić, Tomo Buzov, Adem Alomerović, Muhedin Hanić, Safet Preljević, Džafer Topuzović, Rasim Ćorić, Fikret Memović, Fevzija Zeković, Nijazim Kajević, Zvjezdan Zuličić and one unknown person. Out of twenty of them, ten were from Montenegro.

"The victims were abducted from the train, taken to a school in the village of Prelovo near Višegrad, where they were robbed and beaten, then transferred to the village of Mušići, near Višegradska Banja, where they were all killed and their bodies thrown into the Drina. The oldest was 59, and the youngest is 16. The body of Halil Zupčević was found only in 2009 on the shores of Lake Perućac, near Višegrad, and the remains of Rasim Ćorić, Jusuf Rastoder and Ilijaz Ličina were found in the same location in 2010. The remains of the other victims of this crime until they were not found today," HRA said.

They remind that only Nebojša Ranisavljević and Mićo Jovičić, members of the intervention company of the Višegrad Brigade of the Republika Srpska Army called "Avengers", have been convicted for that crime.

Ranisavljević was sentenced to 2003 years in prison before the High Court in Bijelo Polje in 15, while Jovicic concluded a plea agreement with the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2016, based on which he was sentenced to five years in prison. The leader of that unit of the Army of Republika Srpska, Milan Lukić, was sentenced by the Hague Tribunal to life imprisonment for war crimes in Višegrad, but not for Štrpce. It was only in December 2019 that the Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina accused him of participating in that crime.

Since 2015, the trial of ten people accused of this crime has been ongoing before the court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The trial of part of Milan Lukić's unit, i.e. his own brother Gojko Lukić, Jovan Lipovac, brothers Duško and Ljubiša Vasiljević and Dragana Đekić, is ongoing before the Special Court in Belgrade.

So far, none of the perpetrators and organizers of this crime from the political and military structures of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Republika Srpska have been prosecuted before any court.

HRA points out that the family members of the victims of this crime in Montenegro have never enjoyed the status of civilian victims of war according to the Law on Veterans and Disability Protection ("Official Gazette of the Republic of Montenegro", No. 69/03 and "Official Gazette of Montenegro", No. 21 /08, 73/10, 40/11, 1/15, 52/16), because this protection is recognized only to the family members of the surviving victim - the civilian invalid of the war, and not to the family members of the civilian victims, unlike in Bosnia and Herzegovina .

In this regard, HRA appeals to the Ministry of Finance and Social Welfare to initiate changes to the existing law and introduce civilian victims of war and family members of civilian victims of war as special categories that will also enjoy protection in accordance with this law.

The law, as they add, does not even regulate the issues of missing civilians during the war. "In 2011, Montenegro ratified the UN International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances. However, enforced disappearance is still not criminalized as a separate criminal offense in the Criminal Code. Montenegro still does not have a Law on Missing Persons, unlike for example, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, which have this law," the announcement concludes.