Human Rights Action (HRA) called on the prosecutors' offices of Serbia and Montenegro to prosecute the instigators and remaining direct perpetrators of the crimes in Štrpci, and the commissions for missing persons to take concrete action to find the bodies of all those killed.
On the occasion of the 32nd anniversary of the crime in Štrpci, in which uniformed persons under the command of Milan Lukić took 20 civilians off a train, took them to an unknown destination and killed them, the HRA appealed to the missing persons commissions of Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia to undertake a thorough search for the remains of the victims in Lake Perućac.
They also called on the members of the Parliament of Montenegro to unanimously adopt changes to the Law on Veterans' and Disability Protection and accompanying amendments at today's session. "Which will systematically recognize all civilian victims of war and finally give their families in Montenegro the right to social protection," the HRA statement said.
They explained that the families of fallen soldiers from the wars of the 1998s have had these rights since 27, or for XNUMX years.
"By adopting this law, Montenegro would recognize the status of civilian victims of war for all those killed in the kidnapping in Štrpci, which would represent an important civilizational step forward," said the HRA.
According to them, Serbia, on the other hand, is not even close to doing so - it "punished" the abduction victims because they did not die on Serbian territory, as well as because they were killed by the army of Republika Srpska, which Serbia considers a friendly army.
"We also expect the Government of Montenegro to support the promise of the Minister of Social Welfare, Family Care and Demography, Damir Gutić, that the families of civilian victims of the war will be compensated for the decade-long delay in legal regulation, which would at least partially correct the injustice against them," HRA said.
They recalled that this non-governmental organization conducted a public opinion survey last year, which showed that barely over a third of citizens (38.8 percent) were accurately informed about the crime in Štrpci.
"It is essential that a lesson about this crime be included in the history curriculum, to ensure that people in this region never again suffer because of their origins," the HRA said.
On February 27, 1993, members of the Army of Republika Srpska stopped a train traveling on the Belgrade-Bar line at the Štrpci railway station in Bosnia and Herzegovina and took 20 passengers off it. They robbed and killed them simply because they were not of Serbian origin, and threw their bodies into the Drina River.
"The oldest victim was 59 years old, and the youngest was 16. Of the twenty people killed, eight were from Montenegro," the HRA reminded.
As they added, to date, the remains of only four have been found: Halil Zupčević, Rasim Ćorić, Jusuf Rastoder and Iljaz Ličina.
Ten people have so far been convicted for the crime in Štrpci – one in Montenegro and nine in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In the criminal proceedings conducted against Nebojša Ranisavljević in Montenegro, it was established that the kidnapping in Štrpci was planned and carried out with the knowledge of the then high-ranking officials of the civil, police and military authorities of Serbia and the Federal Republic (SR) of Yugoslavia.
Documents released at the trial in Bijelo Polje, collected and published by the Humanitarian Law Center, indicate that both Ranisavljević and his commander, Milan Lukić, were perpetrators of crimes whose order was given by someone else, from the top of the government of the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which consisted of Serbia and Montenegro, in cooperation with the authorities of Republika Srpska.
"To date, none of the perpetrators and organizers of this crime have been charged," the HRA emphasized.
They recalled that two years ago they requested that the Special State Prosecutor's Office (SDT) expand the investigation into the case to include new perpetrators, organizers and orderers of the crime, as well as those who knew in advance that the kidnapping of passengers would occur, but did nothing to prevent it.
"Following that request, the SDT launched an investigation, which it is still conducting, and from which we still expect concrete results," HRA said.
They then, as they recalled, provided the prosecution with the names of all those whom Ranisavljević mentioned in his testimony as participants in the action: "Montenegrin", "Drunk Slovenian", Milan "Čačak", Aco Šimšić, Željko Marjanović, Bogdan Šekarić, Vidaković, Tanović, Goran (of Roma origin) and Mitar "Četnik".
"A criminal complaint was filed against them in 1998 by lawyers Dragan Prelević and Aleksandar Cvejić, who were hired by the Humanitarian Law Center from Belgrade to represent the families of the victims," HRA said.
They pointed out that the commander of the "Avengers", Milan Lukić, was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Hague Tribunal for his participation in other crimes, such as two mass murders of civilians who he burned alive in houses at two locations in Višegrad.
"He has not yet been tried for the kidnapping and murder of passengers from a train in Štrpci, although he was indicted for that crime by the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2019," HRA said.
The non-governmental organization reminded that they had published selected testimonies about the kidnapping of passengers from a train in Štrpci in the book "Against Forgetfulness".
The book, they explained, presents the testimonies of a man who opposed the abduction of his companion, a relative of a kidnapped passenger who spoke with Milan Lukić, a woman who witnessed the abduction of her husband, a conductor and a train dispatcher from Štrpci station.
HRA said that at the end of the book, the statement of the convicted perpetrator, Nebojša Ranisavljević, was presented, who described in detail how the crime was committed.
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