UDIK Udruženje za društvena istraživanja i komunikacije
The Association for Social Research and Communication (UDIK) reminds the public of the 30th anniversary of the closure of the Sušica camp near Vlasenica, which was a camp for detaining, torturing, raping and killing Bosniaks from the Vlasenica area. Between May and September 1992, about 8,000 Bosniaks passed through the Sušica camp.
In 2005, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) convicted Dragan Nikolić aka Jenki, the commander of the camp, to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to participating in the 1992 killings, rape and torture of Bosniak prisoners at the Sušica concentration camp.
Trials for war crimes committed in the area of Vlasenica are also conducted before domestic courts. UDIK’s publication “War crimes in Milići and Vlasenica – Verdicts” documents three cases brought before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina for crimes committed in the pre-war municipality of Vlasenica. Before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Predrag Bastah was sentenced to 22 years and Goran Višković to 18 years in prison. Dragan Marinković was sentenced to 8 years in prison for the crimes against the Bosniaks of Milići.
According to the Institute for Missing Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 955 Bosniak victims went missing in the municipalities of Vlasenica and Milići between 1992 and 1995. These persons disappeared as a result of war crimes, but they are not related to the genocide committed in July 1995.
The largest mass grave found in the Vlasenica area is the Ogradica mass grave, from which 232 remains of victims were exhumed in 2003, and the largest mass grave in the Milići municipality is the Zaklopača mass grave, from which 81 remains were exhumed. Thirty-seven victims were exhumed from the Sušica mass grave.
Thirty years later, the fate of a large number of missing persons from the area of Vlasenica and Milići has still not been resolved. It is very important to speak, remember and testify before the courts about all the monstrous acts committed during the war period. Only in this way can responsible perpetrators be prosecuted and their plan prevented, which is to cover up and forget all their crimes.
