UDIK Udruženje za društvena istraživanja i komunikacije
The Association for Social Research and Communication (UDIK) reminds the public that on this day thirty-three years ago, a war crime was committed in the village of Biljani near Ključ. The attack on this village began on July 10 in the early morning hours, and wasled by the 17th Light Infantry Brigade of the Republika Srpska Army (VRS) with the help of police officers of the Sanica Police Department. Around 260 Bosniak civilians, residents of the village of Biljani, were killed.
According to the Institute for Missing Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the mass graves in which the Biljani massacre victims were found were mostly discovered in 1995 and 1996. The first mass grave discovered was “Crvena zemlja I”, from which sixteen victims were exhumed. The largest mass grave was“Lanište I”, from which 188 victims were exhumed in the period from October 5 to November 15, 1996. In the area of Biljani, 34 individual graves were also found.
In 2020, UDIK published “War Crime in Biljani, Case: Marko Samardžija”, which documents the only verdict for this war crime so far. In 2006, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina convicted Marko Samardžija of knowing about a systematic attack directed against the civilian population and of assisting in the killing of civilians (murder). Two years later, the Appellate Panel of the Section I for War Crimes of the Courtfound that Marko Samardžija was guilty in as much as he as commander of the 2nd Company of the Sanica Battalion, which was within the composition of the 17th Light Infantry Brigade, on July 10, 1992, acting upon the order of the Commander of the Brigade, ordered the soldiers of the 3rd Company to collect men –Bosniak civilians from their houses in the hamlets of Brkići and Balagića Brdo and bring them to the Jezerine meadow. After that, those older than 18 and younger than 60, around 50 of them, with their hands at their back, were escorted to the school in Biljani and handed over to an unknown police sergeant, after which the civilians were detained in the school. Thus,Samardžija committed the offense of imprisonment and severe deprivation of liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law.The Court imposed on him the sentence of imprisonment for the term of seven years.
Marko Adamović and Boško Lukić were convicted of crimes against humanity in Ključ, but were acquitted for the attack on the village of Biljani. For the Biljani massacre, the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina also charged the former commander of the 17th Light Infantry Brigade Drago Samardžija. The proceedings against him never started, and he died in Serbia in 2021.
In January 2025, the State Court confirmed an indictment in the case of Jovo Kevac. The accused is charged with the crimes committed in July 1992, during an attack on the settlements of Gornji and Donji Biljani, which is when some 250 Bosniak civilians from those settlements were first captured and then killed.
Six children were killed in the Biljani massacre. The youngest was a four-month-old baby, Amila Džaferagić. Her four-year-old brother Almir was also killed along with Amila, and both were found in the arms of their mother Besima in the mass grave of Lanište I. In memory of them and all other victims of this massacre, we appeal to the competent institutions to finally prosecute the perpetrators of this crime.
On the occasion of the anniversary, we pay tribute to all civilian victims of the war from the Ključ area, and especially to the victims of the Biljani massacre.