UDIK Udruženje za društvena istraživanja i komunikacije
The Association for Social Research and Communication (UDIK) from Sarajevo and Woman’s Voice – Priboj remind the public of the 29th anniversary of the abduction and murder of civilians from the village of Sjeverin (Priboj, Serbia).
The Sjeverin massacre took place on October 22, 1992 when members of the Serbian paramilitary unit under the command of Milan Lukić, kidnapped 16 passengers from Priboj – Pljevlja bus in the Bosnian village of Mioče near Višegrad. 16 Bosniak passengers from Sjeverin – 15 men and one woman, all Yugoslavian and Serbian citizens – were taken off the bus and forced onto truck. They were taken to hotel Vilina Vlas in Višegrad. The hostages were severely beaten and tortured inside the hotel and then taken to the edge of the Drina River where they were executed. The night before this event, Sabahudin Ćatović was abducted in front of the family house. He has been missing since then. So far, the remains of only one victim (Medredin Hodžić) have been found, while the others are still missing.
For this crime were sentenced Dragutin Dragićević, Milan Lukić and Oliver Krsmanović to 20 years and Đorđe Šević to 15 years.
Twenty-nine years have passed since this war crime, and the families of the victims are still searching for the remains of their loved ones. It is unfortunate that Serbian institutions do not treat those killed as civilian victims of war just because they were killed on the territory of another state. This is unacceptable and shameful, because the Sjeverin massacre shows us that there was no internal conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but open aggression against persons of other ethnicities. In that case, it did not matter whether you were a citizen of FR Yugoslavia or Bosnia and Herzegovina, but it was crucial that your name was different. That is why we believe that these victims should get the status they deserve, and that their family members should receive the support and financial compensation from Serbia.
On this occasion, we remember the victims of the Sjeverin massacre:
Alija Mandal, Derviš Softić, Esad Džihić, Idriz Gibović, Hajrudin Sajtarević, Medredin Hodžić,
Mehmed Šebo, Medo Hodžić, Mevlida Koldžić, Mithad Softić, Mujo Alihodžić, Mustafa Bajramović, Ramahudin Ćatović, Ramiz Begović, Sabahudin Ćatović, Sead Pecikoza i Zafer Hadžić.
