by Danijel KOVACEVIC
Reporter, Banja Luka, Srpska, B-H, November 21, 2001 A lot has been written about the most recent war in Bosnia-Hercegovina. However, no one was able to explain, even less understand the way in which certain crimes were committed, crimes in which whole families were murdered. Very frequently the murderers were exactly first door neighbors. Before he war, relations between neighbors were usually good, there was mutual respect, assistance. However, after the start of the war...
Precisely that happened in the village of Ledici in the foothills of the Treskavica Mountain. Ledici was a Serb village surrounded by several Bosniak villages. Before the war this village had about 60 households. Less than a half of residents survived the war... Those who managed to escape in front of their former neighbors today live in Tnovo, Pale, Serb Sarajevo. They claim that their relations with their neighbors were good before the war. They assisted each other, celebrated together...
Attack: Ledici went through a boom period in the eighties, just before the war, when the village started to grow quickly. Old family homes were reconstructed, new homes were built. Life was good and there were no problems with neighboring villages, according to the survivors. When clashes in Sarajevo started, a verbal agreement was made with the neighboring Bosniak villages to leave each other alone and continue as before. Residents of Ledici dearly paid for their trust. On July 4 1992, Bosniaks from the neighboring villages of Dujmovici, Ostojici, Dejcici, and Gaj attacked Ledici.
"The attack was horrible. We were outnumbered by far. They had some sort of trucks; they mounted heavy machine guns on those trucks; it was sort of as an armored vehicle. We were totally unprepared; some people had hunting rifles, there was a handgun or two...," Stojan Vasic, one of the survivors, recalls. He is middle aged with hollow cheeks and a sad stare. His hands shakes as he tries to light a cigarette, and his voice betrays pride mixed with bitterness while he adds that that evening they managed to repel the attackers and that no one was killed.
Several days after the attack on Ledici, two women from the neighboring village came and told them that five trucks full of HOS [neo-Nazi Croat militia] soldiers had arrived and that they were getting ready to attack the village again (they had allegedly already killed everyone in the nearby Serb village of Uncani and burnt the village to the ground). After hearing this, residents of Ledici decided to try to break through to the Serb-held territory. They split into two groups. The first group was supposed to head over Treskavica towards Kalinovic, while the other group went over the Igman mountain towards Vojkovici.
Ten members of the Tesanovic family, three Vasics, three Kenjics, Sekulics (21 all-together) headed over the Treskavica mountain at dawn. They managed to reach the peak of the mountain and then the shots rang out... They fell into a trap. Eight of them managed to get away, twelve-years-old Dragan Vasic was seriously wounded, while the others were murdered in the most monstrous way. The victims of the massacre included four men, four women, and four children, the youngest of which, Milun Tesanovic, was a 16-months-old baby killed in the arms of his uncle. Out of the 12 victims, eight were members of the Tesanovic family. Little Milun was killed by a shot fired in the back of his head. After the massacre, the executors "verified" that the victims were dead by firing another bullet into their heads, and then they pushed the bodies down the slope, leaving them to the wild animals. Interestingly, the victims knew their executors - they were neighbors.
Rada Cvijetic, Milun's aunt: "What did the baby do to them... what did he do to anyone..." She wipes off tears and stares into the skies, as if expecting an answer. "The same people who were welcomed and fed by my grandmother a thousand times did that..."
Twelve-years-old Dragan Vasic was seriously wounded. He was saved by a Bosniak man, whom Dragan knows as Dedo [uncle]. Dragan was taken to the village of Lukavac. Dedo said that no one was allowed to touch Dragan and that he was going to turn him over to UNPROFOR or his parents. It is interesting that during his stay in Lukavac Dragan was renamed Adnan, supposedly so that other, Bosniak, children wouldn't pick on him.
Massacre: When they heard what had happened in Ledici, the second group, 42 of them, immediately headed over Igman towards Vojkovici. Fortunately, they made it through unharmed. After that, only 13 persons, Serbs, mostly elderly women, remained in the village; one of the persons left behind was Stojan Vasic, with wife and three children. Realizing that they had no chance of surviving in the village, Vasic escaped with his family into the forest, where they lived in a tent. "I slept in the forest with my family... we did not dare go to the village... the others slept in the village. We lived in a tent in the forest on a hill above Ledici. I went to the village to get flour; we survived somehow... it is fortunate that it was summer because of children... it can be very cold here at night."
In the meantime, Army of Bosnia-Hercegovina units under the command of Ethem Godinjak entered Ledici and killed everyone they encountered in the village, mostly elderly women. The victims included: Rade Mijovcic (70), Savka Vasic (78), Tankosava Mijovcic (70), Ljubica Vasic (84), Ikonija Vasic (92), Zoran Vasic (71), and Milka Vasic (56). Most of the victims were beheaded, while Savka Vasic had her throat cut on her doorstep.
Camp: Stojan Vasic was captured with his family in the forest after somewhat more than a month of life in a tent. He was taken to the village of Dejcici, to an improvised camp set up in the local school. The camp held more than 150 prisoners, including women and children. Vasic found in the camp Milenko Mijovcic, another resident of Ledici. "First 19 days we were all together, and then, after the fall of Trnovo, they separated us from the women and children," Vasic recalls. "Milenko was beaten to death... he was dying for two days in my arms, I tried to close his wounds with my hands... they beat us with whatever they could lay their hands on - metal cords, rubber batons, boots... boots were the worst... only those who did not want to did not get a chance to beat us... it was horrible; you hear 'get out of my way, let me in' and as soon as you see the door open you start shaking, you know what is going to happen... then they forced us to beat each other. Although I wasn't beaten by the locals, the guys I know; but when the others came, from Crna Rijeka and Kijevo... whatever, I knew all of them..." Stojan's voice trembles while he talks about the conditions in the camp. "They wouldn't let us out, to a toilet. We had to urinate and defecate in a bucket that was kept in the cell... there was no water, no food. Every day, we would get four spoonfuls. You try to survive on that. Look at the kid, my girl, here," he points towards his daughter, who was with him in the camp, and we spot a tear in his eye for the first time, "she cried, screamed, 'daddy, I'm hungry'. She was hungry, she was two at the time; and the guard says 'shut her up or I'll kill her'... And, what could I do, I put a blanket in her mouth to muffle her cries..."
Vasic spent 60 days in the camp. He was exchanged together with his family. "A neighbor helped us out. He immediately told me to be patient until September and that he was going to let us go, exchange or no exchange." Vasic shrugs his shoulders and repeats: "What is there to say... no one can explain that. I now only live for my kids, and that is also not easy. We survive somehow on $40 a month, I work for Oslobodjenje, but that's not enough. Look, they cut our electricity off, I can't pay; they say I owe $200; how can I pay? I told them that my kids can live without electricity, but cannot survive without food." After our question whether they were visited by someone from the competent ministry or the War Veterans' Association, his lips twist into something like a smile. "Don't be ridiculous..."
Deal: Although the massacre of the residents of Ledici took place in early 1992, their bodies were found only in the late September of 2001. The search, all over Treskavica, was futile. The reason was that none of the surviving witnesses could recall the precise spot of the massacre, because it took place in a wilderness, a forest, at more than 2000 meters above the sea level. The circumstances under which the bodies were found are strange, to say the least. Namely, a Bosniak man contacted families of the massacred residents from Ledici claiming that he knew where the bodies were. However, he wanted $2,500 to reveal the location. He claimed that he had not taken part in the massacre. They managed to reach a deal and reduce the price to $1,000. The man agreed to receive money after identification of the bodies. Although the information was not precise enough, the commission for search for the missing managed to finally find 12. The bodies were piled up, under beech trees, covered with leaves and a tree trunk. "Now I'm even more hurt," Rada Cvijetic says. "First they killed them and then we had to pay to get their bodies back."
Ledici today resemble a haunted village. Only destroyed and burnt houses remind a passerby that this was at one point a human settlement. At the same time the ruins are evidence of events that may never be fully explained. The authorities of the Federation BH tried to revive the village. Thus, the plans envisaged the construction of a mosque on the land belonging to the Tesanovic family; a road was built over their land as well, then a new post office and an outdoors school. However, that did not help. Currently, this village is deserted. Only the howl of wind startles the visitors. Nothing is the way it used to be. Even the fresh water spring in the center of the village which served as a sort of a local hangout for the young villagers. The village never had a tavern, café or a youth center - the Ledici water spring, known as Zbisce, fulfilled all of these roles. At that spot the Federation BH authorities have erected a monument to shehids [martyrs fallen fighting for Islam], "Muslim victims fallen in defense of the village of Ledici".
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Memorial to murdered Serbs in Trnovo, Bosnia and Herzgovina
Posted on July 30, 2013 by Grey Carter
21 YEARS SINCE BOSNIAN MUSLIM FORCES MASSACRED 124 SERBIAN CIVILIANS AND 157 MEMBERS OF THE ARMY OF REPUBLIKA SRPSKA NEVER INVESTIGATED, NO ONE EVER TRIED -
By serving the liturgy and laying flowers at a memorial in Trnovo Bosnian Serbs mark 21 years since Bosnian Muslims murdered 124 Serbian civilians and 157 members of the Serbian army in Trnovo.
Milena Vitković testifies about the massacre committed by the Bosnian Muslim soldiers in the Orthodox holiday of Tierra Maria in 1992. Ten members of Milena’s family have been massacred, including a child of a year and a half. She says that since than every day is the same – she wakes and lays in grief.
“They were all killed in Treskavica, and no one has ever been held responsible or suspect for this crime. But if the Earthy Court doesn’t respond to this crime, as it doesn’t– the God’s judgement will punish the murderers.”she said.
Jela Vitković , whose husband was murdered on this day in 1992. , says that to date no one has been tried for the crime.
21. year ago the Muslim soldiers took her husband and tied him ropes and dragged him through Trnovo. His body was found in Rajski do where Muslims thrown it under the tree.
In the summer 1992. members of the Muslim Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Trnovo municipality near Sarajevo organized concentration camps for Serbian civilians (women, children and elderly), many of which were brutally murdered. More than 80% of crimes against Serbian civilians in Trnovo and the surrounding area has been done in the most monstrous way – by knives, hammers, drowning and burning. Although all the data and facts were established long time ago and the perpetrators are known, none of these crimes have been prosecuted.
Among the victims in Trnovo was the nine-member family Tešanović, which was executed in the village Ljuta near Kalinovik. The youngest victim was Milun Tešanović. He was only 18 months.
Bosnian muslims were merciless – Serbian children from Trnovo were taken to some of the deadly Sarajevo concentration camps
The material and evidences have been proceeded to the Prosecutor’s Office, all provided by the research team of war crimes of Serbia Ministry Interior, but none of the 54 Bosnian Muslims whose involvement in this war crime was documented, have ever been tried. The criminal complaint survivors filed has never been responded. All the files were sent to Sarajevo in 2001. where all remains buried and forgotten.
Charges were filed against:
1 Edhem GODINJAK,
2 Hajrudin Ploskic called Lelo
3 Munib Ademović
4 Hajrudin Elezović,
5 Ismet Kolar, and others.
They are charged with war crimes against civilians and soldiers. In the villages of Gornja and Donja Presnica and Straiste they killed 13 members of Cvijetić, Samardzija, Šehovac and Kravljača families. They also killed 11 civilians in Trebjeca , etc…
The chairwoman of the Families of the killed and captured soldiers and civilians of Trnovo municipality, Joka Prorok said that 21 years ago everything Serbian has been massacred or escaped in order to survive the invasion of the USA backed Bosnian Jihadists.
“Those who managed to reach Kalinovik survived, but the elderly , children or sick who remained in their homes were brutally murdered and then set on fire,”
Joka Prorok said that during defending Trnovo 157 soldiers and 124 civilians were massacred in the most brutal way; Bosnian muslims broke legs and arms of a child of a year and a half.
She stressed that it was done by their Muslim neighbors.
The Bosnian Muslim soldiers captured 69 elderly men and women, children, and women who were unable to escape through Rogoj and Kalinovik. They brought them to Trnovo, where they were tortured.
“After torturing, they locked them in a Church and burned them, together with the priest Nedeljka Popovic,” she said.
The Trnovo mayor Nenad Mišović pointed out that since then the great Orthodox holiday of Tierra Maria is the saddest day for Trnovo,
Mišović pointed out that, unfortunately, no one was held responsible for these crimes, and neither Bosnian nor international institutions didn’t do a thing in order to bring the monsters to book.
“We hope that justice will be done, one way or another” he said, adding that Trnovo Serbs must never forget the victims.
The mayor of Kalinovik Mileva Komlenović said that the service was held today at the memorial in Rogoj too where on this day in 1992. 21 Serbian soldiers died.
” Our emotions are mixed today – there are both melancholy and pride,” she said.
According to her, every crime that remains unpunished threatens to repeat itself, and all the criminals have to be punished.
Source....
http://www.ex-yupress.com/reporter/reporter148.html
http://www1.srna.rs/novosti/111343/commemoration-for-serbian-victims-of-massacre-.htm
http://theremustbejustice.wordpress.com/2013/07/30/memorial-to-murdered-serbs-in-trnovo-bosnia-and-herzgovina/