The Association for Social Research and Communication (UDIK) reminds the public of the anniversary of the war crimes against the Bosniaks of Čajniče. According to the judgments of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the period from mid-April to mid-May 1992, in the municipality of Čajniče, as part of a wide and systematic attack by members of the Territorial Defense of the municipality of Čajniče, members of the “Blue Eagles” unit and the police of the Public Security Station Čajniče, supported by paramilitary formations coming from Serbia and Montenegro, the persecution of the non-Serb civilian population in the area of Čajniče was carried out on ethnic and religious grounds, including through imprisonment and other inhumane acts of a similar nature, committed with the intention of causing great suffering.

During May 1992, Bosniak civilians who were previously captured in the town or surrounding villages, as well as on the road to Pljevlja (Montenegro), were killed at the hunting lodge in Mostina near Čajniče. According to the Institute for Missing Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina, victims from the Čajniče area were exhumed at a total of 32 locations, where nine mass graves were discovered. The largest grave was found in Mostina, from which the remains of 18 victims were exhumed in September 2002. Also, six more mass graves were found in Mostina, from which the bodies of a total of 60 victims were exhumed.

The most monstrous story was revealed by a mass grave found in the Čudanj forest in 2006, where the remains of an entire family were exhumed. The remains of Hajrija and her two children, one and a half year old Amrudin and four-year-old Amra, were first found. Just a few hundred meters further on at this location, in a single grave, the remains of Amir Mahmutović, Hajrija’s husband, were also found.

UDIK’s publication „War Crimes in Čajniče – Verdicts“ presents cases of the Court of B&H that sentenced Milorad Živković, Milun Kornjača, Milosav Jovanović, Marijan Jovanović and Slavko Jovanović to six to eleven years in prison. Duško Tadić and Stevo Jovanović were acquitted of the charges.

More than ten years ago, the State Court confirmed the indictment charging the accused Duško Kornjača with having planned and ordered the persecution of the non-Serb population from the municipality of Čajniče, as the president of the Crisis Staff, later the commander of the War Staff of the Serbian municipality of Čajniče, and the president of the Municipal Assembly and Minister of Defense in the Government of the Serbian Autonomous Territory of Herzegovina, as a conscious participant in a joint criminal enterprise, in the period from mid-April 1992 to the end of June 1992.

Despite being located in neighboring Serbia, Kornjača still remains inaccessible to the judicial authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Serbian authorities knowingly continue to provide refuge to war criminals, thereby complicit in obstructing their prosecution and providing legal satisfaction to the families of the murdered. We call on the Serbian authorities to stop the policy of hiding murderers and criminals and finally show a sincere will for good neighborly relations.

On the occasion of the 34th anniversary, we remember the murdered Bosniak civilians of Čajniče and the surrounding area.

The Association for Social Research and Communications (UDIK) helps post-Yugoslav societies to establish the rule of law and to accept the legacy of massive human rights violations in order to identify the criminal responsibility of perpetrators, to meet justice and prevent the repetition of such crimes. It is the affirmation of the value of an open civil society, with clearly defined priorities in terms of promotion and protection of human rights, as well as youth involvement in social and political processes through peace activism.