prijava
SARAJEVO, July 10 (FENA) - The crime against the civilians of the village of Biljani near Ključ, when the Army of the Republika Srpska murdered around 260 Bosniaks, happened on this day 31 years ago.
The Association for Social Research and Communications (UDIK) recalls that the attack on that village began in the early morning hours of July 10, 1992, and was led by the 17th Light Infantry Brigade of the Army of the Republika Srpska (VRS) in cooperation with police officers from Sanica.
The result of that attack was the slaughter of around 260 civilians of Bosniak nationality who were residents of Biljani, which led to the almost complete disappearance of that place in the Bosnian Krajina.
The oldest victim was 85-year-old Bećo Ćehić, while the youngest victim was four-month-old baby Amila Džaferagić. According to the Missing Persons Institute of Bosnia and Herzegovina data, the first discovered mass grave was found in November 1995, from which sixteen victims were exhumed.
The largest mass grave is the Lanište I pit, from which 188 victims were exhumed in the period from October 5 to November 15, 1996. 34 individual graves were found in the area of Biljani.
In March 2005, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina filed an indictment against Marko Samardžija, who, in his capacity as the commander of the Third Company of the Sanica Battalion in the 17th Light Infantry Brigade of the VRS, ordered and participated in the massacre in Biljani.
The publication War Crime in Biljani, Case: Marko Samardžija documents this case of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which in November 2006 passed a verdict and sentenced Samardžija to 26 years in prison for crimes against humanity.
However, two years later, in the second-instance proceedings before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Samardžija was found guilty of imprisonment and serious deprivation of physical liberty as a crime against humanity and was sentenced to seven years in prison.
(FENA) A. B.
