Visegrad massacres

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vi%C5%A1egrad_massacres

'According to documents of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), based on the victims reports, some 3,000 Bosniaks were murdered during the violence in Višegrad and its surroundings, including some 600 women and 119 children.^[3][4] According to the ICTY, Višegrad was subjected to "one of the most comprehensive and ruthless campaigns of ethnic cleansing in the Bosnian conflict".^[5] According to theResearch and Documentation Center, 1661 Bosniaks were killed/missing in Višegrad.<sup>[6]'

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/8a698dbe-73af-11e1-aab3-00144feab49a.html</sup>

Unforgiven, unforgotten, unresolved: Bosnia 20 years on

By Alec Russell

Visegrad, site of one of the worst atrocities of the Bosnian war, is still in denial about the past

Some excerpts

'I recall the words of a young Bosnian Muslim lawyer I had spoken to a day before. His family were stalwarts of Visegrad’s Muslim establishment before the war. “Visegrad was worse than Srebrenica,” he had told me. “It was a small, slow genocide that went on for weeks. Teachers murdered pupils. Pupils murdered teachers. Godfathers murdered each other … It was a hunting party and we were the prey.”'... 

'The refugees spoke of a virtual genocide. From May, Muslims, particularly men, had been rounded up and murdered; as in Rwanda, the educated and wealthy were the first in line. Scores, if not hundreds, were slaughtered on the Ottoman bridge. Hundreds of women were detained and mass raped at the local spa. My most abiding memory is of the face of a slender young Muslim textile worker, Zehra Turjacanin. She was sitting under a tree in the shade. Two older women were waving away the flies hovering over her wounds. Her hands and feet were bandaged. Her face was covered in black scabs. Her ears had all but melted away. It was clear her wounds were badly infected and that she might not live. (Much later, I learnt that it was about then that a doctor suggested to her she should not have precious medicines, as she would not survive. She answered that she had to live.) She spoke in a whisper yet with astonishing force. On the night of June 27, a Serb policeman called Milan Lukic knocked at her door. She had known him from their days at high school. She, her mother, two sisters and four children were bundled into a house down the road with dozens more.

“When I got to the balcony I saw there was a wardrobe against the front door and all the windows had been blocked with furniture. They started to throw stones at us to make us go inside, then they threw hand grenades. We were the last ones in ... I said to my mother ‘don’t worry they won’t kill us.’ Then they set the house on fire ... I saw a window in the garage door ... I was the only one who got out.

“I was wearing trousers, a jumper and a cardigan, and I pulled off my burning clothes. Outside, the Chetniks (Serb nationalists) were standing around watching the house burning. They were drunk and playing music very, very loud, so no one could hear the sound of the burning people screaming inside.”

About 70 people were murdered in the Bikavac fire. It was one of the worst single atrocities of the war.'

one of the comments - 

djuradiMar 24, 2012

In 1991 (too) many Serbs turned to absolute monsters. Almost overnight they turned from workers, engineers etc into hunters set on killing as much as possible of their non-serb neighbours. It was incredible to witness it.

In August 1991 mine two relatives, husband and wife, were killed only because they were Croatian. To the man they cut off his arms and legs after killing him.
They were simple farmers in their 60s.

Around 20.000 people from my hometown were forced out of their homes that summer and had to live as refugees for 4 years. That is those who survived. Only because they were Croatian.
When we returned in 1995 we found a destroyed town. All seven catholic churches and chapels were raised to the ground. Hundreds of houses as well. Interestingly, none were built under Serb occupation (they could destroy after occupation but could not build).

Europe failed humanity miserably in the 90s.
Everybody knew Croats and especially Bosnian Muslims had (too) few weapons, while Serbs had full control of the whole JNA (Yugoslav army). And they knew and saw what they wanted to do. But they did nothing until 1999 (NATO bombing of Serbia) and after tens of thousands of innocent deaths. Much of the blame for these deaths lays on European leaders from the 90s. Not only Milosevic.

It is good to see articles as this one are still being written. These things must never be forgotten. But amazingly they slowly are. Especially, as Serbs are hoping that everybody will forget all about it as times passes by. Even worse, their efforts are very much going in the direction of the 'they-are-all-equally-guilty' explanation. That is not only shameful, but also dangerous. In a normal world it should not be allowed.

Probably the worst thing in the whole story is the existence of the Republic of Srpska - how else can this be interpreted but as a reward for genocide.
Yet nobody (relevant) in Europe is at all bothered with it.