Visegrad massacre victims commemorated in Bosnia

VISEGRAD, Bosnia and Herzegovina (AA) – Three thousand roses were cast into the Drina River Saturday in the city of Visegrad, in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina, in commemoration of 3,000 people killed in the city during the Bosnian War.

The Visegrad 92 association, representing the families of people missing from wartime, organized the commemoration ceremony in Visegrad, site of one of the worst atrocities of the 1992-1995 war.

Bahra Neretlic, who lost his brother Omer during the war, said Omer’s death left his wife and two children in tears.

“Twenty-four years have passed since I saw my brother. We have yet to find his body,” Neretlic said.

Safet Avdic lost his wife and 24 family members during the war, but says they have not yet found the remains of dozens of family members. “Everything is like it happened yesterday,” he said.

In spring and summer 1992, in an act of “ethnic cleansing,” Serbian police and military forces reportedly killed about 3,000 Bosnian civilians in Visegrad and its surroundings.

Hedija Kasapovic, head of the Visegrad 92 group, said those responsible for the massacre are still walking free.

“Twenty-four years ago, a terrible massacre took place right on this bridge,” she said, speaking at the ceremony held at the city’s Mehmed Pasa Sokolovic Bridge over the Drina River.

She said people taking part in the ceremony lost at least one relative on this bridge. “Everyone knows that the Drina River is the world’s biggest grave,” she said.

Hundreds of thousands of people were killed during the Bosnia War, with millions fleeing homes and over 50,000 women raped. The three-and-half-year-long war came to an end with the Dayton Accords signed in December 1995 between the (now defunct) Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the Republic of Bosnia, and Herzegovina and Croatia.