Serbia, Montenegro commemorate victims of Strpci massacre

By Talha Ozturk

BELGRADE, Serbia (AA) - Serbia and Montenegro on Monday commemorated the 1993 Strpci massacre in which 19 civilians were dragged off a train and murdered.

The civilians were kidnapped and killed at Strpci railway station on the way from Serbia's capital Belgrade to the coastal city of Bar in Montenegro.

On the 30th anniversary of the massacre various commemoration programs were held.

Flowers were laid at a monument in Pobrezje Park in Montenegro's capital Podgorica and a commemoration program was organized by the Bosniak National Council (BNV) in Prijepolje, Serbia together with a photo exhibition and documentary showing the Strpci massacre.

In Belgrade, a demonstration was held by non-governmental organizations in the city center.

The Bosnian War was triggered by the break-up of Yugoslavia, which led Bosnia to declare independence in February 1992.

Its capital, Sarajevo, came under attack from Bosnian Serb militias backed by the Yugoslav army in what became the longest siege in modern history.

- Strpci massacre

A paramilitary group led by Milan Lukic, who was involved in various war crimes, abducted 19 people from the train station in the town of Strpci within the borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Later, their bodies were thrown into the Drina River after they were murdered.

Lukic was sentenced to life imprisonment 2009 by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague in 2012 for being involved in the crime and committing crimes against humanity in the city of Visegrad in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina while he was the commander of the White Eagles paramilitary unit.

Despite the intervening 30 years, the bodies of only four of the 19 victims have been found.