The promotion of the first and second part of the book from the edition “Genocidal Intent Bratunac 1992”, authored by Ramiz Salkić, was held on Tuesday in the Kovači Multimedia Center in Sarajevo, Anadolija reports.
The book exposes the complex aspects of crimes committed and suffering in the area of Bratunac and surrounding towns, which is extremely important for Bosnia and Herzegovina’s history and today’s society.
These are books that are part of a wider project of depicting and documenting the genocidal intent against the Bosniaks of Bratunac in 1992, which deal with events from the period of aggression against the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the settlements of Hranča, Repovac and Borkovac and the settlement of Glogova. For these two editions of the book, more than 50 interlocutors who survived torture and crimes spoke.
It was said that Bratunac can be considered one of the primary execution grounds for Bosniaks.
“I started this research and preparations for writing these books in 2018, collecting documents, taking statements from people… The characteristic of these two books and the next five is that they speak in the vocabulary of witnesses, victims… I combined these statements and documents , and the essence is in the statements of the witnesses. When I finish the whole cycle, we will have more than 200 authentic, so far not published, statements of people who survived the crimes against Bosniaks in Bratunac in 1992, but also described their path of persecution in the ‘protected zone of the UN Srebrenica ‘, and then the journey from Srebrenica to Tuzla. And after that, their return to the places from which they were expelled,” explained Salkić.
He reminded that the promotion of two books was held tonight. The first tells about the crimes against the Bosniaks of Hranče, Repovac and Borkovac, and the second about the crimes against the Bosniaks of Glogova. The third book, which will be printed at the end of August this year, talks about crimes against Bosniaks in Voljavica, Biljača, Zalužja and several other Bosniak settlements along the Drina river.
“The characteristic of the crimes in Bratunac is that there are not enough convicts. There were more than ten camps for Bosniaks in Bratunac. There are no convicts for those camps. Glogova is the place where the first mass shooting was committed during the aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina. On the 9th of May, on the Day victory over fascism, in several cycles on the same day, more than 64 Bosniaks were shot, next to the local mosque,” said Salkić.
He is of the opinion that little is said about the crimes against Bosniaks in Bratunac.
“According to our data, the number of killed Bosniaks from Bratunac is 3,536, from 1992 to 1995. 405 graves were discovered in the Bratunac municipality, in which around 2,653 remains were found,” added Salkić.
Muamer Džananović, a research associate at the Institute for Researching Crimes Against Humanity and International Law at the University of Sarajevo, was one of the promoters.
“A lot of time has passed since the beginning of mass crimes in the area of Bratunac, Podrinje and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Although a considerable number of crimes have been prosecuted before the Hague Tribunal, domestic and regional justice, this act in a way testifies that there are really a large number of crimes that are not prosecuted,” said Džananović.
He believes that it is very important that the author managed to collect a significant fund of archival material.
“Here I am primarily referring to the statements that he himself made. We are talking here about monstrous crimes. Bratunac can be considered one of the primary execution sites for Bosniaks. It also testifies to the continuity of what is also in the title of the work, which is the genocidal intent, which was expressed in the spring and the summer of 1992. Those people from Bratunac who somehow managed to ‘save’ themselves from those crimes experienced various forms of torture and crimes during the entire period of aggression. survived the crimes in Bratunac in early 1992,” Džananović added.
Avdo Huseinović also spoke about the importance of the book, who said that the works are important because they talk about the year 1992.
“About the year when it all started, in April 1992. We always advocate the thesis that what was carried out in July 1995 in Srebrenica had its beginning in 1992. The general public does not know the situation, now we will talk about the area municipality of Bratunac,” said Huseinović.
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