Hundreds gathered today to mourn 86 Muslim victims of one of the worst massacres of the Bosnian war in the 1990s.
The remains of the victims, mostly male and many teenagers, were discovered in 2017 in a mass grave at Koricanske Stijene, a mountain region in central Bosnia.
They had been part of a group of more than 200 civilians, notably Bosnian Muslims, but also several Catholic Croats, previously held in a detention camp at Trnopolje, in the region of Prijedor.
On August 21, 1992, they were loaded onto buses, officially for a prisoner exchange, but when the convoy arrived at Koricanske Stijene they were offloaded, lined up on the edge of the cliff and executed, according to several verdicts by local courts against members of the Bosnian Serb forces.
Prijedor, Bosnia and Herzegovina: A woman mourns at the funeral service for 86 newly identified victims of the Prijedor massacre
Their remains were found at the bottom of a cliff in a natural pit, covered by an enormous amount of stones
Their remains were found at the bottom of a cliff in a natural pit, covered by an enormous amount of stones.
It was one of the most horrific episodes of the 1992-1995 inter-ethnic war in Bosnia that claimed some 100,000 lives.
Mourners today gathered in Prijedor at a funeral service for the victims.
Medina Garibovic, 29, who lives in Switzerland, came to bury her father Sefik, who was 35 when he died.
‘We separated from each other in May 1992 at the train station in Trnopolje (a village near Prijedor),’ she said.
It was one of the most horrific episodes of the 1992-1995 inter-ethnic war in Bosnia that claimed some 100,000 lives (pictured: Mourners at the funeral service today)
To date, 181 victim of the massacre at Koricanske Stijene have been found and identified, including 176 Bosnian Muslims and five Croats, according to Mujo Begic, an official from the Bosnian Institute for Missing Persons
‘My mother, my sister and I first left to Slovenia. He was supposed to join us a week later. But he was taken to the camp in Trnopolje and we never saw each other again,’ she said.
Garibovic’s remains, like those of Himzo Mrkalj, were unearthed found during the 2017 exhumations.
‘In the first exhumation we found a bone and two teeth of my husband. Now, we found more remains and we have decided to bury him,’ said his widow, 71-year old Nasima Mrkalj.
The remains of the victims, mostly male and many teenagers, were discovered in 2017 in a mass grave at Koricanske Stijene, a mountain region in central Bosnia
‘On one hand, I am satisfied, but pain is stronger than that satisfaction,’ the woman, who lives in Denmark, added.
To date, 181 victim of the massacre at Koricanske Stijene have been found and identified, including 176 Bosnian Muslims and five Croats, according to Mujo Begic, an official from the Bosnian Institute for Missing Persons.
After taking control in the northwestern region of Prijedor in April 1992, Serb forces killed some 3,200 people, including 250 women and a hundred children, according to victims’ associations.
Some 650 people are still unaccounted for.