On September tenth, the 30th anniversary of the mass exodus and suffering of Serbs from Vozuća in the Zavidovići municipality is being commemorated.
Although dispersed to all four corners of the world, the people of Vozuća do not consign their dead and missing to oblivion.
They will walk the 22-kilometer path of exodus and remember all those who gave their lives for freedom, and those who are still being searched for.
During those war years, the people of Vozuća had no dilemma—to defend and protect their ancestral homes. Radenko Đurić says that it was a question of survival.
“Because we suffered there in the Second World War, over 2,500 residents were killed, and our generation did not want to allow history to repeat itself,” says Đurić.
As the only unconquered place in an environment from which Serbs were expelled, Vozuća tried to hold on. Until the fateful September 10, 1995. Serb positions were attacked by the numerically superior Muslim forces of the Second and Third Corps and the “El Mujahideen” unit. NATO also helped by bombing strategic points. 30 Serbian villages were burned and 1,920 Serbian families were expelled. 459 people died. 129 of the missing are still being searched for. Milenko Lazić has been searching for his father for a full 30 years.
“I got information from a man who was in the Army of BiH at the time that he saw him captured by a group of mujahideen. In 2000, they called me from the Hague Tribunal, I gave the man’s name and phone number and said that he was willing to testify. However, I still see that man, and none of them have ever called him,” says Lazić.
Among the prisoners who survived the camps are three women.
The wartime commander of the so-called Army of BiH, Rasim Delić, was convicted for crimes against Serbs, while Sakib Mahmuljin, to avoid a prison sentence, fled to Turkey. There is no punishment for the other criminals.
People from Vozuća are everywhere today, just not in Vozuća. They go there for religious holidays and for the walk along the paths of exodus, when they remember the suffering and their dead and missing. They will do the same this September 10th—along the paths they forever left their homes.
MORE TOPICS:
AMERICAN MEDIA: Police stormed peaceful demonstrators who oppose authoritarian rule!
Source: RTRS, Foto: RTRS