Thirty-three years have passed since the killing of 69 Serbs in Skelani near Srebrenica in an attack by Muslim forces.
Continuing the ethnic cleansing of central Podrinje and the destruction of everything Serbian, which began in April 1992, strong Muslim forces numbering several thousand soldiers from Srebrenica, under the command of Naser Orić, attacked Serbian villages around Skelani at dawn on January 16, 1993.
Muslim units stormed the villages before daybreak, killing and slaughtering civilians in their sleep in their homes, looting and destroying everything they could.
That day, 69 residents of this area were killed, and two-thirds of the victims were civilians, including several children.
One hundred sixty-five locals were wounded. Of the 30 captured, half did not survive torture in the Srebrenica dungeons, and four are still listed as missing.
Residents sought salvation by retreating toward the border bridge to Bajina Bašta in Serbia, while some tried to save their lives by swimming across the Drina River.
The bridge over the Drina, through which the civilian population was the only way to cross into Serbia, was under constant machine-gun and sniper fire and became a Serbian execution ground, so in attempts to escape on the bridge and in its vicinity the largest number of civilians were killed, as well as in the icy waves of the Drina.
The youngest victim was five-year-old Aleksandar Dimitrijević, and his brother Radislav was 11 years old. With their mother Milica, they tried to flee to Bajina Bašta, but were hit by enemy bullets near the border bridge.
Gordana Sekulić was killed on the bridge, and her two sons survived and today live in Srebrenica with their father Mirko.
Then a minor, Cvetko Ristić from Kušići was left without his entire family, house, and property. His parents and sister were killed, and he has still not found the remains of his brother. His house was rebuilt 16 years after the war.
After the destruction of more than a hundred Serbian villages and hamlets in the Bratunac and Srebrenica municipalities during 1992, Muslim forces led by Orić, on Christmas Day 1993, captured Kravica and several other Serbian villages in its surroundings, committing a horrific massacre of the civilian population.
Nine days later, a comprehensive attack on Skelani and surrounding villages followed with the participation of several thousand members of Muslim units and, according to Orić’s plan, this was supposed to be the final blow to the Serbian people and their destruction or complete expulsion from the territory of the Srebrenica municipality and the left bank of the Drina.
During those two days, on Christmas Day in Kravica and on January 16 in Skelani, Orić’s executioners killed 118 Serbs, more than half of them civilians, and wounded as many as 345 people, two-thirds of whom were civilians.
In an effort to erase everything Serbian in this area, Muslim forces that day looted and burned the Serbian villages of Ćosići, Kostolomci, Klekovići, Božići, Blažijevići, Kolari, Zečevići, Kušići, Stajšići, Maltaši, Stublovi, Arapovići, Bujakovići, Liješće, part of Serbian Skelani, and several other villages.
They did not reach Crvica and its hamlets, nor Petriče, and these are the only Serbian villages in the Srebrenica municipality that were not burned during the past war.
For the numerous mass crimes committed by Muslim forces against Serbs in Podrinje, including those in Skelani, no one has been held accountable, nor were they included in the indictment against Orić in the proceedings that ended with his acquittal at the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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Source:RTRS, Foto: Printscreen RTRS