prijava
KOZARAC, July 20 (FENA) - A collective funeral for 16 victims who were killed in the area of Prijedor during the last war was held today on the plateau of the Kamicani memorial center, after which their remains were buried.
The funeral service was led by the Raisu-l-ulama of the Islamic community in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Husein effendi Kavazović, and was attended by muftis, high officials of the Islamic community, representatives of government institutions, ambassadors, as well as representatives of domestic and international organizations.
Among others, the Chairman of the BiH Presidency, Šefik Džaferović, and the member of the BiH Presidency, Željko Komšić, also attended the commemoration and the funeral service.
In his address, Kavazović said that this was a day of sadness and too much pain.
"For our brothers and sisters, our mothers and fathers, our innocently killed children, here in Kozarac, we hold this funeral for those innocent victims, we hand them over to Your protection. We could not protect them from the hand of criminals who killed them. On this day, July 20, gathered at this cemetery, we stand before You, aware of the gravity of the crime committed by evil people. We extend our grief for our loved ones and our sadness to You, our Lord, who hears everything, sees everything and knows everything," emphasized Kavazović.
He emphasized that the plan for the literal extermination of Bosniaks was calculated, precisely worked out and monstrous.
"That criminal plan was buried in the souls of criminals. Behind that bestiality and the absence of any compassion for the other and the different, there were fields of blood, tombs of human bones, to testify how low a man can steep, with whom we shared bread until yesterday and welcomed them into our courtyards and our homes," said Kavazović.
He said that if we cannot change others around us, we can and must change ourselves and our relationship to our own existence: life, spirituality, morality and our physical safety.
All our attention, he says, must be focused on strengthening the capacity of the spiritual strength of our people and their physical security.
The victims buried this year were killed in 1992 and 1993, and their remains were found in ten different locations.
The youngest victim buried this year is Samed Jakupović who was only 19 years old when he was killed. The oldest victim who was buried is Edhem Kaltak. He was 65 years old at the time of his death.
So far, the remains of the murdered citizens of Prijedor have been found in 501 locations, in 73 mass graves in ten municipalities and three countries - Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia.
In Prijedor, 3,176 civilians, mostly of non-Serb nationality, had been killed. So far, the remains of around 2,500 people from Prijedor have been found, and around 620 victims are still being searched for.
(FENA) S. R.
