Bosnia’s Brcko Commemorates Bridge Massacre

Hundreds of Brcko residents gathered on Thursday and threw flowers into the River Sava in memory of those who were killed on April 30, 1992, when the bridge which leads to Croatia exploded as several hundred people were crossing it.

The president of the Association of Families of Missing, Abducted and Killed Bosniaks in Brcko, Ramiz Ahmetovic, said he was angry at the local police and prosecutors who have not identified the perpetrators in 23 years.

“I received information that this case is being investigated, but I think they will never find those responsible because there is too much politics,” Ahmetovic told BIRN.

The exact number of casualties has never been established because some of the victims’ bodies fell into the water and were not recovered.

Twenty-three years on, no one has been prosecuted for the blast.

Edhem Mahovkic from Lukavac said that he was with his brother on the bridge that day, returning home from Croatia.

“Many people died. We were lucky, since were on the Bosnian side of the river and we were thrown towards that side. Some people jumped off the bridge to save their lives,” said Mahovkic.

He said the killings must have been planned, since the explosion took place in the morning, at a time when the largest number of civilians were crossing the bridge.

The bridge was rebuilt after the war and is now only closed for two hours each year on the anniversary of the explosion, April 30.