Koricanske Stijene Killing Commemorated With Roses

This year, 200 roses were thrown a cliff’s edge in Koricanske Stijene, in the memory of approximately 200 Bosniak civilians from Prijedor who were killed there on August 21, 1992.

As a result of five exhumations conducted between 2003 to 2013, 117 victims of the killing have been identified. At least 20 identified victims still cannot be buried, due to inadequate remains.

“In many cases, only small bones which the criminals weren’t able to relocate or didn’t see have been found. To date, we know the identity of 117 people based on DNA analysis. We’re still searching for about 80 victims. What’s characteristic about this case is that we know the identities of 20 individuals, but we still haven’t found their bones and have nothing to hand over to their families to organize their burial. We only have small bones, on the basis of which their identities have been determined,” said Lejla Cengic, the spokesperson of the Institute for the Missing Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The victims of the Koricanske Stijene killing had previously been detained in Trnopolje and other detention camps. Police officers from Prijedor separated more than 150 men travelling in a convoy from Prijedor to Travnik on Mount Vlasic. Those men were taken to Koricanske Stijene.

A state court verdict on the Koricanske Stijene killing explains how the 150 men who were taken off the convoy were escorted to the edge of a cliff in Koricanske Stijene and killed. The men were ordered to kneel on the edge of the road, facing the cliff, and were shot from a close distance.

Damir Ivankovic, who plead guilty before the state court for participating in the killing, was sentenced to 14 years in prison. Ivankovic described the how the killing was carried out during his trial.

“The people who were separated noticed something horrible was going to happen. They said, ‘Men, they’re going to kill us all’…they began jumping down. Then the shooting started as well,” Ivankovic said.

The state court determined that as the bodies of the victims fell into the pit, some men jumped voluntarily to escape death. Many of them didn’t survive the fall, as they threw themselves off a very high point onto a rocky surface. Only 12 men survived the shooting.

Sasa Zecevic, Radoslav Knezevic, Petar Civcic, Branko Topola and Marinko Ljepoja were charged with participating in the killing. In 2010, a protected witness known as “A” had their statement read aloud in the courtroom.

“We were told to kneel down as if we were praying to God. Then the shooting began. At some point I turned around and saw a policeman in a blue uniform shooting at me. I jumped down and began crawling on the cliffs. I stopped on some pine tree and remained stuck on it,” A’s statement read.

A’s statement went on to say that the shooting lasted between 10 and 15 minutes and was followed by bomb detonations.

KO18, another survivor of the killing, gave a statement at the same trial.

“My leg became infected with worms. I was crawling through the woods. The river carried me. I managed to cross to the other side of the river and lost consciousness. Later on, I found out I was in the village of Dobretici, when members of the Croatian Defense Council found me. They dressed my wound and transferred me to a hospital in Jajce,” KO18 said.

The state court found the following ten people guilty of the killing and sentenced them to a total of 183 years in prison: Zoran Babic, Milorad Skrbic, Dusan Jankovic, Zeljko Stojnic, Sasa Zecevic, Radoslav Knezevic and Marinko Ljepoja. Gordan Djuric and Ljubisa Cetic plead guilty to participating in the killing. Darko Mrdja, who plead guilty before the Hague Tribunal, was sentenced to 17 years in prison.

The commemoration of the 23rd anniversary of the Koricanske Stijene killing was organized by the Association of Detainees of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Regional Association of Detainees from Banja Luka. The event was attended by families of the victims, former detainees and others.