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Koriani Cliffs massacre

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Koriani Cliffs massacre was the mass murder of more than 200 Bosniak and Croat men
on 21 August 1992 at the Koriani Cliffs (Korianske Stijene) location on Mount Vlai,
central Bosnia and Herzegovina. The massacre was carried out by members of the special
response team of the Public Security Center (CJB) of Prijedor,[1] a Bosnian Serb reserve
police unit.

The names of the victims were reported in a series of articles investigating the massacre in the
Bosnian Serb newspaper Nezavisne Novine.[2] In 1999 the newspaper's editor eljko Kopanja
who worked on the story was maimed in a bombing attempt on his life.[3] Since 2004 several
of the killers were convicted and sentenced to prison terms by the International Criminal
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, while the
suspected chief organizer of the massacre was shot dead during an attempt to arrest him. Most
of the corpses of their victims are still not recovered as of 2009.

Contents
1 The massacre
2 Initial investigation
3 Arrests and trials
4 Location of the remains
5 In popular culture
6 See also
7 References
8 External links

The massacre
On August 21, 1992, a large group of civilian detainees released from the Bosnian Serb
Trnopolje camp were being transported to Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina-controlled
territory in central Bosnia. After the convoy reached Mount Vlai, some 200-250 men were
selected and separated from the main group by a group of paramilitary policemen from
Prijedor, the so-called "Intervention Squad" (also known as "Mice" or "Red Berets"),[2] and
crammed onto two buses. According to the survivor Medo Sivac (18 at the time), "While the
rest of the convoy left for Travnik, they took everything valuable from us, jewelry, money,
watches."[2] The separated men were told they were going to be exchanged for prisoners held
by Bosnian government forces, but instead they were taken on a fifteen minute journey to the
edge of a ravine at Koriani Cliffs.
When the buses arrived at the cliffs the prisoners on the first bus were taken off and killed
one-by-one, shot while kneeling at the edge of the ravine. After about half the men had been
taken off the bus, the rest were taken to be executed in groups of three. Before leaving, the
police officers fired on the bodies and threw grenades at them. Sivac, who was on the second
bus, reported how all the passengers from that bus were unloaded together and were then
ordered to line up along the cliffs and kneel there. "Then the horrible shooting started. I was
falling into the abyss. I didnt loose consciousness, but suddenly I felt that the fall was over,
because of the bushes attached to the cliff. I took refuge there, going as far as possible into the
bush during the night. In the morning I stepped down somehow to find refuge in the nearby
forest. I heard when some people came to burn the corpses."[2]

Twelve of the victims survived the shootings and the fall into the ravine. Seven were found by
members of the Army of the Republika Srpska (VRS), who filed a report on the "terrible
crime against civilians," but the prisoners were not immediately released and some suffered
further abuse while being treated for their wounds at the Hospital for Eye Diseases in
Paprikovac. They were eventually handed over to the ICRC on October 1.

More than 3,500 non-Serbs were killed in the ethnic cleansing campaign in the Prijedor area
in 1992.[4] The Intervention Squad was also alleged to have committed other crimes in the
area, including some against local Serbs.[2]

Initial investigation
Appearing as a prosecution witness at the trial of members of the unit in 2009, Jefto Jankovic,
former investigative judge with the Basic Court in Banja Luka, told how on August 23, 1992,
after receiving a call from the Public Safety Station in Banja Luka, he went to Korianske
Stijene to conduct a crime-scene inspection.[5] "We arrived there at about 3 p.m. We saw that
the area was rocky, the canyon was about 100 to 300 meters deep. I saw two piles of corpses
at the bottom of the canyon. The corpses were lying there one on top of the other. It was a
frightening scene. It was something I had never seen in my life. As it was impossible to
approach them, I asked our crime technician to record it using a video camcorder. This is all
that we did during the course of the crime-scene inspection."[5]

Jankovic was then taken to the Staff Headquarters of the VRS 22nd Brigade in Knezevo,
where he spoke to two survivors, Medo Sivac and Midhat Mujkanovic, who told him how
they had managed to survive by jumping down when the shooting started. He drove them
personally to Banja Luka. Later on they were transferred to the Islamic Humanitarian
Association - Merhamet. Jankovic said that because of the large number of victims he referred
the case to the Public Safety Station in Banja Luka for further investigation. He claimed that
he did not know any further details concerning the perpetrators or victims.[5]

Arrests and trials

The ringleader of the killers Darko Mra[6] was arrested in 2002,[7] and convicted in 2004 on
two counts of crimes against humanity (extermination and inhumane acts) and one count of
violations of the laws or customs of war (murder), including the Koriani massacre, and
sentenced to 17 years in prison.[8] Mra is thought to have been ordered to commit this crime
by Simo Drljaa, the chief of police in Prijedor. Drljaa himself was shot and killed by SFOR
soldiers while resisting an attempt to arrest him in 1997.[9]
In May 2009, eight former members of the Public Safety Station in Prijedor and the
Emergency Police Squad charged with crimes committed at Korianske Stijene were brought
to trial before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.[5][10][11] Damir Ivankovic,[12] Zoran
Babic,[13] Gordan Djuric,[14] Milorad Radakovic,[15] Milorad Skrbic,[16] Ljubisa Cetic,[17]
Dusan Jankovic[18] and Zeljko Stojnic[19] were charged with crimes against humanity. The
Prosecution charged them with having participated in organizing and escorting the convoy of
about 1,200 Croat and Bosniak civilians who were supposed to be exchanged on August 21,
1992, from which about 200 men had been separated before being shot with automatic
weapons at Koriani Cliffs.[20]

Two of the accused have confessed and pledged to assist in further investigations. Damir
Ivankovic admitted his guilt and agreed to testify against the other indictees.[11] He was
sentenced to 14 years imprisonment. Gordan Djuric has also admitted guilt after testifying
that he did not want to participate in the shooting of civilians and so sheltered behind a cliff,
but did obey orders from other members of the Intervention Squad to stand guard securing the
location where the executions took place.[21]

Following exhumations at the ravine in August 2009, two more former members of the
"intervention platoon" of the Prijedor police and the Territorial Defense unit, Branko Topola
(a serving police officer) and Petar Civic, were also arrested on suspicion of taking part in the
massacre.[4]

Location of the remains

Although some remains were located by experts in 2003 thanks to testimony from survivors
and a confession by Damir Ivankovic,[22] until 2009 the whereabouts of most of the victims
remained unknown. The bodies were thought probably to have been buried in mass graves in
various locations of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

After no serious investigation to locate the missing persons or bodies has been undertaken by
the authorities, in September 2008 the Advocacy Center - TRIAL (ACT) Project lodged six
individual applications before the European Court of Human Rights in relation to the
disappearance of eight Bosniak men during the massacre at Mount Vlasic, on behalf of their
relatives.[23]

In July/August 2009 the Bosnian Institute for Missing Persons (IMP) investigated a mass
grave site at the Koriani Cliffs.[24][25] By the end of August 2009, the remains of at least 60
individuals had been exhumed from the deep ravine. Some of the bodies were burned and it
was believed that others had been moved in order to hide the traces of the crime.[26] According
to Amor Masovic of the IMP, these are the dead from one of the buses.[1]

In popular culture
An account of the massacre was portrayed in Safe Area Gorade.

See also
Bosnian Genocide
Role of the media in the Yugoslav wars
 Serbian war crimes
Trnopolje camp

References
1. ^ a b Maovi o ekshumacijama na Korianskim stijenama, Radio Slobodna Evropa, 5
August 2009
2. ^ a b c d e Tracking Down The Crimes At Koricani Near Knezevo In August 1992
3. ^ The Price Of The Truth, The Independent, Feb 9, 2001
4. ^ a b Two Bosnian Serbs arrested on wartime massacre charges, Reuters, Aug 27, 2009
5. ^ a b c d BIRN BiH - Koricanske stijene: Robbing Prisoners
6. ^ Trial Watch : Darko Mrdja (Dado)
7. ^ Statement by the Secretary General of NATO on SFOR's Detention of Indicted War
Criminal Darko Mrda, NATO, 13 June 2002
8. ^ Bosnian Serb jailed for massacre, BBC News, 31 March, 2004
9. ^ Human Rights Watch Applauds NATO Efforts to Apprehend War Criminals,
Human Rights Watch, 1997/07/10
10. ^ BIRN BiH -Koricanske stijene: Trial to Begin on March 30
11. ^ a b Koricanske stijene: Guilt Admission
12. ^ Trial Watch : Damir Ivankovic
13. ^ Trial Watch : Zoran Babic
14. ^ Trial Watch : Gordan Djuric
15. ^ Trial Watch : Milorad Radakovic
16. ^ Trial Watch : Milorad Skrbic
17. ^ Trial Watch : Ljubisa Cetic
18. ^ Trial Watch : Dusan Jankovic
19. ^ Trial Watch : Zeljko Stojnic
20. ^ BIRN BiH - Koricanske stijene: Pleas of not guilty entered
21. ^ BIRN BiH - Koricanske stijene: Agreement filed with Court
22. ^ Forensic experts risk lives for Bosnia justice, Dawn, Monday, 10 Aug, 2009
23. ^ Massacre at Mount Vlasic, 21 August 1992, and the subsequent disappearance of the
victims
24. ^ Ekshumacije ekaju naredbu Tuilatva BiH, Nezavisne Novine, 7.7.2009
25. ^ BIRN BiH - Exhumation at Koricanske Stijene Begins
26. ^ Forensic experts unearth 60 Bosnian war victims, Reuters, Aug 26, 2009

External links
Darko Mra and the Koriani Cliffs massacre case information sheet, United Nations

TRAD ffr

Massacre des falaises de Koriani

Un article de Wikipdia, l'encyclopdie libre

Le massacre de Koriani Cliffs a t le meurtre en masse de plus de 200 Bosniaques et Croates le 21

aot 1992 Korianske Stijene, sur le mont Vlai, en Bosnie centrale et en Herzgovine. Le massacre
a t men par des membres de l'quipe d'intervention spciale du Centre de scurit publique (CJB)
de Prijedor [1], une unit de police de rserve des Serbes de Bosnie.

Les noms des victimes ont t signals dans une srie d'articles sur le massacre dans le quotidien
serbe de Bosnie, Nezavisne Novine [2]. En 1999, le rdacteur du journal eljko Kopanja qui a travaill
sur l'histoire a t mutil dans une tentative de bombardement sur sa vie. Depuis 2004, plusieurs de
ces assassins ont t condamns et condamns des peines de prison par le Tribunal pnal
international pour l'ex-Yougoslavie et la Cour de Bosnie-Herzgovine, tandis que le suspect de
l'organisation du massacre a t abattu lors d'une tentative d'arrestation. La plupart des cadavres de
leurs victimes ne sont toujours pas rcuprs partir de 2009.
Contenu

1 Le massacre
2 Enqute initiale
3 Arrestations et procs
4 Localisation des restes
5 Dans la culture populaire
6 Voir aussi
7 Rfrences
8 Liens externes

Le massacre

Le 21 aot 1992, un grand groupe de dtenus civils librs du camp de Trnopolje serbe de Bosnie
tait transport en Rpublique de Bosnie-Herzgovine, territoire contrl en Bosnie centrale. Aprs
que le convoi ait atteint le mont Vlai, quelques 200 250 hommes ont t slectionns et spars
du groupe principal par un groupe de policiers paramilitaires de Prijedor, la Brigade d'Intervention
(aussi appele souris ou Brets rouges) , [2] et entasss sur deux bus. Selon le survivant Medo
Sivac (18 l'poque), "alors que le reste du convoi est parti pour Travnik, ils ont pris tout prcieux de
nous, bijoux, argent, montres." [2] Les hommes spars ont t dit qu'ils allaient tre changs
contre des prisonniers dtenus par les forces du gouvernement bosniaque, mais au lieu de cela ils
ont t pris sur un voyage de quinze minutes au bord d'un ravin Koriani Cliffs.

Lorsque les bus sont arrivs aux falaises, les prisonniers du premier bus ont t enlevs et tus un
un, abattus genoux au bord du ravin. Aprs environ la moiti des hommes ont t retirs de
l'autobus, le reste a t pris pour tre excut en groupes de trois. Avant de partir, les policiers ont
tir sur les cadavres et leur ont lanc des grenades. Sivac, qui tait sur le deuxime autobus, a
rapport comment tous les passagers de cet autobus ont t dchargs ensemble et ont alors t
commands s'aligner le long des falaises et s'agenouiller l. Alors je me suis mis tomber dans
l'abme, je n'ai pas perdu la conscience, mais soudain j'ai senti que la chute tait termine, cause
des buissons attachs la falaise, je me suis rfugi l, en allant le plus loin possible Dans la brousse
pendant la nuit.Le matin, je suis descendu d'une faon ou d'une autre pour trouver refuge dans la
fort voisine.J'ai entendu dire quand certaines personnes sont venues pour brler les cadavres.

Douze des victimes ont survcu aux tirs et la chute dans le ravin. Sept ont t trouvs par des
membres de l'arme de la Republika Srpska (VRS), qui ont dpos un rapport sur le terrible crime
contre les civils, mais les prisonniers n'ont pas t immdiatement relchs et certains ont subi
d'autres svices pendant qu'ils taient soigns pour leurs blessures l'hpital Pour Maladies
oculaires Paprikovac. Ils ont finalement t remis au CICR le 1er octobre.

Plus de 3 500 non-Serbes ont t tus dans la campagne de nettoyage ethnique dans la rgion de
Prijedor en 1992 [4]. L'escouade d'intervention aurait galement commis d'autres crimes dans la
rgion, dont certains contre des Serbes locaux [2].
Enqute initiale

Jefto Jankovic, ancien juge d'instruction la Cour de base de Banja Luka, a comparu en tant que
tmoin charge au procs des membres de l'unit en 2009, et a dit que le 23 aot 1992, aprs avoir
reu un appel de la station de scurit publique de Banja Luka , Il est all Korianske Stijene pour
effectuer une inspection de la scne du crime [5]. Nous sommes arrivs vers 15 heures. Nous avons
vu que la zone tait rocheuse, le canyon tait d'environ 100 300 mtres de profondeur, j'ai vu deux
tas de cadavres au fond du canyon, les cadavres taient couchs l'un sur l'autre C'tait une scne
effrayante, c'tait quelque chose que je n'avais jamais vu de ma vie, comme il tait impossible de les
approcher, j'ai demand notre technicien de la criminalit de l'enregistrer l'aide d'un camscope.
Inspection de la scne criminelle ". [5]

Jankovic a ensuite t emmen au quartier gnral du personnel de la 22e Brigade de la VRS

Knezevo, o il a parl deux survivants, Medo Sivac et Midhat Mujkanovic, qui lui ont expliqu
comment ils avaient russi survivre en sautant au moment du tir. Il les a conduits personnellement
Banja Luka. Plus tard, ils ont t transfrs l'Association Humanitaire Islamique - Merhamet.
Jankovic a dclar qu'en raison du grand nombre de victimes, il a renvoy l'affaire la station de
scurit publique de Banja Luka pour investir davantage

Jankovic a ensuite t emmen au quartier gnral du personnel de la 22e Brigade de la VRS

Knezevo, o il a parl deux survivants, Medo Sivac et Midhat Mujkanovic, qui lui ont expliqu
comment ils avaient russi survivre en sautant au moment du tir. Il les a conduits personnellement
Banja Luka. Plus tard, ils ont t transfrs l'Association Humanitaire Islamique - Merhamet.
Jankovic a dclar qu'en raison du grand nombre de victimes, il a renvoy l'affaire la station de
scurit publique de Banja Luka pour une enqute plus approfondie. Il a affirm ne pas connatre
d'autres dtails concernant les auteurs ou les victimes [5].
Arrestations et procs

Le chef des assassins Darko Mra [6] a t arrt en 2002 [7] et condamn en 2004 pour deux chefs
d'accusation de crimes contre l'humanit (extermination et actes inhumains) et un chef de violations
des lois ou coutumes de la guerre (meurtre) , Y compris le massacre de Koriani, et condamn 17
ans de prison [8]. On pense que Mra a t condamn commettre ce crime par Simo Drljaa, le
chef de la police Prijedor. Drljaa lui-mme a t abattu par les soldats de la SFOR alors qu'il
rsistait une tentative de l'arrter en 1997. [9]

En mai 2009, huit anciens membres de la station de scurit publique de Prijedor et de l'escouade de
police d'urgence accuss de crimes commis Korianske Stijene ont t traduits en justice devant la
Cour de Bosnie-Herzgovine [5] [10] [11] Damor Ivankovic, [12] Zoran Babic, [13] Gordan Djuric, [14]
Milorad Radakovic, [15] Milorad Skrbic, [16] Ljubisa Cetic, [17] Dusan Jankovic [18] et Zeljko Stojnic
[19] crimes contre l'humanit. L'Accusation les a accuss d'avoir particip l'organisation et
l'accompagnement du convoi d'environ 1 200 civils croates et bosniaques censs tre changs le 21
aot 1992, dont environ 200 hommes avaient t spars avant d'tre tirs avec des armes
automatiques sur les falaises de Koriani. [20]

Deux des accuss ont avou et promis d'aider mener d'autres enqutes. Damir Ivankovic a admis sa
culpabilit et a accept de tmoigner contre les autres accuss. [11] Il a t condamn 14 ans
d'emprisonnement. Gordan Djuric a galement admis sa culpabilit aprs avoir tmoign qu'il ne
voulait pas participer aux tirs de civils et s'abriter derrire une falaise, mais il a obi aux ordres
d'autres membres de l'escouade d'intervention pour surveiller l'endroit o les excutions ont eu lieu.
[21]
Suite aux exhumations effectues au ravin en aot 2009, deux autres anciens membres du "peloton
d'intervention" de la police de Prijedor et de l'unit de la Dfense territoriale, Branko Topola (officier
de police en service) et Petar Civic ont galement t arrts souponns de participer Le
massacre. [4]
Emplacement des restes

Bien que certains restes aient t localiss par des experts en 2003 grce au tmoignage de
survivants et des aveux de Damir Ivankovic [22], jusqu'en 2009, la plupart des victimes restaient
inconnues. On pensait probablement que les corps avaient t enterrs dans des fosses communes
dans divers endroits de la Bosnie-Herzgovine.

En septembre 2008, le Centre de dfense des intrts - Projet TRIAL (ACT) n'a introduit devant la
Cour europenne des droits de l'homme que six requtes individuelles concernant la disparition de
huit hommes bosniaques Pendant le massacre au mont Vlasic, au nom de leurs proches [23].

En juillet / aot 2009, l'Institut bosniaque pour les personnes disparues (IMP) a enqut sur un site
de fosses communes aux falaises de Koriani [24] [25]. la fin d'aot 2009, les restes d'au moins 60
individus avaient t exhums du ravin profond. Certains corps ont t brls et on a cru que
d'autres avaient t dplacs afin de cacher les traces du crime [26]. Selon Amor Masovic de l'IMP,
ce sont les morts d'un des bus. [1]