President Milanović pays tribute to victims of Kostrići, village in which all its residents were killed: We must not give up searching for the perpetrators, let them live in fear
The President of the Republic Zoran Milanović attended today a Remembrance Day commemoration for the Victims of the Homeland War of the Municipality of Majur held at the Memorial to the Civilians Killed in Kostrići.
“When a defender is killed, there is grief, there is pain. Unfortunately, here civilians were killed, people who didn’t carry arms. They were murdered by their neighbours, people who had a hard life in this area, but had lived together for generations”, President Milanović noted in his address, reminding that, if in a fit of rage a soldier kills a civilian on the opposite side out of revenge, retaliation, it’s a crime for which there is no forgiveness. “In this area, in Kostrići, in the Municipality of Majur, in Baćin, civilians were killed. They were killed for no reason, out of greed, out of pure hatred. It is hard to describe in words what happened here”, he added.
President Milanović went on to say that the atrocities committed against the civilian population in Baćin, Škabrnja or Majur are “horrific examples of evil that an individual is able to do to his neighbour, and it culminated in the territory of Sisak-Moslavina County”. As for the crime in the village of Kostrići in which the entire population was killed, the President warned that these crimes are hardly known among the Croatian public. “That is unjust. We can’t change this with indignation, but with constant and annoying repetition. This is our obligation. We must not give up searching for the perpetrators, let them live in fear, let them feel unsafe wherever they are”, the President noted.
“Croatian commanders from Operation Storm, with illustrious and practically flawless military victories, are being sought by a neighbouring state for alleged crimes that took place in a third state, i.e. in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Croatia has no such pretensions. We are seeking just those killers who committed these crimes here, in our country, in Croatia near Sisak”, President Milanović said in concluding his address.
During the Homeland War in the territory of the Municipality of Majur, in the communities of Majur, Kostrići, Stubalj and Graboštani 54 innocent victims were massacred, the majority of them civilians. Remembrance Day for the Victims of the Homeland War of the Municipality of Majur is marked on 15 November because twenty residents were killed on that day.
In addition to paying tribute at a wreath-laying and candle-lighting ceremony at the Memorial to the Homeland War Victims of the Municipality of Majur at Golubica monument in Kostrići, President Milanović also paid tribute at the Memorial to the victims of the Homeland War and of the Second World War of the village of Stubalj.
In the company of President Milanović was the Special Adviser to the President for Homeland War Veterans Marijan Mareković.
PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Tomislav Bušljeta