The more than 100 Bosniak civilians massacred by Croatian Defence Council (HVO) members in Ahmici in 1993 were commemorated in that village near Vitez in central Bosnia and Herzegovina on Sunday.
The 30th-anniversary commemoration was attended by Graciela Gatti Santana, president of the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT), the successor to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the president of the Bosniak Party of Democratic Action, Bakir Izetbegovic, and the head of the Islamic Community in BiH, Husein Kavazovic.
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Santana said she came on the MICT's behalf to honour the victims and their families. She recalled that the ICTY prosecuted numerous perpetrators of the crimes committed in central BiH during the 1990s war, saying the attack on Ahmici was a war crime and a crime against humanity.
The name of this village must be added to the list of places at whose mention we shudder from horror, she said, adding that the crimes in Ahmici must never be forgotten.
HVO members attacked the village early in the morning of 16 April 1993, killing 116 persons, including 32 women and 11 children. The youngest victim was three months old. Most houses were mined and demolished, as were two mosques.
The ICTY convicted former Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia official Dario Kordic to 25 years on command responsibility for the crime. Miroslav Bralo was given 20 years, the former commander of the Jokers unit, Vladimir Santic, was given 18, and former HVO member Drago Josipovic 12.
The Court of BiH sentenced former HVO member Pasko Ljubicic to ten years imprisonment for the Ahmici crimes.
Also present at today's commemoration was Bob Stewart, a retired British army colonel who commanded the UNPROFOR unit whose members were the first to enter Ahmici after the massacre in 1993.
Now a Conservative Party MP, Stewart said the scenes of killed civilians still haunted him and that he could not believe what he was seeing.
Stewart said he came today to pay his respects to the victims, but also to call on politicians in BiH to behave responsibly so that crimes could never happen again and so that lasting peace could be ensured for BiH.
BiH Presidency member Denis Becirovic said it was sad that all those responsible for the Ahmici crime had not been convicted yet and called for this to be done as soon as possible. In doing so, BiH defenders must not be equated with those who attacked the state, but every individual crime must be punished, he added.
“Unfortunately, the threat of crimes and genocide happening again has not been eliminated,” he said, adding that the threats to BiH's survival coming from some politicians even today must not be underestimated.
Former Croatian presidents Ivo Josipovic and Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic visited Ahmici in 2010 and 2018, respectively, paying their respects to the Bosniak victims.
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