The Bikavac fire refers to the arson perpetrated in Bikavac, near

Višegrad Višegrad ( sr-cyrl, Вишеград, ) is a town and municipality located in eastern Republika Srpska, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It rests at the confluence of the Drina and the Rzav river. As of 2013, it has a population of 10,668 ...

, eastern

Bosnia Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and He ...

, on 27 June 1992 in which at least 60

Bosniak The Bosniaks ( bs, Bošnjaci, Cyrillic: Бошњаци, ; , ) are a South Slavic ethnic group native to the Southeast European historical region of Bosnia, which is today part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who share a common Bosnian ancestry, cu ...

civilians, mostly women and children, were burned alive after the Serb forces captured them in the house which was set on fire.

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On 20 July 2009

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

and

Sredoje Lukić Sredoje Lukić (born 5 April 1961, Rujiste, Višegrad, Bosnia and Herzegovina) is a Bosnian Serb war criminal. Before and during the Bosnian war, Lukić worked as a policeman in Visegrad. After the war started, he joined his cousin Milan Lukić ...

were sentenced to life in prison and 30 years imprisonment respectively, for crimes that included the Bikavac fire and the murder of 59 Bosniak civilians in the Pionirska Street fire on 14 June 1992, which occurred after the civilians were locked into one room of a house that was then set on fire. It was found that on 27 June 1992, during the

ethnic cleansing Ethnic cleansing is the systematic forced removal of ethnic, racial, and religious groups from a given area, with the intent of making a region ethnically homogeneous. Along with direct removal, extermination, deportation or population transfer ...

of the

Drina Valley Podrinje (Serbian Cyrillic: Подриње) is the Slavic name of the Drina river basin, known in English as the Drina Valley. The Drina basin is shared between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, with majority of its territory being located in ...

by the

Bosnian Serbs The Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sr-Cyrl, Срби у Босни и Херцеговини, Srbi u Bosni i Hercegovini) are one of the three constitutive nations (state-forming nations) of the country, predominantly residing in the politi ...

, forces under the command of Milan Lukić forced approximately 70 Bosniak civilians into one room of in a house in the settlement of Bikavac, near Višegrad. After the captives were

robbed Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force, threat of force, or by use of fear. According to common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the perso ...

, the house was set on fire and the occupants were left to

burn alive Death by burning (also known as immolation) is an execution and murder method involving combustion or exposure to extreme heat. It has a long history as a form of public capital punishment, and many societies have employed it as a punishment f ...

. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia Trial Chamber found that at least 60 Bosniak civilians were killed in the fire. According to the testimony of Zehra Turjačanin, there were many children in the house, the youngest less than one year old. Most of the victims were young women with children, along with some elderly men and women. The Serb soldiers broke the windows, threw

hand grenade A grenade is an explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A modern hand grenade genera ...

s into the house and fired shots at the people inside, then set the house on fire. Turjačanin and one of her sisters managed to get to the door, but a heavy iron garage door had been placed against it from the outside. She managed to squeeze through a small gap in the door; her sister remained inside. Outside Serb soldiers were lying on the grass, drinking.WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO BURN ALIVE
, Sense Agency, 25/9/2008 When Judge Patrick Robinson, presiding, summed up the

International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was a body of the United Nations that was established to prosecute the war crimes that had been committed during the Yugoslav Wars and to try their perpetrators. The tribunal ...

's findings following the trial of Milan Lukić and his cousin Sredoje Lukić, he observed that:

In the all too long, sad and wretched history of man’s inhumanity to man, the Pionirska street and Bikavac fires must rank high. At the close of the twentieth century, a century marked by war and bloodshed on a colossal scale, these horrific events stand out for the viciousness of the incendiary attack, for the obvious premeditation and calculation that defined it, for the sheer callousness and brutality of herding, trapping and locking the victims in the two houses, thereby rendering them helpless in the ensuing inferno, and for the degree of pain and suffering inflicted on the victims as they were burnt alive.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bikavac Fire Arson in Bosnia and Herzegovina Mass murder in 1992 1992 crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina Massacres in the Bosnian War 1992 murders in Europe 1990s murders in Bosnia and Herzegovina Massacres of Bosniaks

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See also

References