Thirty-Three Years Since the Crime in Štrpci: A Verdict Delivered, but the Families Still Do Not Have It

In the retrial, on 14 October 2025, the Higher Court in Belgrade once again sentenced Gojko Lukić and Duško Vasiljević to ten years’ imprisonment each, and Dragana Đekić to five years’ imprisonment, for the war crime against civilians.

An important development in the retrial was the court’s finding that the unit “Osvetnici” (“Avengers”), whose members were convicted and whose commander was Milan Lukić, operated as part of the Army of Republika Srpska rather rather than as an armed group, as previously described in the indictment.

Thirty-three years after twenty people were taken from train 671, killed, and their burial sites concealed, the families mark this anniversary without a written judgment.

Milan Lukić, who is serving a life sentence for crimes committed in Višegrad, testified as a witness in the retrial. He stated that he had learned about the abduction from the media and that all those taken from the train were alive.

On 27 February 1993, at the Štrpci station, members of the Army of Republika Srpska, under the command of Milan Lukić, removed twenty passengers from the Belgrade–Bar train, selecting them by name and origin:

Adem Alomerović (59), Džafer Topuzović (55), Fevzija Zeković (54), Fikret Memović (40), Nijazim Kajević (30), Muhedin Hanić (27) and Safet Preljević (22) from Prijepolje;
Šećo Softić (48), Fehim Bakija (43), Ilijaz Ličina (43), Rifet Husović (26) and Esad Kapetanović (19) from Bijelo Polje; Jusuf Rastoder (45) and Ismet Babačić (30) from Podgorica;
Rasim Ćorić (40) from Zaluga; Senad Đečević (16) from Bar; Halil Zupčević (49), a refugee from Trebinje; Zvjezdan Zuličić (23), a refugee from Sarajevo; Tomo Buzov (52) from Belgrade; and one man whose identity has never been established.

The remains of Halil Zupčević, Rasim Ćorić, Jusuf Rastoder and Ilijaz Ličina were exhumed from Lake Perućac, identified and buried. Sixteen families still have no grave.

Following the pronouncement of the verdict, Nail Kajević, brother of the still-missing Nijazim Kajević, stated, as recorded by the Humanitarian Law Center:
“I had hoped that, after three and a half decades, they would say they were sorry. Nothing – they still repeat that it wasn’t them. There was room for the judge to say something about those who ordered the crime. Nothing about them.”