Risto Perišić

Risto Perisić was a senior member of the "Crisis Staff Committee" responsible for the civilian administration of the municipality of Višegrad in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina and commander of police at the time of the outbreak of the Bosnian war 1992-1995, at the time when the Višegrad massacres took place and Višegrad was purged of its entire Bosniak population in a campaign of terror conducted by Milan Lukić and his White Eagles gang.^[1] until Višegrad was purged of its entire Bosniak population.^[2][3][4]

Perisić as commander of police for the municipality of Višegrad took no action to check Lukić and members of the local police took part directly in numerous acts of violence against the civilian population.^[1] Višegrad has been described as second only to Srebrenica as a byword for ethnic cleansing and for humanity at its cruellest.^[5]

Background

The town of Višegrad is strategically located at a historic crossing point of the River Drina on the main road from Belgrade and Užice in Serbia to the Bosnian capital Sarajevo. For much of its length the River Drina formed the border between Bosnia and Serbia. In 1992, after Bosnia and Herzegovina became an independent nation state, the Bosnian Serbs seceded and as part of the "Six Strategic Objectives of the Serbian People in Bosnia" adopted by the Serb National Assembly on 12 May 1992 proposed the integration of the Drina Valley with Serbia, necessitating a change in the area's ethnic composition. Višegrad's population according to the 1991 population survey was 62% Bosnian Muslim, was^[2][6]

On 13 April 1992 forces of the Yugoslav National Army (JNA) Užice Corps arrived in Višegrad, under the command of Colonel Dragoljub Ojdanić, one of Slobodan Milosevic's top commanders, and on 13 April 1992 took control of the town before helping to prepare the expulsion of its Muslim population.^[2]

JNA officers planned the ethnic cleansing of the town's Muslim population; the threat of being killed by marauding units like Milan Lukić's White Eagles was used to concentrate refugees in one area of the town, outside which they were afforded no protection.^[2]

On 19 May 1992 the Užice Corps officially withdrew from Višegrad, handing over control of the town to the Serbian Municipality of Višegrad, under the presidency of Branimir Savović.^[4] The numerous acts of violence perpetrated against the Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) civilian population in Višegrad by the Serb police, members of paramilitary groups and local Serbs increased with the departure of the Užice Corps. These acts of violence included unlawful arrests and beatings, abductions, rapes, theft and destruction of property, and arbitrary killings. The Drina River was used to dump many of the bodies. Looting and destruction of non-Serb homes and property was widespread and the town's two mosques were destroyed.^[1]

References