The Pionirska street fire was an atrocity perpetrated in Višegrad, eastern Bosnia, on 14 June 1992 in which 59 Bosnian Muslim women, children and elderly murdered by being locked into one room of a house which was then set on fire[1].
On 14 June 1992 during the campaign of ethnic cleansing in the Bosnian Serb ethnic cleansing of the Drina Valley 59 Bosnian Muslim women, children and elderly men were confined in a house in Pionirska Street, Višegrad by the cousins Milan Lukić and Sredoje Lukić. They were locked into one room of the house which was then set on fire. Milan Lukić was found to have placed an explosive device in the room, which set the house ablaze. He shot at people trying to escape from the burning house.
When Judge Patrick Robinson, presiding, summed up the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia's findings following the trial of Milan and 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."
On 20 July 2009 Milan Lukić and Sredoje Lukić were sentenced to life and 30 years’ imprisonment respectively, for crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Among other crimes Milan Lukić was also found guilty of the murder of at least 60 Muslim civilians in the Bikavac fire on 27 June 1992 when he forced them into a house, blocked all exits and threw in several explosive devices and petrol, setting the house on fire.
"The perpetration by Milan Lukić and Sredoje Lukić of crimes in this case is characterised by a callous and vicious disregard for human life," Judge Robinson, presiding said.
The Lukić cousins were initially indicted together with Mitar Vasiljević, who was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment on 25 February 2004.
The summary of the Judgement can be found at: [2] The full text can be found at:[3]
The Bikavac fire was one of the Višegrad massacres, also called the Višegrad genocide, a series of atrocities perpetrated in Višegrad during the spring 1992 ethnic cleansing campaign.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
