Period: Yugoslav Wars

Region: Bosnia and Herzegovina

Slobodan I. Stojanović (12) - serbian boy from Zvornik - Bosnia 1992

Slobodan Stojanović was a Serbian boy brutally massacred in July 1992 near the town of Zvornik by Elfeta Veseli, an Albanian woman from Kosovo and Metohija who came to Zvornik during the Bosnian war in the 90s. She voluntarily joined the Muslim 28th Division commanded by the criminal Naser Orić.

The family of Slobodan found themselves in the village of Drinjača after they had been exchanged as prisoners of war in June 1992.

Slobodan deeply suffered because they left his dog, Lux at home. During the night of 27th July, he left his room and went to his house to bring the dog. This is when Muslims captured and massacred him in an unimaginable way and then shot him to death. 

His father Ilija found his body only a year later. General Ratko Mladić, the head commander of the Army of Republika Srpska, and his five soldiers showed him the body of his son near a quarry in Zvornik. 

For years, the monster Elfeta Veseli had been hiding from justice in Switzerland, where she allegedly remarried, hiding her dark past from the 1990s. 

Only in 1997 was she arrested and extradited to Bosnia and Herzegovina. On 8 May 2019, she was sentenced to only ten years in prison before the State Court for the murder of little Slobodan.

BIOGRAPHY

Slobodan Stojanović was born on 16th October 1980, from the father Ilija and mother Desanka, in Teslic, but he grawe up in Zvornik, in Eastern Bosnia. He had a sister Slađana.

The family lived in the peaceful village of Donja Kamenica near Zvornik until the beginning of the war in ex-Yugoslavia.

When the war began, Slobodan was 12 years old and an excellent pupil.

SUFFERING AND DEATH

Tensions in Bosnia sparked  the conflict in April 1992, but soon after Serb villages placed barricades because they feared the attacks from Muslim paramilitary and mujaheddin, who were already coming from Arabian countries to fight Jihad. 

At this time, Slobodan’s father heard shooting around the village that started on 29th May 1992. His Muslim neighbor Muhamed Čikarić advised him to go to the Serb-controlled village of Kruške and give them an alarming note.

From that moment until 4th June 1992, the Stojanović family was forced to be in isolation in thier house because they were monitored by the Muslim guard.

The Bosnian-Muslim war leaders:
Alija Izetbegović, Ejup Ganić and Haris Silajdžić

The exchange took place at neutral terrain in Kruške. The Stojanović family and three deceased Serb soldiers (Slavko, Vlado, and Nikola Erić) were exchanged for six Muslim prisoners of war. When they were liberated, the Stojanović family moved to their godfather’s house in Donja Kamenica.

All this time, Slobodan suffered because they left the house without their dog Lux with whom he spent most of the time playing before the war. He often cried asking to see his pet. His parents tried to explain to him that going back to their house was dangerous, but he couldn’t accept it. Ilija Stojanović was in his position as a soldier of the Army of the Republika Srpska in the Zvornik area. 

On the night of 27 July, Slobodan left the room where he slept and went towards his house to find the dog. This is when he was captured by Muslim soldiers. Several Muslim witnesses confirmed that Elfeta Veseli known as “Kosovka” tortured the innocent and unarmed boy with a cold weapon.

She was born in 1960 in the town of Uroševac in southern Kosovo, but her family moved to Vlasenice where his father Rahman worked as a forest ranger. She knew Slobodan and his family very well. She tortured Slobodan while singing the song “Shote mori shote”.
(The story behind the song is terrifying- an Albanian woman named Shote captured six Serb children in the mountain Mokri and threw them into the fire. While they were burning, she danced around the fire singing this song. The song is banned for public performance in Serbia). 

Elfeta was married to a Serb, but she divorced before the beginning of the war. When the war started, she wanted to prove herself to her “Muslim” brothers because she hated Serbs. 

Slobodan’s stomach was cut, his internal organs could be seen. He also had cuts on his head and his legs were broken. After the torture, the Albanian monster shot him at the temple. The bullet passed through the left forehead bone and got out through the right. Naser Orić was watching the whole scene of torturing and killing and he did nothing to stop Elfeta Veseli.

Slobodan’s biggest mistake was his decision to come back and bring his dog that was left behind in panic. He jumped right into the hands of monsters, who were cleansing the entire village of Donja Kamenica from Serbs. 

SEARCH

For days after Slobodan’s missing, his father Ilija was going to barricades that served as boundaries between Serbs and Muslims. He was pleading for his son. Muslim told him that his son was alive, that he was in Tuzla, and that he shouldn’t have worried. These were all lies because Slobodan was killed soon after capture. Believing that his son was alive, Ilija Stojanović tried to find anyone who could help him find his son.

The story was spreading until reaching general Ratko Mladić, who decided to do everything he could to find the boy. 

The Army of Bosnian Serbs liberated the village of Donja Kamenica only on 16th February 1993, and from that moment, the search for around 250 missing people began on several locations- Glođansko brdo, Kozjak, Trešnjica, Maskalića potok, and Široki put. The bodies of dozens of victims were found. A lot of them were buried in nearby forests.

After a year of searching, the forensic experts from Belgrade led by dr. Zoran Stanković found five massacred bodies of Serb soldiers and massacred body of Slobodan Stojanović. They were found in a quarry near Novo Selo, Zvornik.

YEARS LATER

Slobodan’s mother, Desa Stojanović died in 2006. She was mourning for his son and got sick. Despite all the treatment and care, she couldn’t recover. Her husband and daughter Slađana buried her next to her son’s tomb in the village of Drinjača. 

Miodrag Živković, a sculptor, made a figure “Boy and Dog” which was supposed to be placed in the village of Drinjača on the crossroad between Belgrade, Sarajevo, and Srebrenica. Muslim extremists opposed this decision because everything regarding Slobodan reminds them of the unpunished crime made in the name of Allah.

In the summer of 2018, Snježana Brezo, a screenwriter and director, made a documentary “Cry of Angel” (srb. Suze Andjela) which tells about the horrors of the war in Bosnia in the 1990s,  the tragedy of the Stojanović family, the murder of little Slobodan, exhumation by dr. Zoran Stanković from the Military Medical Academy in Belgrade, and the suffering of his mother Desa. 

Produced by the Radio-Television of Republika Srpska in cooperation with the Centre for Investigation, the film was shown in several cities of the Republika Srpska with the primary intent to spread the antiwar message. The documentary is not recommended for sensitive people and children below 18. 

What also can be heard in the documentary is a testimony of a Muslim soldier, who described in a detail the massacre of Slobodan Stojanović before the court. He also confirmed that Elfeta’s commander, Naser Orić (the notorious leader of the 28th Muslim Division from Srebrenica) passively watched the scene without showing any intention to stop her.

TRIAL AND INDICTMENT

In March 2017, Elfeta Veseli was arrested in Switzerland, where she was hiding her involvement in the war of the 90s.

She lived in her brother’s house. Eventually, she was extradited to Bosnia, where she had a trial. 

The State Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina sentenced her to only 10 years in prison, although the law prescribes at least 25 years in prison for the murder of an unarmed and underage child.

The indictment reflects the fact that Bosnian judges impose lesser punishments on Muslim soldiers than on the Republika Srpska soldiers.