Milja Zecevic funeral: Brod observes day of mourning

The municipality of Brod in Republika Srpska has declared Monday, November 9, a day of mourning following the death of Milja Zecevic, a woman whose husband and three sons were killed in Sijekovac near Brod in March 1992. She died on Saturday, November 7, in her 95th year. A local organization in Brod says no one has been held responsible for the crime in the three decades since, which is why her funeral is drawing attention beyond Republika Srpska.

When are the funeral service and burial of Milja Zecevic?

The funeral service is scheduled for 11 a.m. at the town cemetery in Brod. The burial follows at 1 p.m. in Gornji Smrtici near Prnjavor. According to sources in Republika Srpska, the village is already the resting place of:

• her husband,
• the three sons killed in 1992,
• a fourth son, who survived the Sijekovac massacre.

Senior officials of Republika Srpska sent telegrams of condolence. The available sources do not name who sent them.

Where did she die?

Milja Zecevic died in the yard of her own house in Sijekovac, the same place where, according to Brod Mayor Milan Zecevic, her sons and husband were killed. He told the Srna news agency she died “in the yard of the house, right where members of the HVO, the Croatian army and paramilitary formations killed her sons and husband.” We report who carried out the killings solely as his claim.

The mayor also said he received the news with great sorrow, calling the fate of the woman a wound for all of Brod:

“In the terrible crime in Sijekovac she lost her loved ones and made a sacrifice that the human mind can barely comprehend. For decades she carried her pain quietly and with dignity, becoming a symbol of a mother’s grief and of the suffering of our people.”

He offered condolences to the family on his own behalf and on behalf of the municipality, adding: “May she rest in peace, finally embraced by her loved ones. Eternal glory to her.”

What did Milja Zecevic say about March 26, 1992?

She gave testimony to the Memorial Center of Republika Srpska. She recalled that on March 26, 1992, a group of men with stockings pulled over their faces entered their yard. By her account, she watched as her eldest son was killed by the water fountain, the middle son at the gate and the youngest in the yard. She believed the killers were their neighbors, precisely because they had stockings over their faces.

“The attackers beat my husband and three sons one after another and in the end executed them.”

She also described what came next:

“They beat them one by one, questioned them, then beat them again. I was right there. When they had killed them, they drove me away down the road, and I ended up going all the way to Smrtici.”

Milja Zecevic was also a recipient of the Order of Milos Obilic.

What are politicians and associations saying?

Milorad Dodik posted on X. He wrote that, “with great sorrow in my heart,” they were bidding farewell to Milja Zecevic of Sijekovac, a mother who lost three sons and her husband and carried a pain that words cannot describe. The post continues:

“Yet she found the strength to speak out and to save the truth about the suffering in Sijekovac from oblivion. Her testimony remains with us as a covenant to remember and never to allow the suffering of our people to be forgotten.”

Marko Grabovac, president of the Organization for the Search for Fallen Fighters and Missing Civilians from Brod, said today that genocide was committed against Serb civilians in Sijekovac in 1992, including the Zecevic family. According to him, no one has answered for the crime before domestic or international courts in the three decades since. That is his assessment and that of the organization he leads. The available sources contain no final court ruling classifying the event.

The funeral begins with the service at 11 a.m. in Brod and ends with the burial at 1 p.m. in Gornji Smrtici.