(17) August-December 92:A 30-year-old-woman described her experience as a Serbian prisoner for four months in the town of Vogosca, near Sarajevo.
On the nights of August 19, 1992, at approximately 10 PM, a large group of Serbian soldiers in uniform, carrying pistols entered the witness's apartment building. The soldiers had been going around to neighboring apartment buildings looking for Muslim names on the doorbells. The soldiers found the witness and other building residents in the basement, where they separated the Muslims from the Serbs. Four of the soldiers accompanied the witness to her apartment. There, they hit her with a gun while asking her the whereabouts of her husband and looted the apartment - taking what they wanted and destroying much of the rest. She was then told to pack. She said the Serbs went into every Muslim apartment building in the area ordering Muslims out of the buildings.
The Serbian soldiers loaded the witness, her son, four other women, and another child into a truck. They were taken to a motel in Vogosca, 15 kilometers from Sarajevo where they joined a group of about 40 Muslim women, aged 18 to 40, and two 16-year-old girls. The witness remained at the motel from August 20 to December 10, 1992.
The day she arrived at the motel, the witness was taken to speak with the soldiers' commander, who demanded information about her husband and brothers in the army. The commander kicked her and struck her head with his hands. She said she was not beaten for a prolonged time on the first occasion but that she was beaten 12 times in the first month. She was raped twice during the 4 months.
She was raped the first time between late September and mid-October by two drunken soldiers. She was raped a second time by three men in the same period. The soldiers who raped her were assigned to the camp.
In the motel, all women slept in one room. Soldiers, usually drunk, would come to the room at night to select their victims and take them upstairs to be raped. Victims were chosen randomly. She believes every women in the motel was raped at least once.
The witness provided the names of two of the five men who raped her and the aliases of two more of the men. She and her son were able to leave the camp according to her husband, because of a prisoner exchange. Her family was later reunited in Hungary. (Department of State)
(18) July 92:
A 15-year-old Bosnian Muslim girl from Kozarac described being gang-raped by at least eight Serbian soldiers and guards near Trnopolje. The witness was in high school when the Serbian forces took charge of her town of Kozarac. She fled on foot into the surrounding woods but was later captured and imprisoned in the Trnopolje camp.
Three days after her arrival at the prison, she went with a large number of women and other girls to fetch water from a well about 50 meters from the prison gates. Returning from the well, Trnopolje guards held back six girls, including the witness, and stopped them from re-entering the prison gates. They were joined by four more female prisoners.
Prison guards took the 10 girls to a house across the meadow. They were taken to the side yard of the house, out of sight of the roadway. Thirty Serbian soldiers - including Òsome dressed like a tank crew" - were there and they taunted the girls, calling them "Turkish whores." The girls were ordered to undress or have their clothes pulled off. Three girls resisted or hesitated from their fear. Their clothes were cut off with knives.
The Serbian soldiers told the naked girls to parade slowly in a circle. The men sat at the outside of the circle - smoking, drinking, and calling out foul names. The witness estimated the "parade" lasted about 15 minutes.
Three soldiers took one girl - one to rape her while two others held her down. The three men took turns. A soldier approached the witness and mocked her, saying he had seen her before. Though she did not recognize him, he pulled out a photo of the witness with her 19-year-old Muslim boyfriend, whom he cursed for being in the Bosnian Territorial Defense forces. The man with the photograph raped her first. The witness said she fought and pulled his hair, but he bit her and hit her face. Her lips bled. He hit her hard with a butt of his gun on her cheek, causing extreme pain. Another rapist ran the blade of his knife across her breasts as if to slice the skin off, leaving bleeding scratches. After that she was raped by eight more men before loosing consciousness.
When the witness regained consciousness, a Trnopolje guard who had attended her school came along and broke up the gang rape. As this guard and the witness headed back the gates of Trnopolje camp, the witness said the guard called beck to the soldiers and other guards, "Remember, you will be accountable for this!"
Soon after, the witness and her relatives were among a group of Trnopolje prisoners released in exchange for Serbian prisoners at Maglaj. (Department of State)
(19) March 92:
A 17-year-old Bosnian Muslim girl gave details of her detention with about 60 women and girls in a forest motel, where the prisoners were raped over a period of 4 months.
Serbian forces on March 3, 1992, captured the witness's town in the vicinity of Teslic. She said that the soldiers talked with a strong Serbian dialect, including colloquialisms. Some had the White Eagle insignia on their uniforms.
Some of the Serbian forces who burned and looted the houses in the town were drunk. One of the drunk soldiers hit the witness's mother, calling out that Muslims would regret the day they were born. On departing the town, the soldiers fought over bottles of wine that had been left behind in the central marketplace.
The prisoners were taken to a motel complex of small cabins located in the forest about 5 hours away on foot from their hometown. Some cabins were used as sentry boxes. The whole motel complex was fenced off with barbed wire. Hundreds of old men, women, and children were prisoners at the motel complex.
Upon arrival, the witness was separated from her mother and sister. She never saw them again. She said the soldiers "raped us every night." Most nights 20 soldiers came to the motel. The female prisoners were forced to strip, then to cook for the soldiers and serve them. Each girl or young woman was raped by several soldiers, with several victims in one room at a time.
The witness experienced and saw so many rapes that she could not give an estimate of the number.
One night the Serb brother of one of the girls helped 12 girls, including the witness, escape the motel complex. Two of the escapees were later found and returned to the prison. The 10 others spent several days hiding in improvised underground shelters in the forest.
The witness identified the most ruthless of the rapists, a man who raped 10-year-old girls "as a delicacy." She saw many of the younger females die from the rapes. (Department of State)
(20) 17 November 91-April 92:
A 48-year-old male Muslim captured at Vukovar on November 17, 1991, described the brutal mistreatment and constant beatings at the Stajicevo camp, south of Zrenjanin, Serbia, manned by Serbian reservists. While interned there he was ordered by an officer known as Captain Dragan to kiss a Serbian paramilitary emblem. When he refused, Dragan cut left side of his mouth and stuck the emblem between his teeth. When he refused again, Dragan dug out three of the prisoner's teeth with a knife from which the prisoner bears a 4-inch scare on the left side of his face.
On another occasion, the prisoner was taken to a small room where he was strapped into a leather chair. Clamps were attached to his fingers and electricity was introduced by a guard turning a dimmer switch. When the prisoner began to quiver, the guards roared with laughter and increased the power. Just before he passed out, water was thrown in his face and the process began again.
Others were tortured in like manner. The witness identified the Serbs who were known among inmates for their brutality. (Department of State)
(21) November-December 91: A 32-year-old Croatian male from Borovo Naselje, Croatia, described the torture he and others suffered at Stajicevo detention facility near Zrenjanin. At about 1 PM on November 20, 1991, Serbian forces surrounded the new shoe factory in the town of Borovo Naselje and forced the surrender of approximately 3,000 men, women, and children who had taken shelter in the building shelter in the building's basement. These forces included six T-55 tanks and two armed personnel carriers along with special troops from a guard unit from Belgrade.
The witness, along with some 1,500 other males, was sent to the Stajicevo camp at a farm near Zrenjanin. On November 29, he was severely beaten several times during interrogation. He identified some of the guards. (Department of State)
(22) September 91:
A 43-year-old Croatian male from Glina, Croatia, said that while attempting to escape to Sisak during the second shelling of Petrinja, Croatia, the JNA captured him and 30 other Croats and took them to the Petrinja internment center located in the former JNA camp known as Vasil Gacesa. The next morning, 26 members of group were released. The witness was one of the five who were not released. The witness provided detailed information on one incident in which a prisoner was repeatedly beaten in an apparent effort to extort a confession. He identified four interrogators who participated in the first beating. That evening the prisoner was told his confession was not acceptable and he was beaten again by the camp's commander, a JNA major, and four unidentified JNA soldiers until he promised to write a second confession. Prisoners at Petrinja were also forced to perform burial details in mass graves. The witness described two such burials, involving 40 and 18 bodies respectively. Because the corpses were in a state of advanced decomposition, the witness could not determine the cause of death. (Department of State)
(23) January 93:A 23-year-old married Muslim female reported that she had been held through the first week of January with 600 women and girls in a gymnasium at the Doboj middle school complex in north-central Bosnia.
The witness and other women were taken out in groups of 40 each day. Each woman was led to an individual classroom in the school and raped, then returned to the gymnasium. She said the guards told them they were being held for the purpose of "making Chetnik babies." (Department of State)
(24) 13-14 August 92:
A 25-year-old Bosnian Muslim from the village of Dabovci, southeast of Banja Luka, described the August 13, 1992, arrival and occupation of her village by Serbian forces. Serbian forces rounded up women and children, as well as the few remaining men who had not gone off to fight. The women were taken toward the house where the Serbian forces had established their headquarters.
After a short while, a large, tarpaulin-covered truck arrived and took her group away. The witness estimates there were approximately 60 women and children in her group. The truck took the group to a lumber factory in Kotor Varos - she thought it was the Vrbanja factory - and the women and children were forced into the factory cafeteria. When a similar-sized group from another village arrived, the two groups were consolidated and moved from the cafeteria into a large, unfinished hall.
During the late afternoon and early evening, the witness observed the repeated beating of a man in front of a group of women and children. Though the victim had documents that theoretically allowed him to leave Kotor Varos, he was half-Croatian and half-Serbian. The guards kept referring to his parentage as they beat him. She never saw the young man again after she left Kotor Varos.
When it began to get dark, the guards began to pick out women and to take them out of the hall. The witness said the ages of the women selected ranged between 16 and 35. Some women were taken to an alcove or room off the large hall where she and the others were being held. Though she could not see what was happening, she said the cries and screams of women were clearly audible, as was the laughter of the guards.
The witness can not remember the exact time when the guards came for her. But two guards eventually walked up to her and told her to leave her child behind and follow them. She was taken to the alcove and told to undress. When she refused, two other guards joined in and told her she had the choice of undressing willingly. When she again refused, she was hit on the back with a gun. When she fell to the floor, the guard whom she assumed to be the leader of the group started to pull off her clothes and raped her.
When he finished, he told the other guards to leave her alone and to let her go back to her child. But after this guard left the alcove, the remaining four or five guards kept her there and continued raping her. When she left the alcove, she was warned not to tell anyone what had happened.
When the witness returned to the large hall, she joined her mother-in-law, who had been taking care of her baby. She was bleeding and totally disheveled and very ashamed to be seen in that state. Her mother-in-law told her that while she was gone another five to six young women had also been taken out. The witness then noticed about 15-20 women who were in the same physical state that she was.
Sometime later, the witness was taken to the second-floor offices of the factory by a guard. She was told to keep her head down. While doing so, she thinks she counted about 10 pair of shoes in the circle of men surrounding her. She was told to undress. When she refused she was hit about the face. The raping then began. She cannot remember anything after the fifth or sixth man raped her. Up to that point, however, she had noticed that some of the men were wearing camouflage suits, some were in the local police uniform, and some wore at least parts of special forces uniforms. She recognized a high school colleague among those who raped her.
They eventually allowed her to go back to the main hall. She was bleeding badly and was very dizzy. She fell down the stairs coming out of the factory offices. She eventually made her way back to her mother-in-law and child. She was not bothered for the rest of the night; other women, however, were taken throughout the night and came back bleeding or barely able to walk.
Throughout the evening the witness noticed a steady flow of guards and soldiers into the factory. The newcomers were not coming to guard the detainees but were going into the alcove and, she assumed, into the factory offices. These newcomers wore different uniforms than the factory guards.
Her group was moved out of Kotor Varos during the afternoon of August 14. Two medium-size buses were waiting to transport them to Mount Vlasic, from where they were supposed to make their way to Travnik. Her group of approximately 60-70 persons drove along the Banja Luka route. The buses were repeatedly stopped and boarded by Chetniks demanding money and jewelry. When the buses arrived at Vlasic, the women and children made to get off and walk until they arrived in Travnik. (Department of State)
(25) 9 May-8 August 92:
A 27-year-old female Muslim refugee from Crna Rijeka who was in Blagaj on May 9 made the following report:
At about 8 am on May 9, 1992, two busloads of Serbian soldiers and a tank passed through that town in the direction of Maslovar. The tank then turned around on the road facing Blagaj while the troops fanned out into the woods on either side and began firing "dumdum" bullets toward the town in an effort to force the Muslims from their houses and toward the Japra and Sana River. Approximately 60 people were killed during that incident. On the bridge over the Japra and Sana Rivers, about 20 soldiers forced fleeing people to throw their valuables and other belongings onto a pile before allowing them to cross. Once across, they were herded into a fenced-in area on the grounds of the "Japra" factory. During this period one man was beaten with rifle butts and then shot in stomach when he was overheard to say that he recognized one of the "Chetniks."
After about 3 hours, the men were separated from the women and children, who were loaded aboard cattle cars of a waiting train. The men were lined up and seven names were read from the list. Three of these men were located and loaded into a police car from Bosanski Novi. They were never heard from again. The remaining men were then loaded onto a train, and more names were called from a roll. Those men were taken from the train and immediately killed in front of the prisoners. Two of those killed were Sifet Bajrektarevic, a member of SDA, and Hasan Merzihic.
The following day the train stopped in a forest outside of Doboj, where about half of the men over age 60 were separated into a group with the women and children; the rest of the men were loaded into separate trains. The men's train proceeded to Banja Luka and eventually arrived at Bosanski Novi on May 12. Though no one was murdered during the 45 days the men spent at Bosanski Novi camp, maltreatment occurred continually, its greatest manifestation being the extreme shortage of food. (Department of State)
(26) Spring 92:
A 32-year-old Bosnian Muslim woman from the vicinity of Teslic was forced out of her job when Banja Vrucica came under Serbian authority. Left with no source of income, she went to stay with Serbs she knew near Banja Luka. They did not treat her badly, but she felt herself a burden and decided to try to go to Zivinice.
When she reached the town of Doboj, the witness met an older woman who directed her to a Serbian Red Cross refugee camp, which held 160 Serbs and 20 Muslims and Croats. The latter 20 were treated as prisoners. For four days the Serbian Red Cross authorities refused to issue her a food certificate. She ate nothing during the 4 days.
The witness managed to meet the camp secretary, a Serb, who helped her to obtain food. Later she witnessed this man being beaten for helping people. Other Muslim and Croat women informed the witness that she could sign up at the police station to qualify for a prisoner exchange, to leave Serbian-occupied territory. She and another Muslim girl did so.
At about 8 PM that night, two armed soldiers came to camp and showed the two women a notebook with their names written in it. The soldiersÕ uniform had the initials ÒSMPÓ on them. They took the women to Pijeskovi, a section of Doboj, where Serbs had seized the apartment of Croats and Muslims. In a two-room apartment, the soldiers raped the two women the entire night, until 7 am.
At the Serbian Red Cross camp, the witness observed the soldiers coming nearly every day to take away women in the evenings. Every soldier had the initials ÒSMPÓ on his uniform. They took the witness to the apartments at Pijeskovi regularly, about every 2 to 4 days. Usually four soldiers would rape her throughout the night; on one occasion, eight men raped her. The witness managed to get out of the camp and to reach Zivinice. (Department of State)
(27) 20 February 93:Serbian forces in Borika halted a convoy of UNHCR [UN High Commissioner for Refugees] trucks carrying emergency supplies to the Muslim community of Zepa. (Reuters) (28) 17 February 93:
Serbian militia blocked a 10-truck UNHCR convoy which had left Belgrade the previous day, from reaching the Muslim town of Gorazde. They also continued to block another UNHCR convoy from reaching the Muslim town of Cerska. (Paris AFP)
(29) 6 February 93:
Serbian forces hit a German relief flight with anti-aircraft fire. The C-160 was at 9,000 feet and just south of Karlovac when the anti-aircraft fire hit near the right engine housing. The German loadmaster was seriously wounded in the abdomen.
UN peace-keeping troops witnessed the Serbs shooting at the German plane with a 23-millimeter anti-aircraft set up in Kosijersko Selo. (Department of State, The New York Times, Reuters, Paris AFP, Bohn DDP)
(30) 2 February 93:
Unidentified forces at 2:50 PM shelled a UN convoy just outside Mostar, led by personnel from the Danish Refugee Council and escorted by two Spanish UNPROFOR [UN Protection Force] armored personnel carriers. One Danish official was wounded seriously; His Croat interpreter was killed. The Danish workers were associated with an eight-truck convoy that was returning to Metkovic, having completed delivery of supplies to central Bosnia. The UNHCR suspended the convoy, pending an investigation into the incident. (Department of State, Reuters)
(31) January-February 93:
Bosnian Croatian forces at the end of January and beginning of February have impeded some international aid supplies (not UNHCR or ICRC) from reaching Muslim population around Jablanica and Travnik.
Croat officials also have harassed international relief workers, confiscated their vehicles, and sought to dictate how humanitarian aid is distributed in an attempt to limit the share reaching Muslims, according to relief organization sources in Mostar. (API, The Washington Post)
(32) 24 January 93:
Unidentified snipers shot at a UNHCR driver while the relief worker was driving through Stup. Unidentified forces turned back a Danish UNHCR convoy in the vicinity of Kacuni and challenged the British UNHCR escort. (Department of State)
(33) 14 January 93:
Unidentified persons inside the hospital in Kosevo shot at a UNHCR convoy delivering fuel to the hospital. (Department of State)
(34) 13 January 93:
Small arms fire in the town of Gornji Vakuf killed a British soldier serving with the British force protecting aid supplies in Gornji Vakuf. Five British UN troops have been wounded by gunfire in Bosnia-Herzegovina since September 1992. (Department of State, Paris AFP)
(35) 18 February 93:Bosnian Serb gunners fired five tank shells from Sarajevo's Mrkovici Heights into the neurological surgery and pediatric surgery units of Kosevo Hospital. In addition, 20 shells damaged two other units in the hospital complex. (Paris AFP)
(36) 11 February 93:
Heavy shelling between Bosnian army and Serb troops caused the closing of the Sarajevo airport. The airlift operation from Zagreb was also suspended because a British aircraft experienced two radar lock-ons. The shelling of Sarajevo airport killed one French UNPROFOR soldier and wounded three others. (Department of State, Paris AFP)
(37) 28 January 93:
Bosnian Serb forces detained 21 UNPROFOR civilian police in a hotel in Benkovac. The Serbian militia were using UN police as a shield against Croatian artillery, according to UN Secretary General. Though the Serbs claimed this move was taken "for their safety," the officers were kept on the hotel's top floor, in the line of fighting. (Department of State, Paris AFP) (38) 27 January 93:
An unidentified assailant seriously wounded a UNHCR logistics assistant at Sarajevo airport. With a bullet wound to the leg, he was evacuated the next day by a French aircraft, which in turn was threatened by small arms and mortar fire prior to take-off. (Department of State)
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees narrowly escaped injury when unknown snipers fired at the convoy in which she was riding in Sarajevo. The automobile caravan was attacked enroute to the residence of UNPROFOR Commander Morillon, and a lead car with journalist was hit twice. (Department of State)
(39) 27 January 93:
Serb militiamen drove out a Kenyan UNPROFOR contingent, which had been threatened earlier by Croatian forces, retook the Peruca hydroelectric dam located near the town of Sinj, and blew up a bridge constituting part of the dam works. Water began pouring through cracks in the structure, endangering the lives of 20,000 people living in the valley bellow the dam. (Department of State, The Washington Post, The Sun)
(40) 25 January 93:
Unidentified snipers killed two French soldiers and wounded three others in Karin, near Zadar. (Department of State, Paris AFP)
(41) January 93:
Bosnian Government forces fired on two UN crews, as the latter tried to restore electric power in Sarajevo, according to a UN spokesman. (The Washington Times)
(42) 17 January 93:
Bosnian mortar fire from Hrasnica - a Bosnian-held suburb of Sarajevo - wounded three French UNPROFOR soldiers who were manning a checkpoint at Sarajevo airport. (Paris AFP)
(43) April-August 92:
A 43-year-old Bosnian woman from Mostar said that on April 10, 1992, an unidentified JNA unit from the South Camp in Mostar had arrived at the cigarette factory in that city with six tanks, which opened fire with machine guns. The factory's Serbian engineering economist issued orders to the JNA unit. All factory employees were ordered out onto the street, where all non-Serbian males were separated out and taken to South Camp, while the women were ordered to remain home.
At 6 PM on May 1, a JNA unit approached two apartment houses belonging to the cigarette factory and located on its grounds. They opened fire with machine guns. A resident called the UN and Red Cross offices located in the "HIT" department store; shortly after, one JNA special Forces Soldier wearing a camouflage uniform with a black scarf tied around his head and two Airborne Military policemen arrived. The witness judged by their accent that they were from Montenegro. The Special Forces soldier kicked in an apartment door and, threatening the occupants, asked about the phone call to the UN representative. A short time later, a group of JNA soldiers arrived and began to tear apart the apartments searching for weapons.
The following evening , a group of Serbian civilians wearing paramilitary uniforms came to the apartment buildings and took away 10 men. A senior paramilitary officer told his men they could choose any woman they wanted for their entertainment. Many apartments in both buildings were set on fire by tracer rounds fired by tanks of the unit. (Department of State)
(44) 17 February 93:Bosnian Serbs showed Belgrade-based foreign journalists 35 bodies thus far exhumed from a grave site discovered the previous day near the village of Kamenica, 20 kilometers south of Zvornik. The Serbs found two other grave sites, including one in a frozen pound containing 16 more bodies. Serbian pathologists, including a member of Medical Military Academy of Belgrade, claimed the 35 bodies were Serbian fighters and civilians killed in November. There had been a Muslim offensive in the area on November 6, 1992.
As of the time of this report, it is not clear that the grave site contains evidence of atrocities. (Department of State, Paris AFP)
(45) February 93:
By blocking relief supplies and general access, Serbian militia have starved Muslim refugees out of Cerska, Zvornik, and Kamenica - forcing them to move recently to the Tuzla area of northern Bosnia. According to UNHCR spokeswoman on February 9:
They are horribly malnourished, they have severe frostbite, and they are showing signs of scabies, head lice, and war wounds. We have 50 severe cases of frostbite. Some of them are losing their fingers and their toes. (Paris AFP)
(46) January 93:
Bosnian Serb authorities announced on January 25-26 that the approximately 6,000 Bosnian Muslim resident in the town of Trebinje and the surrounding area had 3 days to sell all of their property and to leave the area no later than February 15. The authorities said they could not guarantee the safety of the Muslims living in the Trebinje area after January 29-30, 1993. "I saw Serbian families already starting to occupy Muslim houses," reported a 33-year-old woman from Trebinje." Men in khaki uniforms with Serbian-flag shoulder patches came to our house. The men told me they would kill my 3-year-old daughter unless we moved out."
International officials confirmed on February 1-2 that about 5,000 Bosnian Muslims had already been forced to leave the Trebinje area. Those refugees who had not sold their property where required to sign documents turning it over to the Bosnian Serb authorities before leaving the Trebinje area. (Department of State, The New York Times)
(47) April 92:
A 34-year-old Muslim male said that shortly after Bosnia declared its independence on April 8, the head of the local branch of the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS), became leader of the Foca area Serbs and ordered that the Muslim population of the city be rounded up and deported to various camps.
Muslims and Croats were picked up 100-200 at a time and held for a few hours at local high schools before being sent to various camps. The first taken were intellectuals, city officials, and police officers. Later entire families were removed from their houses which, together with their shops, were then looted and burned by Chetniks and local Serbs - including former neighbors. The witness identified some of the Serbs who led these activities in Foca, three of whom were former deputies of the National Assembly from Foca. The witness said that these men also ordered the April 7 attack on Foca and gave orders for local ethnic cleansing and other criminal activities.
The witness said that two local Serbs removed the Klapuh family (husband, wife, and daughter) from their home. The next day, all three were found dead with their throats cut. (Department of State)