Primary School in Orašac

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Primary School in Orašac
Primary school in Orašac (photo was taken in 1995, after the war)1
General information
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The Municipality of Bihad is situated in the northwest part of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), in the
region of Bosanska Krajina. According to the 1991 census of the Socialist Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia, the Bihad municipality had a population of 70,732, including 46.737 Muslims, 12,689
Serbs, 5.580 Croats, 4.365 Yugoslavs and 1,370 others.2
On 9 January 1992, the Assembly of Srpska Republika BiH proclaimed the Srpska Republika BiH,
which on 12 August 1992 was renamed to ‘Republika Srpska’. It was composed of so-called
Serbian autonomous regions and districts, which included the Autonomous Region of Krajina
(ARK), which in turn covered the entire Bosanka Krajina.3
By the spring of 1992, a certain number of Serb paramilitary units were formed, and a few came
from Serbia. Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) trained and equipped some paramilitary units, who
were closely associated with the JNA or the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS). The paramilitary units
created an atmosphere of fear and terror among the non-Serb population of Bosanska Krajina,
1
Photo: Hilmo Kozlica, Put kroz pakao, str. 45.
State Institute of Statistics of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Census of population, households, dwellings
and farms of 1991, Ethnic composition of population – Results for the Republic by municipalities, populated places for
1991, Sarajevo, December 1993, Statistical bulletin no. 234.
3
ICTY, Case Radoslav Brđanin (IT-99-26), Judgement, p.30.
2
since they were involved in rapes, killing, plundering and destroying property, as well as with war
profiteering and looting. They later participated in the combat operations of the 1st Krajina Corps
of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) throughout the ARK and, from mid June 1992 onwards, they
were incorporated in the VRS structure.
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Since 1992, Serbs made attempts to annex Bihad and other municipalities “to the state dominated
by Serbs”. It required permanent removal of Muslims and Croats, and the destruction of their
cultural heritage in this area. In order to carry out this plan, Serb forces destroyed mosques in the
village of Ripač, hamlets Cukovi and Orašac, and in Kulen Vakuf. A great number of civilians in
villages Orašde and Duljci were killed, and many were detained in the detention facilities in
horrible conditions.4
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In the spring of 1992, camps and other detention facilities were established throughout the
territory of the Bosnian Krajina in army barracks and compounds, factories, schools, sport
facilities, police stations and other public buildings. These camps and detention facilities were set
up and controlled by the Bosnian Serb army, civilian authorities or the Bosnian Serb police. NonSerb civilians were arrested en masse and detained in these camps and detention facilities.5
Orašac is a settled place within the Municipality of Bihad, some 30 kilometres away from Bihad and
about a kilometre from the border with the Republic of Croatia. Together with the settled place of
Kulen Vakuf, which is also a constituent part of the Bihad municipality, it is located in the area
known as Ljutočka Valley. Muslims of the Ljutočka Valley were requested to hand in their
weapons, by an order signed by lieutenant-colonel Đuro Karailovid of 10 June 1992, and a day later
an attack began by the following Serbian forces: 15th Bihad Brigade, 1st Brigade of Drvar, parts of
the 3rd Brigade from Bosanski Petrovac, a Military Police platoon and two companies of local Serbs
– Kalati and Rajnovci, as well as by members of the Public Security Service Station (SJB) of Ripač.
Part of Muslim population of Kulen Vakuf – Ostrovica, Klis and Demirovid Brdo fled to Orašac,
while a large group of refugees started walking across Štrbački Buk waterfall towards the Republic
of Croatia hoping for help by UNPROFOR forces. The part of civilians who remained at their homes
underwent horrible torture, and some of them were killed.
In was on the bridge across Štrbački Buk, which joins banks of BiH and Croatia, that a large number
of Muslims were arrested. “Upon a few thousand Bosniaks’ arrival to the area of Štrbački Buk, a
group of Bosniaks managed to cross a suspension bridge and found themselves on the other side
of the bridge. According to the previously formed lists made by Serbian paramilitary forces, men
were separated from the group. The paramilitaries primarily looked for people who were in the
political or executive authorities before the war, for members of reserve police units and other
well-known individuals. At Štrbački Buk, some two hundred men were separated, who ended up in
a few camps. Over 150 men were taken away from these camps and killed. Upon entering Orašac,
4
5
ICTY, Interactive map, http://www.icty.org/sid/10913.
ICTY, Case Radoslav Brđanin (IT-99-36), Judgement, p. 51.
Serb paramilitary forces began to abuse the population that remained, and in the same time to
arrest men and detain them in the school in Orašac.”6
The men were detained in the Primary School from 11 to 14 June 1992.7
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Management
The Muslims detained at Orašac primary School were under the control of members of the
Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA).8
Having occupied Orašac, unites of the 2nd Krajina Corps of VRS and police units stationed their
headquarters in the primary school building.9 A person named Mitrovid was the commander of
Serb forces in Orašac. Dane Kovačevid was one of the Serb soldiers who transported detainees.
When the detainees were taken into the school, they were listed in front of the staircase leading
to the first floor. The list was made by two women who were sitting at a table. Armed guards were
beside the table.
In the classroom, detainees were watched by an armed military policeman, who stood at the door
with his gun pointed toward them.10
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“Members of Serb forces who conducted interrogation and participated in the attack and
deportation of captives to other camps included: Boban Jovanovid (major from Knin Corps and the
supreme commander Šipovac), Tijanovid (officer of the Knin Corps), Milan Ivančevid, Ilija
Majstorovid, Slobodan Latinovid a.k.a. „Bobo“, Stevo Majstorovid, Svetko Mandid, JovicaK užet,
Milorad Došenovid a.k.a. „Mido“, Rajko Smrzlid, Jovica Radak, Uroš Jojid.”11
Conditions
Detainees were kept in classrooms. Women with children were detained in one classroom, on the
first floor, while only men were kept in another. There were about 80 men of all ages detained in
the classrooms. In the corridors, there were a lot of scattered objects, mostly papers and
textbooks of pupils who had attended the school.
6
Mujo Begid, Kontinuitet ratnih zločina i stradanje Bošnjaka Ljutočke doline – Proceedings, pp. 188-190, Faculty of Law
in Bihad, 2009.
7
Mujo Begid, U opsadi 1201 dan, Sigurna zona UN-a Bihad, p. 316, Sarajevo, 2013.
8
UN Security Council, Distr. General S/1994/674/Add.2 (Vol. IV), p. 59, 27.5.1994.
9
Mujo Begid, U opsadi 1201 dan, Sigurna zona UN-a Bihad, p. 315, Sarajevo, 2013.
10
Hilmo Kozlica, Put kroz pakao, pp. 31-49.
11
Excerpt from the book: Ljutočka dolino nikad ne zaboravi, by Mujo Begid, Bihad, 2004, taken from: Ljutočka dolina,
Web prezentacija o Ljutočkoj Dolini, ljutoc.wordpress.com, https://ljutoc.wordpress.com/2014/12/07/juni-septembar1992-ubijanja-i-pljacka-poslije-etnickog-ciscenja/
The classrooms were full of pieces of window panes, broken by shell fragments and small-arms
bullets. Detainees were not allowed to look through the windows, and were told that who tried to
do so would get “a bullet in the head”. In the evening they were given a few blankets.
Detainees sat or lay on the floor.12
Abuse
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During their stay in the school, detainees were given a plateful of macaroni and a piece of flat
bread each.13
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During the transport to the Orašac school, detainees were abused and verbally insulted. Upon the
arrival to Gornji Gorjevac, they stopped by a primary school, where a member of Serb army named
Vunjak approached them. He was the one who abused detainees most. He asked them: “Where
are Ibro Alivuk and Mujo Demirovid, teachers? We will turn their skins inside out.” He forced two
brothers from Kulen Vakuf to take off their underpants and conduct a sexual intercourse, during
which he loaded his rifle and cursed.
A figure of horse with the head and mane was drawn on the wall of Gornji Gorjevac school.
Detainees were forced to “go and let the horse loose”.
During the transport to the Orašac school, detainees were beaten, stamped with feet, hit with rifle
butts and rifle tips, so that man of them sustained broken head. The captors thrust a knife into
Alija Kurtagid’s mouth through the larynx. All the time, detainees were forced to sing ‘Tchetniks’
songs’: Od topole pa do Ravne Gore, Ko to kaže, ko to laže, Srbija je mala, Turkinja se pred
džamijom klela and others.
When the trucks with detainees reached the village of Dubovsko, soldiers at a Serb army’s
checkpoint began to threaten: “Give them to us, so we can gouge their eyes and cut of their ears”.
At this place, two Serb soldiers beat detainees on the back, mostly Salko Behrem, Suad Kasid,
Džafer Palid and Hilmo Kozlica.
When they reached the place of Idina Strana, a Serb soldier grabbed Hilmo Kozlica by the hair,
raised his head, ordered him to open his mouth and pointed an automatic gun toward him.
Detainee Kozlica: “When I opened my mouth, he thrust the tip of his rifle in it and loaded it. I
thought he was going to shoot and remained breathless. I thought my heart would break. The
villain then started turning the rifle and the edge of its tip – flash suppressor – damaged my throat
and made a wound in the mouth, which bled. I had to swallow the blood. My teeth went numb. I
felt thief broken chips in my mouth, and I spat them out. I moved the head to a side, and then the
12
13
Mujo Begid, U opsadi 1201 dan, Sigurna zona UN-a Bihad, p.315, Sarajevo, 2013.
Hilmo Kozlica, Put kroz pakao, pp. 44-49.
beast kicked me on the face with the boot, then hit me a couple of times with the fist and after
that I received a couple more kicks with the boot on the back and kidneys.”
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While they were passing through Dulba village, people commented: “Raise your heads, Balijas
(derogatory name for Muslims), and look at your Ustasha lying down!” The detainees saw Mujo
Zajkid lying on his back, in the police uniform, on the bank of a ditch. Serb soldiers shouted to
them: “This is how you will end too!”
At the village of Dukovi, the truck stopped by Atif Tutid’s house. It was being plundered by Serb
soldiers at the moment, and when they saw the detainees they shouted: “Give them to us so we
can shoot them all, gouge their eyes and slaughter them!”14
Upon arrival in front of the Orašac primary school, soldiers opened one side of the truck and
ordered detainees to jump out, two at a time. There were 41 detainee altogether. They took them
into the school through a double line of soldiers, and then locked them in a classroom on the
second floor.15
According to previously prepared lists, they took the called detainees for interrogation. The
detainees were taken to the ground floor, and returned beaten, with visible traces of blood and
blows all over the body.16
During the detention, detainees had their arms tied. They were untied only when they received
food.
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Detainee Fikro Omanovid was beaten in the truck during the transport to the Orašac school. His
head was covered with blood.17
Killing
Omer Kasid, aged 80, was killed in the school with a large number of people watching. Since there
were some glass remnants on the windows, Omer Kasid tried to take off a broken piece, to prevent
someone being hurt. When he bent down to take the piece off, a drunk Serb soldiers shot through
the window an hit Kasid.18
14
Hilmo Kozlica, Put kroz pakao, pp. 48 and 58.
Ibid., p. 44.
16
Mujo Begid, U opsadi 1201 dan, Sigurna zona UN-a Bihad, p. 315.
17
Hilmo Kozlica, Put kroz pakao, pp. 48 and 58.
18
Mujo Begid, U opsadi 1201 dan, Sigurna zona UN-a Bihad, p. 315, ; Mujo Begid, Kontinuitet ratnih zločina i stradanje
Bošnjaka Ljutočke doline – Proceedings, p. 190, Faculty of Law in Bihad, 2009.
15
Forced labour
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Detainees were taken away from the school to bury the killed people. They buried them in Orašac.
Detainees buried the bodies of the killed and dismembered (from direct shelling) civilians Huso
Omerdid, Mujesira Kulaš and her under-age daughter Sunita in a nearby graveyard. Before they did
so, they had to collect their mortal remains. They wrapped them in blankets and buried them in
this way.
Detainees Fikret Begid, Šabo Mešid, Ramiz Alivuk and Derviš Mešid buried the old woman Amaza
Zulid near her house under a walnut tree.19
The food for detainees was prepared by the detained civilians, who were also kept in the school.20
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Transfers
On 14 June 1992, 46 detainees were transferred from the Orašac Primary School to the Prekaja
camp. During the transport, as well as during the detention, the detainees were tied up.21
Detainees were also transferred from the Orašac Primary School to the Ripač camp.22
On 12 June 1992, Hilmo Kozlica was separated from women, children and the elderly together
with 210 more people, by the suspension bridge at Štrbački Buk and taken to the school in Orašac.
On 14 June 1992, he was transferred from there to the Primary School in Prekaja and then, on 30
June 1992, to the Kozila camp, where he stayed until 8 August 1992, when he was again
transferred to the Kamenica camp. He was released on 3 November 1992.23
Visits by the International Committee of the Red Cross
No visits by the representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) were
recorded.
Processing persons responsible for war crimes
A few persons were convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
(ICTY), of the war crimes committed in Bosanska Krajina on the grounds of superior responsibility.
19
Mujo Begid, U opsadi 1201 dan, Sigurna zona UN-a Bihad, p. 316.
Hilmo Kozlica, Put kroz pakao, 2009, p.48.
21
Ibid., pp. 50-53.
22
Mujo Begid, U opsadi 1201 dan, Sigurna zona UN-a Bihad, p. 316, Sarajevo, 2013.
23
Hilmo Kozlica, Put kroz pakao, pp. 40-118.
20
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On 1 September 2004, Radoslav Brđanin, President of the Crisis Staff of the Krajina Autonomous
Region was sentenced to 32 years’ imprisonment for the war crimes committed in a few
municipalities in BiH, among other things, of the following counts: persecutions, deportations,
crimes against humanity, inhumane acts (forcible transfer), wilful killing, torture. On 3 April 2007,
the Appeals Chamber reduced the sentence to 30 years’ imprisonment.24
On 27 September 2006, Momčilo Krajišnik, President of the National Assembly of Republika
Srpska, was sentenced to 27 years’ imprisonment of the counts of crime against humanity
including, among other things: persecution, extermination, murder, deportation, inhumane acts
(forcible transfer). On 17 March 2009, ICTY Appeals Chamber reduced the sentence to 20 years’
imprisonment.25
Biljana Plavšid, a wartime member of the Presidency of Republika Srpska, was sentenced to 11
years’ imprisonment after she had pleaded guilty of Count 3 of the Indictment, which pertained to:
killings during attacks on towns and villages, cruel and inhumane treatment during and after the
attacks, forcible transfer and deportation, unlawful detention and killing, forced labour and use of
human shield, destruction of cultural monuments and sacred sites, plunder and wanton
destruction of private and public property.26
Mido Stanišid, the wartime minister of internal affairs of Republika Srpska, was sentenced to 22
years’ imprisonment, as he was found guilty of the following counts: persecution as a crime
against humanity (killings, torture, cruel treatment and inhumane acts, unlawful detention,
establishment and perpetuation of inhumane living condition, forcible transfer and deportation,
plunder of property), and of murder and torture as a violation of the laws or customs of war.27
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Stojan Župljanin, the Chief Regional Security Service Centre of Banja Luka, was sentenced to 22
years’ imprisonment as he was found guilty of the following counts: persecution as a crime against
humanity (killings, torture, cruel treatment and inhumane acts, unlawful detention, establishment
and perpetuation of inhumane living condition, forcible transfer and deportation, plunder of
property), murder and torture as a violation of the laws or customs of war, and extermination as a
crime against humanity.28
(15.6.2015.)
Annexe I
The list of 41 detainees arrested at Štrbački Buk and taken to the Orašac school:
24
ICTY, Case Radoslav Brđanin (IZ-99-36), First-instance judgement; Ibid. (IT-99-36-A), Second-instance judgement.
ICTY, Case Momčilo Krajišnik (IT-00-39-T), First-instance judgement; Ibid (IT-00-39-A), Second-instance judgement.
26
ICTY, Case Biljana Plavšid (IT-00-39), Trial Chamber Judgement.
27
ICTY, Case Mido Stanišid (IT-04-79), Trial Chamber Judgement.
28
ICTY, Case Stojan Župljanin (IT-99-36/2), Trial Chamber Judgement.
25
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1. Mumin Šehid
2. Salko Behrem
3. Behrudin Behrem
4. Hajrudin Behrem
5. Suad Kasid Biko
6. Fikret Omanovid
7. Smail Džafica Efendija
8. Selim Džafica
9. Hilmo Kozlica
10. Halid Kozlica Lido
11. Ramiz Glumac
12. Aziz Alivuk
13. Rasim Delid Rako
14. Asim (Suljaga) Vojid
15. Asim (Hasan) Vojid
16. Ismet Vojid Ida
17. Edhas Vojid
18. Ekrem Vojid
19. Halil Vojid
20. Mesud Vojid
21. Fadil Kozlica Bada
22. Muhamed Bilid Hamid
23. Zuhdo Dedid
24. Husein Dedid
25. Adam Vojinkovid
26. Smail Jukid
27. Muharem Kadid
28. Muharem Beganovid
29. Džafer Palid
30. Jasmin Demalovid
31. Alija Kurtagid
32. Bajko Handžid
33. Rasim Kosovid
34. Mujo Hasanagid
35. Abdulah Kurtagid
36. Smajo Mehadžid
37. Mirsad Vajzovid
38. Fikret Seferovid
39. Mehmed Mašinovid Medo
40. Senad Mašinovid Nenica
41. Ibro (Muše) Derviševid.29
Annexe II
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The list of detainees in the Orašac school who were brought after the first group of 41 detainees:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Asim Behrem Asko
Mahmut Glumac
Ibrahim Lepirica
Džafer Kasid
Jasmin Ramid
Esad Demalovid.30
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Annexe III
Location of the Orašac Primary School31
29
Hilmo Kozlica, Put kroz pakao, pp.46 and 47.
Ibid.
31
Mujo Begid, Pravno-politički aspekti stradanja Bošnjaka Bosanske Krajine sa posebnim osvrtom na masovne grobnice
i logore, Doctoral dissertation, Annexe, Map 1, Faculty of Law in Bihad, 2010.
30
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Orašac Primary School32
32
Ljutočka Valley, Web prezentacija o Ljutočkoj Dolini. https://ljutoc.wordpress.com.