Briševo 1992: the attack on a Croat village near Prijedor

A village near Prijedor

Briševo is a village in the Prijedor municipality, in Bosanska krajina, with a predominantly Croat population. According to genocid.ba, about 370 Croats lived there in 1991. The village also includes the hamlet of Mlinari.

The first blows: May and June 1992

At the end of May 1992, after the attacks on Hambarine and Kozarac, refugees began to arrive in Briševo. According to genocid.ba, the village itself was shelled on 27 May 1992.

On 24 June 1992, police officers from Ljubija, as genocid.ba states, arrested several residents of Briševo and took them to the Keraterm, Omarska and Manjača camps. Some of them were killed.

Attacks in the Sana valley

According to the association Izvor, the attacks began on 20 July 1992 in villages on the left bank of the Sana, and on 23 July they continued in Čarakovo and Zecovi.

The attack on Briševo, 24 and 25 July 1992

At around three o'clock in the morning on 24 July 1992, an artillery and infantry attack on Briševo began. It lasted the entire day and the following night. According to testimonies and reporting by Radio Free Europe (RFE), the 6th Sanska (Krajiška) Brigade of the VRS from Sanski Most and the 5th Kozarska Brigade of the VRS took part in the attack, and according to RFE, so did the 43rd Prijedorska Brigade of the VRS and police units. The indictment of the Prosecutor's Office of BiH describes the attack as an attack on an undefended village, carried out as part of a widespread and systematic attack on the non-Serb population.

The killed

The figures for the number of those killed differ from source to source, but all speak of more than sixty victims. According to the indictment, 61 civilians were killed within a few hours, among them one underage Bosniak, and three residents of Briševo are still listed as missing today. RFE and genocid.ba state 67 killed, while Ivo Atlija spoke before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) of 68 killed. According to his testimony, among them were 14 women, two young men and four persons with disabilities.

The oldest victim was, according to RFE, 81-year-old Stipo Dimač. Sources disagree about the youngest victim: RFE states that it was Ervin Matanović, aged 14, while genocid.ba states that he was 16 years old, and the indictment, without naming him, describes the youngest victim as a sixteen-year-old. According to genocid.ba, Mladen Matanović and his 18-year-old son Johan were also killed.

Whole families were killed. RFE lists among them the Matanović, Atlija, Dimač and Barišić families.

Testimonies

Ivo Atlija, a Bosnian Croat from Briševo, later testified before the ICTY. According to his testimony, soldiers beat and humiliated his neighbour Pero Dimač and then killed him. Atlija also relays the words his mother said to him: "Run, they killed your father."

According to eyewitness testimonies, victims with injuries inflicted by shovels and pickaxes were found in the hamlet of Mlinari, and some of the victims, as these witnesses state, had to dig their own graves. According to the indictment, several women were raped.

Camps, looting and expulsion

Several dozen people, mostly men, were taken to the Keraterm, Omarska and Trnopolje camps. Some died during transport, and at least three were killed in Omarska.

All the houses in the village and the Catholic church were destroyed, and the houses had been looted beforehand. About 350 surviving residents were expelled. In November 1992, Croats and Bosniaks were allowed to leave only after signing that they were "voluntarily" giving up their property.

After the war

After the war, almost none of the Croats returned to Briševo permanently.

Justice

The ICTY sentenced Milomir Stakić to 40 years in prison, among other things for crimes committed in the Prijedor area, including Briševo. Ivo Atlija testified in that proceeding, as well as later in the case against Mladić.

In December 2023, the Prosecutor's Office of BiH indicted Veljko Brajić, Slobodan Taranjac, Ranko Kaurin, Branko Dženopoljac and Draško Topić for crimes against humanity in Briševo. The Court of BiH confirmed the indictment on 1 April 2024. The accused Veljko Brajić, former chief of staff of the 6th Sanska Brigade, died in January 2026, during the trial, before a verdict was delivered.