Dr. Eso Sadiković – a Prijedor physician killed after the Omarska camp

The night of 5–6 August 1992

On the night of 5–6 August 1992 Eso was called out at the Omarska "death roll call". According to the book "Kolika je u Prijedoru čaršija" by Nusret Sivac, a pre-war TV BiH cameraman and also an Omarska detainee, Dr. Sadiković said from the doorway: "Farewell, friends…", and the detainees stood up and, in tears, saw him off with the words: "Thank you, doctor". According to another source, when some detainees began to cry, Eso calmed them in a raised voice and with a smile, and applause rang out through the room.

According to the testimony of Dr. Ibrahim Beglerbegović, who was briefly an Omarska detainee, Eso gave him a note with the message "Alma, Bato, Tajo loves you", which he passed on, through an intermediary, to Eso's wife.

The same night Dr. Mićo Kovačević arrived at the Omarska camp; the sources describe him as one of the masters of life and death over the non-Serbs of Prijedor, and Eso counted him among his three best friends. According to a source, the two of them talked for a long time on the airstrip before Eso was taken away; the content of the conversation is not known, but the source states that Kovačević came to see Eso off to his death.

Eso, together with another 123 Prijedor detainees taken from the Omarska camp, was killed with a shot to the head, and his body was thrown into the Hrastova glavica pit near Sanski Most, in the depths of the Grmeč mountain. At the time of his death he was 44 years old.

"Gone to Nicaragua"

Dr. Sadiković's fate was long concealed. The Serb authorities claimed that Eso had "somehow gone to Nicaragua". His relatives understood that he had been killed only when the lawyer and wartime captain Bogdan Tadić told them that "Eso has gone to Nicaragua". Tadić immediately afterwards occupied Eso's house and turned it into a headquarters. Already in September 1992 he "set his eye" on Eso's wife Zorica, whom he later married.

The second killing

A source states that Eso was killed "twice": the second time when his minor children were baptised and their identity was changed. In 1993 thirteen-year-old Alma became Veronika Gagović, and twelve-year-old Enis became Filip Gagović. According to one source, the change of names was carried out by their mother Zorica, with confirmation from the SDS.

After the war Alma, born in Sarajevo on 6 April 1979, came to her grandmother Senija in Sarajevo with the intention of enrolling in the Faculty of Medicine; in her biography she stated that she had previously been called Alma Sadiković and was now Veronika Gagović. She worked as a translator in the Office of the High Representative for BiH in Banja Luka, and also translated for Biljana Plavšić while she was president of Republika Srpska. She received a scholarship in America, where she completed her medical studies, and soon brought her brother to America as well. In the spring of 1998 she sent her grandmother Senija a text about her fate published in an American newspaper. According to the testimony of Eso's maternal uncle Enver Kovačević, Senija was especially hurt that the text nowhere mentions Alma, only Veronika. Senija Sadiković died in 2001.

Exhumation and funeral

The remains of Dr. Eso Sadiković were found in 2007. A collective dženaza for him and others who were killed was performed at the Luka stadium in Prijedor, and Eso was buried on 29 July 2007 in the Skele šehid cemetery in Prijedor. His children did not come to the funeral.

Surviving detainees of Prijedor and Sanski Most announced the placing of a memorial plaque with the names of those killed above the Hrastova glavica mass grave on 5 August.

Elitocide in Prijedor

The sources place the killing of Dr. Sadiković in a wider pattern of killings of the educated Bosniak elite in Prijedor. In Prijedor alone, the physicians Eniz Begić, Razim Musić, Jusuf Pašić, Željko Sikora and Rufad Suljanović, the microbiologist Kemal Cerić and the internist Osman Mahmuljin were also killed, along with numerous other intellectuals from various fields.

Remembrance

The citizens' association "Behar" from Prijedor launched an initiative to rename Skopska street, where Eso's family house still stands today, as "Dr. Esada Sadikovića" street. According to one source, the request was submitted eight years ago and, like the request for a monument to the 102 murdered Prijedor children, has produced no result.

Zorica Gagović, later the widow of Bogdan Tadić, has according to the sources gone to America. She appeared in Prijedor for a probate hearing with the children of Bogdan Tadić, and she has rented out the house in Skopska street. Nusret Sivac, a pre-war family friend of Eso's, said that he saw her then at the gate of the house talking with the former Prijedor marathon runner Sandro Selman. When the journalist tried to speak by telephone with Eso's children, a woman whom the editorial office believes was Zorica Gagović answered and, in a harsh tone, refused any conversation, demanding that she and her family be left in peace.