Personal testimony · Sušica · June 1992 – July 1993
Hilmo Hurić survived Sušica, but the war took both of his young sons
On 2 June 1992, Hilmo Hurić was taken with his wife, daughter and two sons to the Sušica camp near Vlasenica, and he was then held in the Batković camp near Bijeljina until July 1993. According to his testimony, his elder son Jasmin disappeared after being taken from Sušica for interrogation, and his younger son, three-year-old Esmir, was killed. Every year Hurić returns to Sušica, where together with other survivors he remembers the crimes committed in the camp.
Where and when
Sušica
- Date
- June 1992 – July 1993
- Place
- Vlasenica, Sušica, Debelo Brdo, Batković
- Coordinates
- 44.17° N · 18.94° E
The Sušica camp
At the end of May 1992, Serb forces established the Sušica camp near Vlasenica. The first detainees were brought there at the beginning of June 1992. Between 300 and 500 people were usually held in the camp's hangar. According to the findings in the judgments, at least 8,000 non-Serb civilians passed through the camp. The camp commander was Dragan Nikolić.
The taking of the Hurić family
Hilmo Hurić was taken from his home on 2 June 1992 together with his wife, daughter and two sons, and brought to the Sušica camp. According to his testimony, the detainees were beaten and abused every day, and at night it was even worse. In the first days they received almost no food or water. Groans and screams could be heard coming from the darkness of the hangar. "You only hear the groans and screams, but you see nothing," Hilmo Hurić described.
According to the father's testimony, the guards did not allow his elder son Jasmin, who was then about 15 years old, to leave with his mother, but kept him in the camp with him.
The last meeting with Jasmin
One day, as Hilmo Hurić testifies, Jasmin was taken from Sušica with a group of detainees to the police for interrogation. That was the last time his father saw him alive.
Batković
After 26 days spent in Sušica, Hilmo Hurić was transferred at the end of June 1992 to the Batković camp near Bijeljina. At that time a large number of detained men were transferred from Sušica to Batković. Hurić was held in Batković until July 1993.
News after his release
Only after being released, according to his own testimony, did Hilmo Hurić learn that his younger, three-year-old son Esmir had also been killed. Where, when and how the child was killed is not known.
As for Jasmin, he says he heard that Jasmin was supposed to have been exchanged. According to his testimony, he later found Jasmin's bones himself, lying on the surface of the ground, and buried them.
The killing of detainees at Debelo Brdo
At the end of September 1992, Serb police took between 140 and 150 detainees from Sušica to Debelo Brdo and killed them.
Judgments
On 4 February 2005, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) sentenced the commander of the Sušica camp, Dragan Nikolić, who had pleaded guilty to crimes against humanity, to 20 years in prison.
On 5 February 2010, the Court of BiH sentenced Predrag Bastah to 22 years and Goran Višković to 18 years in prison for crimes committed in Vlasenica. Bastah's sentence is final; in 2014 the Court of BiH rejected his request for a retrial. In his own assessment, Hilmo Hurić considers the sentences imposed to be lenient.