Account of an event · Vogošća · March 1992 – October 1992
Kod Sonje: Women Detained in Vogošća and Allegations Against a UNPROFOR General
From March 1992, the pension and restaurant "Kod Sonje" in Vogošća, about ten kilometers north of Sarajevo, and a bunker behind it served the Vojska Republike Srpske as detention facilities for Bosniak and Croat civilians. At least fifteen women and girls were raped there, and Branko Vlačo, the manager of the detention facilities in Vogošća, was finally sentenced to 13 years in prison. According to testimonies published by Newsday in 1993, members of UNPROFOR also visited the facility; in 2006 the Cantonal Prosecutor's Office Sarajevo opened an investigation against the Canadian general Lewis MacKenzie, who rejects the allegations and has never been indicted or tried.
A pension that became a prison
From the spring of 1992, Vogošća, on the northern edge of Sarajevo, was under the control of Bosnian Serb forces. In March 1992, the pension with a restaurant "Kod Sonje" (also known as Sonja's Kon-Tiki), located about ten kilometers north of Sarajevo, was turned into a detention facility. Behind the pension stood a concrete bunker, known as the "Bunker", in which captured Bosniaks and Croats were held. Both facilities were under the authority of the Vojska Republike Srpske (VRS).
The detainees were abused and tortured every day, and they were also taken to forced labor on the front line, where they were killed and wounded. Women and girls were subjected to sexual violence: at least fifteen women and girls were raped at the pension "Kod Sonje".
Branko Vlačo and the detention complex in Vogošća
"Kod Sonje" and the "Bunker" were part of a wider system of detention facilities in Vogošća. The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina found that Branko Vlačo, as manager of the detention facilities Planjina kuća, Nakina garaža and the Bunker in Vogošća, aided in the persecution of the Bosniak and Croat population in the period from May to 21 October 1992.
On 4 July 2014, the Court of BiH at first instance sentenced Branko Vlačo to 15 years in prison for crimes against humanity. On 15 April 2015, the Appellate Panel of the Court of BiH reduced his sentence to 13 years in prison.
Borislav Herak
Borislav Herak, a soldier of the Bosnian Serb forces, was arrested on 11 November 1992 together with Sretko Damjanović. Among other things, he was accused of raping women whom Bosnian Serb forces held in a motel about ten kilometers north of Sarajevo. On 30 March 1993, the Military District Court in Sarajevo sentenced Herak and Damjanović to death.
Before the court, Herak stated that he had come to "Kod Sonje" two to three times a week, that he had raped women there, and that he had once seen UN personnel there. In January 1996 he withdrew his statements, claiming they had been extracted from him by beatings. Parts of the confession proved to be untrue: the brothers Kasim and Asim Blekić, for whose murder Damjanović had been accused, were found alive. Herak's sentence was reduced on 30 November 1998 to 40 years, and on 16 March 1999 to 20 years in prison.
Testimonies about visits by UNPROFOR members
In May 1992, Canadian Major General Lewis MacKenzie established the Sarajevo Sector of the UNPROFOR peacekeeping force and took command of it; he commanded in Sarajevo until August 1992.
According to the testimonies of 12 Bosniak and 3 Serb witnesses with whom the American newspaper Newsday spoke, UNPROFOR members visited "Kod Sonje" during the summer and autumn of 1992. Two women told Newsday that they had been raped at the facility – one, by her own account, by a UN officer, and the other by a soldier of the Bosnian Serb army.