Story · Bihać · June 1992
"Let me go, child, let me go after them": a mother at the Bezdana pit
In the summer of 1992, Serb forces killed Bosniak prisoners from the Ljutočka dolina, who had been detained in Ripač, at the Bezdana pit in Hrgar, in the Bihać municipality. The pit was exhumed in September and October 1997. Edina Latif, for whom it was the first exhumation, remembers an elderly mother who wanted to follow her sons into the pit.
Summer 1992: Ljutočka dolina
In the summer of 1992, Serb forces expelled the inhabitants of the Ljutočka dolina, from Kulen Vakuf, Orašac, Ćukovi, Klisa and Ripač. At the bridge at Štrbački buk they separated out 210 men, and approximately half of them were killed. The bodies of those killed were thrown into the mass graves of Bezdana and Tihotina.
From 24 June until the end of July 1992, Bosniak men were detained in the IMT tractor workshop in Ripač. Some of the prisoners were taken from there to the Bezdana pit in Hrgar and killed there.
Edina Latif's first exhumation
After the war, Edina Latif took part in exhumations and in the identification of victims. The Bezdana pit was her first exhumation and her first encounter with parents who were searching for their sons. She has never forgotten it.
From 1 September to 5 October 1997, the Bihać expert team exhumed the Bezdana pit in Hrgar. According to the report of Physicians for Human Rights, the remains were those of Muslims detained in the Ripač camp.
While the remains were being brought up from the depths, families waited at the edge of the pit. According to Edina Latif's recollection, an elderly woman whose sons had ended up in the pit suddenly ran toward the edge in order to jump after them. Amor Mašović, as she tells it, shouted for her to be stopped, and Edina caught her at the last moment. "Let me go, child, let me go after them," the woman pleaded, according to Edina Latif. Edina took her to a tent, gave her water with sugar and stayed with her. She never learned the woman's name.
According to Edina Latif's testimony, the pit was 85 metres deep. She states that the victims were tortured before they died, that some were thrown into the pit alive, and that barrels of acid were also thrown into the pit. Those who descended to the bottom, she says, were shaken by what they found: remains in a sitting position, some in an embrace, and traces of attempts to get out. According to her, identifications were carried out in the mortuary in Visoko.
Edina Latif describes years of sleeplessness and nightmares, as well as the numbness that came with subsequent exhumations.
How many victims were in the pit
Figures on the number of victims differ from source to source. According to the report of Physicians for Human Rights, the minimum number of exhumed persons was 51. According to Detektor, 83 bodies were recovered from the Bezdana pit during the 1997 exhumation, of which 65 were later identified. According to Edina Latif's testimony, 81 Bosniaks from the Ljutočka dolina ended up in the pit.
Verdict
On 30 March 2017, the Court of BiH, at first instance, sentenced Saša Ćurguz, a former member of the Vojska Republike Srpske (VRS), to 15 years in prison, among other things for the murder of at least six prisoners at the Bezdana pit.