The Last Letter of Professor Muhamed Čehajić

The Professor and Municipal President

Muhamed Čehajić was a secondary school teacher of Serbo-Croatian language and philosophy. According to genocid.ba, he was born in Sanski Most. On 4 January 1991 he was elected, as an SDA candidate, president of the Prijedor Municipal Assembly. His deputy was Milomir Stakić of the SDS.

His wife Minka Čehajić, a paediatrician and deputy director of the Prijedor hospital, described him as a modest and sensible man. Of their life together she later said: "The two of us were enough for each other." They had a son, Amir, and a daughter, Amira.

The Takeover of 30 April 1992

In the early morning hours of 30 April 1992, Serb forces took power in Prijedor. That morning Čehajić received a letter informing him that he was no longer president of the municipality. Milomir Stakić, his former deputy, took his position and his office. Čehajić and other representatives of the legitimate authorities were not allowed into the municipal building and went back to their homes. According to the testimony of one witness before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Čehajić announced that he would oppose the coup through nonviolent resistance, following the example of Gandhi.

Arrest

Muhamed Čehajić was detained in May 1992. According to his wife's testimony, this happened on the afternoon of 23 May: he was taken from his home to the police station for questioning and was never released. Minka, as she testified, visited him for the last time on 25 May. He suffered from a heart condition and refused the glasses she had brought him. After his arrest, according to genocid.ba, the police searched the apartment and took away his documents and family photographs.

Keraterm and Omarska

Čehajić was held first in the Keraterm camp and then in the Omarska camp. From the camp he wrote a letter to his family, which according to genocid.ba is dated 9 June 1992. In it he asks that his son keep studying and writes that he loves him more than himself. According to Minka Čehajić, the letter was carried out of Omarska by a young man from Prijedor. It reached her only in September 1992, shortly before she left Prijedor.

After the end of July 1992, Muhamed Čehajić did not return from Omarska.

Before the Court in The Hague

Minka Čehajić testified before the ICTY from 14 to 16 May 2002 in the case against Milomir Stakić. On 31 July 2003 the court found Stakić guilty. The court did not consider the cause of Čehajić's death proven beyond reasonable doubt, but, given his poor health and the conditions of detention, assessed his fate as "obviously foreseeable". On 22 March 2006 the ICTY Appeals Chamber upheld Stakić's conviction and sentenced him to 40 years' imprisonment.