Account of an event · Prhovo · May 30, 1992 – June 1, 1992
Prhovo, 1 June 1992: Massacre in a Village near Ključ
On 1 June 1992, Serb forces entered the undefended village of Prhovo in the municipality of Ključ, separated the men from the women and children, and killed some of them in the village and on the road towards the village of Peći. According to one source, 53 persons were killed; according to the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, more than 40. The Court of BiH has issued final convictions of Marko Adamović and Boško Lukić for crimes against humanity in Ključ, which include Prhovo.
Where and when
Manjača
- Date
- May 30, 1992 – June 1, 1992
- Coordinates
- 44.57° N · 17.06° E
The Village before the War
Prhovo is a small village in the municipality of Ključ, about ten kilometres from the town. According to the portal genocid.ba, before the war it had around 360 inhabitants, most of them Bosniaks. Today about thirty people live there.
The Arrival of Serb Forces
According to the testimony of N. M., who was nine years old at the time and attended school in the almost entirely Serb village of Sokolovo, Serb forces entered Prhovo as early as Saturday, 30 May 1992, and gathered the inhabitants. According to the portal genocid.ba, seven civilians were killed before the eyes of their relatives during that first gathering. The villagers spent the night between Sunday and Monday hidden in the forest, and returned to their homes at dawn.
1 June 1992
On Monday, 1 June 1992, Serb forces entered the undefended village. According to the testimony of Azim Medanović before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), about a hundred members of the Serb military police came to Prhovo and separated some 40 Bosniak men from the women and children. Medanović testified that five men, after they had surrendered, were beaten and shot on the spot, although they were unarmed and offered no resistance. According to his testimony, the commander Marko Adamović ordered over a megaphone that the village be set on fire and the women and children killed. The Court of BiH established that Serb forces, among them Marko Adamović, entered Prhovo on the same day on which the attack on Velagići was carried out.
According to the testimony of N. M., Enisa Jusić and Ramiza Jusić were killed near him. He also testified that among the armed men who shot at the villagers he recognised his teacher from Sokolovo, whom he names only by first name – Stojan. On that day, as he recounted, he lost both of his brothers, his grandfather and his grandmother; his father was at that time working in Slovenia.
One boy, S. H., according to his own testimony survived because he lost consciousness during the shooting. His mother was wounded and died that same evening, his father was killed together with neighbours near Peći, and his thirteen-year-old brother and nine-year-old sister also perished. According to the portal genocid.ba, three more children lost their entire family. S. H. later fled to Travnik, and from there to Slovenia, where his uncle took care of him.
The Road towards Peći
The remaining men were taken towards the village of Peći and killed along the way. According to the testimony of Azim Medanović, of about 40 men only 12 survived; his father was also killed near Peći. According to the indictment against Saša Dunović, 27 men were taken to Peći, where they were beaten, and at least 15 of them were killed. According to the portal genocid.ba, Vahid Medanović was killed near Peći together with his son, daughter-in-law, wife and grandchild.