Vlasenica 1992: women and girls taken from the Sušica camp and from transports

The takeover of Vlasenica and the Sušica camp

Serb forces took Vlasenica in the spring of 1992, according to the portal genocid.ba mostly during April, May and June. Many Bosniaks from Vlasenica and the surrounding area were detained in the Sušica camp near Vlasenica. According to the same source, the sexual abuse of detained women in Sušica lasted from the beginning of June until approximately 15 September 1992.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) established that the camp commander Dragan Nikolić personally took detained women out of the camp, or helped to have them taken out, knowing that they would be raped or sexually abused, and that he gave guards, soldiers and other persons access to the detained women for the purpose of sexual violence. According to testimonies cited by genocid.ba, women were taken from the camp in twos or threes, sometimes five at a time, and were driven to nearby houses, but also to other places: to the hotel "Panorama" in Vlasenica, to Ribnjak near Milići, to the hotel Drina in Zvornik, to Loznica and to Šekovići. The same source states that one group of women was held for more than ten days in a house in the village of Derventa near Milići.

Witnesses before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina spoke about the rape of thirteen-year-old girls in Vlasenica in 1992. One protected witness stated that in June 1992 in Sušica she was subjected to sexual violence by Goran Višković, a member of the Military Police of the VRS. The indictment charged him with the rape of one woman in the first half of June 1992.

The witness under the pseudonym SU-032 described the humiliation she experienced in the camp: "I felt humiliated as a woman and a mother simply by being in the camp."

Transports of women and children in July 1992

According to the portal genocid.ba, between 13 and 19 July 1992, during the transports of women and children from Vlasenica, soldiers at the locality of Luke and at the Tišća crossroads separated women and girls from the others. The witness R. H. stated before the Court of BiH that on arrival in Luke the soldiers singled out young girls and women, and that the women who were taken away did not return alive. According to her testimony, the reserve policeman Predrag Bastah called on the soldiers to "sow their seed".

One mother testified before the Court of BiH that, after 21 days spent in Sušica, Predrag Bastah transported her together with other women by truck towards Kladanj. According to her testimony, Serb soldiers took her thirteen-year-old daughter and about ten other girls out of the transport. She never saw her daughter again, and her mortal remains have not been found. The surviving boy N. S., who in 1992 was almost fourteen years old, stated before the court that Bastah brought the girls, among them the daughter of that witness, to a house that was used for torture and rapes. According to genocid.ba, N. S. was one of three Bosniak boys released from Sušica in September 1992.