Witness 50: A Fifteen-Year-Old Girl from Foča and the Judgment against Zoran Vuković

The War Comes to Foča

Witness 50 was a Bosniak girl from a village in the municipality of Foča. In the spring of 1992 she was fifteen years old. According to her testimony, the war reached Foča in April 1992: only Serbs had weapons, and the villagers could no longer go into town for food or medical care.

In early May 1992, fearing that their houses would be set on fire, the family began hiding in the forest.

The Attack on the Village and Capture

The village was then attacked. According to the recounted testimony, the attack took place on 3 July 1992; this date, however, is not confirmed in other sources. A few days after the attack, four uniformed soldiers captured the family.

According to the testimony, the family was taken to the Buk Bijela motel, where the witness was held in barracks together with her family, other women, children and two elderly men. From there, as she testified, she was transferred to the Secondary School Centre (Srednjoškolski centar) in Foča, and after eleven days to the Partizan sports hall. According to the same testimony, about sixty Bosniaks, mostly women and children, were detained in the hall.

The Partizan Sports Hall

Soldiers repeatedly took women and girls out of the Partizan hall and raped them.

In mid-July 1992, Zoran Vuković, a member of the Vojska Republike Srpske (VRS), took Witness 50 from the Partizan hall to a nearby apartment and raped her. The Hague Tribunal established that he knew the girl was only fifteen years old. According to one source, Vuković also acted as a member of a paramilitary group in Foča.

According to the testimony, in the following weeks the witness was subjected to sexual violence in several other houses and apartments in Foča as well.

The House in Osmana Đikića Street

On 2 August 1992, Dragoljub Kunarac, a commander of a VRS unit, took Witness 50 and three other girls to a house at Osmana Đikića Street no. 16, where they were handed over to other soldiers. The Hague Tribunal found Kunarac guilty of aiding and abetting torture and rape.

Leaving Foča

The witness left Foča with other detainees on buses organized by the police. According to her testimony, this was on 13 August 1992 and was connected to a possible visit by the International Committee of the Red Cross; the date is not confirmed in other sources.

Testimony in The Hague

On 29 and 30 March 2000, Witness 50 testified before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in the case against Dragoljub Kunarac, Radomir Kovač and Zoran Vuković. Of what she had lived through, she said: "There are no words in this world that could describe my feelings."

On 22 February 2001, the Tribunal sentenced Dragoljub Kunarac to 28 years, Radomir Kovač to 20 years and Zoran Vuković to 12 years in prison for crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war. Kovač was convicted for crimes committed against other victims, not against Witness 50.

On 12 June 2002, the ICTY Appeals Chamber dismissed the appeals and upheld the judgments. The Chamber rejected Vuković's objections, by which he had tried to challenge the credibility of Witness 50.