Account of an event · Doboj · July 12, 1992
Human Shield near Doboj: Detainees from the Perčin Disco Forced to the Front Line
On 12 July 1992, about fifty detainees were taken out of detention in the former Perčin discotheque in Doboj and then used as a human shield. According to court judgments, sixteen people were killed on that occasion. To date, no one has been convicted of the killings of the human shield.
Where and when
Doboj
- Date
- July 12, 1992
- Place
- Doboj, Makljenovac
- Coordinates
- 44.73° N · 18.09° E
Detention in the Perčin Disco
After Serb forces took over Doboj in May 1992, non-Serb civilians were held from May to July of that year in the former Perčin discotheque in the town. According to testimonies, the detainees were guarded and controlled by the Crvene beretke, a unit of the Serbian State Security Service (SDB). The commanders of that unit in Doboj named in testimonies are Živojin Ivanović, known as "Žika Crnogorac", whom the indictment in the Stanišić and Simatović case also named as commander, and Radojica Božović. Neither of them has ever been indicted.
12 July 1992
On that day, about fifty detained men were taken out of the Perčin disco. According to the Court of BiH, they were driven to Makljenovac. The survivor Edin Hadžović testified that they were taken to "a school at the end of Doboj" and forced to strip to the waist.
Before they were driven toward the front line, one of the detainees, Kalem, was killed in front of the others, as a warning of what awaited anyone who tried to escape. According to the testimony of Edin Hadžović, the man known as "Golub" fired the shot. Another camp survivor said that Kalem was killed "as an example to the others not to run away". The sources differ regarding Kalem's first name: both Drago and Ante are given.
The detainees, half-naked, were then driven to the front line as a human shield. The sources give the location as Doboj or Makljenovac; according to one source, the human shield was formed on Putnikovo brdo. According to the 2021 judgment of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) and according to the Court of BiH, sixteen detainees were killed. The indictment alleged about 27 killed, and one source gives 24. Edin Hadžović managed to escape together with one other man and later testified before the IRMCT.
Mass grave
In 2000, a grave was exhumed from which 27 bodies were recovered. Among them, Edin Hadžović recognized Kalem.
No punishment for the killings
In 2008, the Court of BiH sentenced Predrag Kujundžić to 17 years in prison, but acquitted him on the count of the indictment relating to the human shield.
On 30 June 2021, the IRMCT found that the sixteen killings of the human shield were committed by "members of Serb forces", but without a link to the SDB Unit. The court did not find that the Crvene beretke took part in the killings. By the appeals judgment of 31 May 2023, Jovica Stanišić and Franko Simatović were convicted for Doboj only of forcible transfer and persecution, not of murder.
On 25 September 2025, the Court of BiH upheld the acquittal of Paravac, Bjelošević and Savić.
To date, no one has been convicted of the killings of the detainees used as a human shield near Doboj.