Genocide in NW Bosnia - Eyewitness Statement - 6.2
Davorin Dujmovic
STATEMENTS, 1992 - PRIJEDOR, SANSKI MOST, KLJUC
The following are eye-witness statements. For reasons of
individual security, witnesses' personal data are excluded, but
are available at the Department for Collecting Documentation and
Processing Data on the Liberation War, Croatian Information Cen-
tre, Zagreb, Croatia.
(continued)
We set off toward Cazin without stopping on the way, but
they caught us in the village of Miska Glava. They caught 114 of
us. They forced us into a valley with the intention of killing
us, but an officer came and told them to take us to the hall in
Miska Glava.
We spent the night there. They then proceeded to take two
or three people out at a time, they beat them and forced them to
sing Serb songs. Some of these soldiers were in YPA uniforms, but
most wore camouflage uniforms. A bigger man came in and said that
ten volunteers from Rizvanovici should step out. Nine stood up,
but a tenth would not volunteer. He said if the tenth one did not
get up, all would be killed. My neighbor S. K. stood up. They
were thrown to the ground and their hands were tied with barb-
wire. They battered them, and then a burst of machine gun fire
was heard. We are not certain what happened to them. They contin-
ued to take more people out, beating them and forcing them to
sing Chetnik songs.
After all this we were put onto buses and driven to Lju-
bija. They brought us to the soccer stadium "Ljubija". We were
lined up in two rows. Two men were killed immediately. One had
his brains blown off, a part of which landed two meters from my
feet. I was terrified. They began beating us with rods again.
They were round with pointed tops, and they punctured people with
them. Most of them were neighbors from the villages of Donji
Volar, Miska Glava and Tukovi. The names of some were Drago Tin-
tor, Milenko Zigic, Zoran Kodrija, Zoran Joskic, one called "Ba-
bin", and Branko Topola. All of them were civilians before, but
they wore camouflage uniforms with Serb flags or Chetnik symbols
on them. There were approximately one hundred of us under that
wall at the stadium, and about 100 to 120 of them.
They forced E. K. to lick up the blood of those killed.
While he was doing this, they beat him. They ordered all minors
to come up, and so we did. There were sixteen of us. They picked
out fifteen more people, and took us to the prison, ie. the
dressing room. S. M. from Carakovo was the youngest among us. He
was thirteen years old. The others were taken to the mine site,
and two at a time were taken from the bus and shot. Half of them
were killed when a riot broke out in the bus. They broke all the
windows. As far as I know, only N. K. managed to get away. The
rest were executed. There were some seventy people there. They
were buried in the mine near Ljubija. N. K. is the only surviving
witness and he is here with me in the camp. I heard about the
massacre from him.
The rest of us, who remained in the dressing room at the
stadium, were taken out by the Serbs every half hour, beaten and
interrogated. They asked about those who hid in the woods and
about the participants in the attack on Prijedor. They were after
them at the time. I was also beaten. They kicked with their
boots, hit with gun-butts. Nobody was killed there. The interro-
gation was carried out in a separate room, where we were seated
on a chair. If you did not know the answer, they said: "Liar -
you know", and then they hit you. These were the same men who
beat everyone outside. They were reservists from neighboring vil-
lages. Most were from Ljubija and Miska Glava.
Later they made a list of all minors, put us in a transit
van and drove us to Trnopolje. We received no food for several
days. Upon our arrival in Trnopolje on August 1, 1992, we were
searched. The area was surrounded with barb-wire. We spent the
first night in the school, and the following morning we were tak-
en to be interrogated by Major Slobodan Kuruzovic. He asked about
our destination and the men they were searching for. No records
of these interrogations were made. After the questioning we were
put into a room which was once a shop. There were about 3,500
people in this camp. Muslims, Croatians and citizens of other na-
tionalities from the area were imprisoned there. They were mostly
older people, women and children. Harassment mostly occurred with
the changing of the guards. They were always drunk. They swore at
us, and insulted us. We received food from their Red Cross, and
that was just boiled macaroni and a slice of bread twice a day.
They took the girls to a room and probably raped them, or
something like that, because screams could be heard from that
room. We did not see anything. They would also take out other
prisoners, and then we would hear shots. The executed prisoners
would then be buried in the holes dug earlier. I know that one of
the guards was called "Dziger", but I do not know the others. We
were not allowed to move freely around the area occupied by other
prisoners.
I was in Trnopolje for twelve days and then my aunt from
@eger guaranteed to take me in. By this time they had begun to
release people. I was given a permanent release permit from the
camp.
When we got to Zeger, the Chetniks kept coming and say-
ing: "You get of here", "Go away from here", "We'll kill you
all", "Go back to Trnopolje". Two days after our arrival at
Zeger, we heard about a convoy headed for Travnik. Ten buses and
twelve trailer trucks were in that convoy. It consisted of women
and children. It was a dangerous journey with many controls en
route. The escorts told us before the departure that all money
and gold should be given to them, because there were going to be
two more search controls on the way. Anyone who did not hand over
everything he owned was going to be killed. When the convoy was
stopped, a Chetnik would come in the truck and put a gun against
someone's head, saying for example: "Collect 300 German Marks, or
this man is going to be killed".
The convoy went via Banja Luka, Skender Vakuf and Vlasic.
In Vlasic we were forced out and harassed. They screamed at us:
"You Turks, where are you going", "Why didn't you stay". They
said that our lot was waiting for us below. They shot after us,
but I do not think anyone was killed.
We came to Turbe and were given accommodations there by
our people. They organized transportation to Travnik. I went on
to Posusje and there I met up with my mother. Together we trav-
eled to Split and then to Zagreb. The following minors were
killed: Elvis Kadic, Esmir Kadiric, Fahrudin Kadiric, Jasmin Ka-
diric, Izet Kadic, Sabahudin Kadiric, Samir Karagic, Amir Kara-
gic, and Elvis Sarcevic (thirteen years old). This thirteen year
old boy was battered first, and then killed when he was stabbed
in the back with a ski pole, according to what I heard. The
grandfather he lived with and his uncle were also killed.
They killed randomly. This was part of ethnic cleansing.
Over the walkie-talkie orders were given to kill all males
between the ages of sixteen and sixty, and they did. My neighbor
heard this herself. They were afraid of the possible weapons
which, they assumed, were in our possession. Actually, we had no
weapons. The only men in possession of weapons were those who at-
tacked Prijedor.
I think that people should one day return to their homes,
and I believe that they will. Legal courts should try those Serbs
who participated in all of this, either actively or passively. We
are not, after all, savages to take revenge.
Zagreb, December 28, 1992
Davorin Dujmovic
(continued)
Zagreb, December 28, 1992
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