Uzamnica camp

Last updated
Uzamnica camp
Detainment camp
Republika Srpska location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Uzamnica camp
Location of Uzamnica camp within Republika Srpska
Bosnia and Herzegovina location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Uzamnica camp
Uzamnica camp (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Coordinates 43°46′59″N19°17′33″E / 43.78306°N 19.29250°E / 43.78306; 19.29250
Location Višegrad, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Operated by JNA forces
InmatesBosniak civilians

Uzamnica camp was an internment camp established in 1992 by JNA forces housing Bosniak civilian prisoners during the Bosnian War.

Contents

Many of the Bosniaks who were not killed in the Višegrad massacres were detained at various locations in the town, including the former JNA military barracks and warehouse at Uzamnica, five kilometres from Višegrad. Some of these detainees were kept at this site for over two years. Serb soldiers raped many women and beat and terrorised non-Serb civilians. Widespread looting and destruction of non-Serb homes and property took place daily and the town's two mosques were destroyed. [1]

The camp

Prisoners detained at Uzamnica were subjected to inhumane conditions. Many were subjected to regular beatings. Army of Republika Srpska were also permitted to enter the camp to beat and torture the prisoners at will. As a result of these assaults, many of the victims suffered serious and permanent injuries. Many prisoners were used for hard forced labour projects. [2] According to survivors interviewed by Ed Vulliamy, the only food provided for the prisoners was pork, which is forbidden in Islam. Each week, convoys of male prisoners would leave the camp, heading into Serbia, never to be seen again. [3]

Judgements by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)

Milan Lukić, was found guilty of 10 counts of crimes against humanity and nine counts of violations of the laws of war for his alleged involvement in atrocities, including murder, torture, persecution, looting and destruction of property, and was sentenced to life imprisonment on July 20, 2009. [4]

The Trial Chamber found Sredoje Lukić guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity and sentenced him to 30 years imprisonment. [5]

In relation to the Uzamnica camp, the evidence showed that both Milan Lukić and Sredoje Lukić were opportunistic visitors to the camp, although Sredoje Lukić came to the camp less frequently than Milan Lukić. When at the camp, both Milan Lukić and Sredoje Lukić severely and repeatedly kicked and beat the detainees with their fists, truncheons, sticks and rifle butts. Several victims testified before the Trial Chamber about these brutal beatings and the grave and permanent injuries they sustained and the suffering they endured. [6]

See also

Notes

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vilina Vlas</span>

Vilina Vlas was a rape camp active during the Bosnian War. It served as one of the main detention facilities where Bosniak civilian prisoners were beaten, tortured and murdered and women were raped by prison guards during the Višegrad massacres in the Bosnian War of the 1990s. It is located about four kilometers north-east of Višegrad, in the village of Višegradska Banja.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Višegrad</span> Town and municipality

Višegrad is a town and municipality located in eastern Republika Srpska, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It rests at the confluence of the Drina and the Rzav river. As of 2013, it has a population of 10,668 inhabitants, while the town of Višegrad has a population of 5,869 inhabitants.

The Omarska camp was a concentration camp run by the Army of Republika Srpska in the mining town of Omarska, near Prijedor in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina, set up for Bosnian Bosniak and Bosnian Croat prisoners during the battle for Prijedor. Functioning in the first months of the Bosnian War in 1992, it was one of 677 alleged detention centers and camps set up throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina during the war. While nominally an "investigation center" or "assembly point" for members of the Bosniak and Croatian population, Human Rights Watch classified Omarska as a concentration camp.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manjača camp</span> Serbian concentration camp during the Bosnian War

Manjača was a concentration camp which was located on mount Manjača near the city of Banja Luka in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Bosnian War and the Croatian War of Independence from 1991 to 1995. The camp was founded by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and authorities of the Republika Srpska (RS) and was used to collect and confine thousands of male prisoners of Bosniak and Croat nationalities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trnopolje camp</span>

The Trnopolje camp was an internment camp established by Republika Srpska military and police authorities in the village of Trnopolje near Prijedor in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina, during the first months of the Bosnian War. Also variously termed a concentration camp, detainment camp, detention camp, prison, and ghetto, Trnopolje held between 4,000 and 7,000 Bosniak and Bosnian Croat inmates at any one time and served as a staging area for mass deportations, mainly of women, children, and elderly men. Between May and November 1992, an estimated 30,000 inmates passed through. Mistreatment was widespread and there were numerous instances of torture, rape, and killing; ninety inmates died.

Mitar Vasiljević is a Bosnian Serb who was convicted of crimes against humanity and violation of the laws or customs of war by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for his actions in the Višegrad region during the Bosnian War. He was a member of Milan Lukić's White Eagles paramilitary group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Čelebići camp</span> Prison camp in Bosnia during the Bosnian War

The Čelebići camp was a concentration camp run by joint Bosniak and Bosnian Croat forces during the Bosnian War where Serb prisoners were detained and subjected to murder, beatings, torture, sexual assaults and otherwise cruel and inhumane treatment. The facility was used by several units of the Bosnian Ministry of the Interior (MUP), Croatian Defence Council (HVO) and later the Bosnian Territorial Defence Forces (TO). It was located in Čelebići, a village in the central Bosnian municipality of Konjic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Milan Lukić</span> Bosnian Serb war criminal (born 1967)

Milan Lukić is a Bosnian Serb war criminal who led the White Eagles paramilitary group during the Bosnian War. He was found guilty by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in July 2009 of crimes against humanity and violations of war customs committed in the Višegrad municipality of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Bosnian war and sentenced to life in prison.

Hazim Delić is a Bosnian former prison camp commander who served as the deputy commander of the Čelebići camp, a joint Bosniak and Bosnian Croat forces run prison camp, during the Bosnian War. The majority of the prisoners who were detained in the camp were men, captured during and after the military operations at Bradina and Donje Selo and their surrounding areas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Višegrad massacres</span> 1992 mass murder of Bosniak civilians

The Višegrad massacres were acts of mass murder committed against the Bosniak civilian population of the town and municipality of Višegrad during the ethnic cleansing of eastern Bosnia by Republika Srpska police and military forces during the spring and summer of 1992, at the start of the Bosnian War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">White Eagles (paramilitary)</span> Serbian paramilitary group

The White Eagles, also known as the Avengers, were a Serbian paramilitary group associated with the Serbian National Renewal (SNO) and the Serbian Radical Party (SRS). The White Eagles fought in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Yugoslav Wars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prijedor ethnic cleansing</span>

During the Bosnian War, there was an ethnic cleansing campaign committed by the Bosnian Serb political and military leadership – Army of the Republika Srpska, mostly against Bosniak and Croat civilians in the Prijedor region of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992 and 1993. The composition of non-Serbs was drastically reduced: out of a population of 50,000 Bosniaks and 6,000 Croats, only some 6,000 Bosniaks and 3,000 Croats remained in the municipality by the end of the war. After the Srebrenica massacre, Prijedor is the area with the second highest rate of civilian killings committed during the Bosnian War. According to the Sarajevo-based Research and Documentation Center (IDC), 4,868 people were killed or went missing in the Prijedor municipality during the war. Among them were 3,515 Bosniak civilians, 186 Croat civilians and 78 Serb civilians. As of October 2013, 96 mass graves have been located and around 2,100 victims have been identified, largely by DNA analysis.

The Paklenik massacre is the massacre of at least 50 Bosniaks by the Army of the Republika Srpska in the Rogatica Municipality on 15 June, 1992.

The Sjeverin massacre was the massacre on 22 October 1992 of 16 Bosniak citizens of Serbia from the village of Sjeverin who had been abducted from a bus in the village of Mioče, in Bosnia. The abductees were taken to the Vilina Vlas hotel in Višegrad where they were tortured before being taken to the Drina River and executed. Members of a Serbian paramilitary unit commanded by Milan Lukić were convicted of the crime in 2002.

The Pionirska Street fire was an arson fire perpetrated by Bosnian Serb forces in Višegrad, eastern Bosnia, on 14 June 1992 in which 59 Bosniak women, children and elderly people were murdered by being locked into one room of a house, which was then set on fire.

The Bikavac fire refers to the arson perpetrated in Bikavac, near Višegrad, eastern Bosnia, on 27 June 1992 in which at least 60 Bosniak civilians, mostly women and children, were burned alive after the Serb forces captured them in the house which was set on fire.

Bakira Hasečić is a Bosnian human rights activist who advocates for the rights of women who were raped during the Bosnian War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Štrpci massacre</span> 1993 mass killing during the Bosnian War

The Štrpci massacre was the massacre of 19 civilians on 27 February 1993, taken from a Belgrade-Bar train at Štrpci railway station near Višegrad, on Bosnian territory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sredoje Lukić</span> Bosnian Serb war criminal (born 1961)

Sredoje Lukić is a Bosnian Serb war criminal.

Branimir Savović is the former president of the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) for the municipality of Višegrad in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina at the time of the outbreak of the Bosnian War 1992-1995. He was appointed to the Presidency of the Municipality by the Bosnian Serb authorities and became President of the "Crisis Staff Committee" established to assume responsibility for the civilian administration of the town. It was during his presidency of the Crisis Staff that the Višegrad massacres took place and the campaign of terror conducted by Milan Lukić and his White Eagles gang proceeded unchecked until Višegrad was purged of its entire Bosniak population. Višegrad has been described as second only to Srebrenica as a byword for ethnic cleansing and for humanity at its cruellest.

References

ICTY
News Reports