Gathered again with the intention to continue activities on marking unmarked sites of suffering, the three of us, Čedomir Glavaš, Dalmir Mišković and Amer Delić, went to the western parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina this time. There were a number of reasons to visit this area. The war had left a large number of casualties, prisoners and displaced persons from this area. The injustices continued into the post-war period. In western Bosnia, municipal committee for monuments use bureaucratic procedures to implement the political will of the majority and for years, they have been preventing returnee minority communities to mark places of wartime suffering with memorial plaques. The construction of memorials is limited to courtyards of places of worship and cemeteries. This was why we decided to visit the area, hoping to contribute to their not being forgotten and to provide support to those deprived of their right to make their pain visible. In preparing the action and locating the sites, we were aided by experience from visits of war veterans to sites of suffering organised by the Centre for Nonviolent Action (CNA) in the Bosanska Krajina region in the past years. Also, last year’s study visit by peace activists from the region, when we went to Prijedor, informed us about the kind of obstacles faced by associations of war victims in their efforts to mark the sites of the Trnopolje and Omarska camps.
We set off on 18 October 2016. The first site we visited and marked[1] was the building of the Cultural Centre in Trnopolje near Prijedor. The former camp for Bosniaks and Croats from Prijedor run by the police and Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) included a number of other buildings, the school building and sports facilities, the football pitch and areas adjoining the road. Everything was encircled with barbed wire. Now the building of the Cultural Centre has been renovated and houses the Trnopolje Local Community Centre as well as the recently opened Memorial Room dedicated to fallen fighters of the VRS. Also, in 2000, a Monument to Fallen Fighters of VRS from the area was erected next to the building. Our activities at the site were observed by passers-by and two small groups of people gathered in front of the two shops located nearby. No one asked any questions or uttered any comments.
Our next destination was Hotel Una in Novi Grad/Bosanski Novi. The Hotel was once a grand building from the time of the economic boom in the 1980s. Today, following unsuccessful privatisation, it is empty and exhibiting signs of disrepair. In the period form early May until the end of August 1992, the hotel served as a detention facility controlled by the police and VRS for Bosniak and Croat civilians. A room of 15m2, without windows or toilet facilities. While we were attaching our stickers to the ground floor rooms, the rain was pouring so heavily that even the parking lot guard was loath to come out of his booth and charge us for parking. Everything transpired peacefully. We continued on towards Bihać where we would spend the night.
In Bihać, we were joined by Jasmin Osmankić, war veteran and long-time partner of CNA. In the morning of 19 October, we set of together for our first destination of that day, the Factory of Powder Products in Ćoralići near Cazin, one of the numerous plants of the former economic giant – Agrokomerc. During the war, the factory was used as a detention site for civilians and combatants, members of the Popular Defence of the Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia (NO APZB). It was controlled by the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH) whose 510th brigade was also stationed within the factory premises. Now the factory as a whole is bankrupt and its facility is falling into disrepair. Access is usually denied, but after a brief talk with Jasmin, the guard let us enter through the main gate. Also, we asked him about attaching our stickers and taking photos and he let us. We felt relieved, because he could have easily refused.
In Velika Kladuša, we visited two sites, Dubrave and Nepeke. Both used to be farms with hangars for poultry. During the war, these facilities were under the control of the NO APZB and were used for the detention of civilians loyal to the RBiH Government at the time and soldiers of the ARBiH. All that is left of the former facilities are a few ruined buildings and foundations. Everything is overcome with weeds and left to deteriorate. We had no problems in marking the site, except as far as finding a flat and dry surface.
On our way back to Bihać, we stopped in Bužim. There, we were met by Jasmin’s friend Hasan Kovačević, a disabled veteran of ARBiH and president of the Bužim Amputees Association. He took us to the former Motel Radoč, today Hotel Europa, whose basement was used during the war as a detention facility for civilians loyal to APZB and combatants, members of NO APZB and VRS units, while the command of the 505th Brigade of ARBiH was situated on the floors above. Going down the spiral concrete steps that lead to a steel grid door to the basement still sends chills down one’s spine, even today.
Beyond the steel grid door was a room without windows or a toilet that was used as a prison. We attached the stickers to the wall of the staircase and the door. Afterwards, Hasan took us to the entrance to the basement from the outside, which is now used for storage by a local construction company. In the semi-darkness we saw a partition made with steel plates and reinforcing mesh that still bears the sign saying “DETENTION”. We were going to mark that wall too with a sticker, but an employee of the company came along, and with a lot of noise and agitation accused us of trespassing. Hasan and Jasmin explained why we were there and he soon calmed down, saying that they’ve had a lot of thefts of the stored construction material. He let us take photographs, but he would not let us attach the sticker. It’s a good thing we were not alone.
We were also planning on marking the Adil Bešić Barracks in Bihać. The building is still used as a barracks of the Armed Forces of BiH, but during the war, since the start of 1993, it was used to house a detention facility for civilians and combatants, members of NO APZB and the Serb Krajina Army (VSK). After we inspected the building and saw that parts of the barracks that we wanted to mark were exposed to the view of the guards, we gave up.
On 20 October, the last day of our action, we set off for Kamenica, some 8km from Drvar. A camp for Bosniak and Croat civilians and combatants of the Croat Defence Council (HVO) and the ARBiH was situated in what used to be the primary school from 1992 to 1995, when it was under the control of the VRS military police. On our way there we were joined by Midhat Družić from Bosanski Petrovac, a former Kozila detention camp prisoner who was later transferred to Kamenica. We found the building in ruins. Midhat explained that the camp had been encircled by a double ring of barbed wire and a minefield, so that no one contemplated trying to escape. A few concrete pillars and pieces of barbed wire could still be found in the grass. He talked about the torture and murders he testified about before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the Court of BiH. The conditions in the prison camp were such that during his detention there from June to October 1992 he went from weighing 130 to just 59kg. We marked and photographed the building and Midhat advised us not to stray too far from it because of possible left over land mines. We said goodbye to him and Jasmin and continued our journey. Although we had not initially planned on marking the Ivan Goran Kovačić primary school in Livno, we decided to check it out because we would be passing by the city.
The trip from Drvar to Livno brings together the beauty of nature and the total emptiness of deserted villages and estates. A chimney on a house here and there spouting smoke indicates that there are still some people living there. But these are few and far between, there are far more houses without roofs, their hearths extinguished.
We arrived in Livno and drove around the Ivan Goran Kovačić Primary School that in 1992 was the site of a detention facility for Serb civilians, under the control of the HVO. It was pouring and parents waited in cars in front of the school to pick up their children. We had agreed beforehand that when marking school buildings, we would not be photographing minors. We decided to wait and went for coffee. When we returned to the site, the rain was our ally, it was coming down even harder and there was no one left in front of the school. We drove around once more and took photos from a distance. We then drove up and into the school yard. Quickly, we attached the sticker and made a few photos. We moved to the main entrance, made a few more photos and then quickly disappeared. We had to be quick about it. Attaching stickers to public buildings is prohibited and punishable by law, and even entering the yard with the car and without a special permit was enough to put us in trouble with the police. We were aware of the risks involved.
We managed to visit a wide area. It was no small feat. You can never prepare yourself fully for encountering this scale of suffering and destruction. Our schools, hotels, cultural centres
and commercial buildings were turned into sites of human suffering during the war. The worst thing is that after each site we visit, we find out about another related site, a mass grave where bodies were found, or about murderers and torturers that operated in that and another prison camp… What we are doing is an attempt to make the suffering visible and we hope that these activities will encourage communities to change their attitudes towards unmarked sites of suffering.
We continued our activity by posting the photographs on Facebook with accompanying information about the context of the sites we marked, and then promoted these posts in the places we visited. The reactions to the posts ranged from mostly commendations on our initiative and activity, to criticism for reviving the past, denial of the existence of individual sites of suffering, and there were even some insults directed at our team. People from the wider Facebook community got involved in the comments discussion, as well as torture survivors, relatives of those killed and participants in the events from the war period.
[1] We marked unmarked sites of suffering with stickers that read: “UNMARKED SITE OF SUFFERING – At this site, during the war, human beings were subjected to inhumane acts. By not letting these events be forgotten, we stand in solidarity with all victims. May it never happen again to anyone.”