Twenty-two-year-old Amir Spahic, a student from Kotorskonear Doboj, disappeared on June 18th, 1992, at the Komarica site. For 30 years, his father Muharem, with his wife and two daughters, has been searching for him, offering money to those who know something, and in hopes of finding some new clues, he shared his story with the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIRN BiH).
Before the war, Muharem was a carpenter who was recognized by his neighbors in Kotorsko for his dedicated work, and in an interview with BIRN BiH, he recalled that in 1992 he planned to start a company in that place. He wanted to leave a family business to his son Amir, who was a woodworking student at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Sarajevo, and to his daughters.
”I lived a normal life, we all fought, worked, I worked in a private sector as a carpenter, had a workshop. And so, that period of happy life and planning for the future. But, fools and war years have come, so I don’t know how to define it all,” told Muharem, talking about the plans that were interrupted at the beginning of the war.
Both he and his son joined the defense of their settlement and stayed together in Kotorsko until June 14th, 1992, when Muharem, while rescuing the wounded, suffered a serious injury, for which he was transported, first to Derventa and then to Slavonska Pozega in Croatia for surgery. That June 14th was the last time he saw his son Amir.
After being transferred to Croatia for treatment, Muharem tried to find out what had happened to his son, but without success. Three months after leaving Kotorsko, he managed to find out that his son had disappeared in the Komarica area, on the road between Derventa and Doboj.
”The son stayed and Kotorsko then fell on June 16th and they retreated down towards Derventa and Brod. And then they picked them up there, so they brought them back to Komarica. They were returned there, the Croatian Defense Council (HVO)returned them and they were practically ambushed there, ” noted Muharem, talking about the details of his son’s disappearance.
War fighting took place at that location, and Amir, along with three other colleagues, found a car, which they tried to use to get to Derventa, his father says. However, after only 200 meters, they encountered a roadblock and a new conflict, in which Amir disappeared.
”Those from Republika Srpska (RS) have already cut off communication and planted mines on the road. And as they were using Stojadin, they jumped out and there was gunfire. And this is the place of happening and disappearing. And there is no way to find him, to figure out where, what, how it all happened,” says Muharem about the information he received about the disappearance of his son, who is the only one missing from the four young men who were in the car at the time.
After receiving this information, Muharem’s search for his son begins. In that search from the summer of 1992 until today, he found the bodies of seven people, who also disappeared at the same site that day, but not his son Amir.
”When the exchange started from Doboj when people started going out in 1993, then I received two messages, information by phone that he was alive, captured. Then when I went to search, you can’t reach people and by searching, everyone roughly says that there are indications that he was alive, ” recounts Muharem.
According to those who escaped from Doboj in 1993, Amir was captured at the Komarica site, from where he was brought to Doboj, where he was allegedly tried before a war court, after which he was transferred to Banja Luka. In that search, Muharem, without success, tried to find a war judge from Doboj, as well as other participants in the events at the Komarica site.
”I guess there are people who know something, but they won’t open their souls. I also offered money,” he told BIRN BiH.
According to the latest information, he found out that a person in Doboj, in 1992, “boasted that he had killed Muharem’s son”. He heard this from a witness who heard these details during his stay in the war prison, and he reported the whole case to the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) and the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH.
Today, Muharem and his wife live near Sarajevo, and he spends his time searching for any information about his son. He says that his search was reduced to reading the archives of various institutions and organizations, which kept records of events near Doboj in 1992.
”I search every day, every hour. There is less and less information, unfortunately. I say there are people who know but just won’t speak up. Not just about my case, but about others as well. Everyone says ‘don’t do this to me, I’ll help you, but no one will tell me where is he exactly,” he explained, Avaz writes.
E.Dz.
