In the spring and summer of 1992, attacks took place in the area of Rogatica, and the Bosniak population sought salvation by fleeing through the forests and surrounding villages. Those who failed were imprisoned in detention facilities, where many were abused or killed, while their families are still searching for the bodies of around 300 people.
Emina Hodzic, who lived in the Holuc settlement, remembers the attack on Rogatica. Her husband Edhem and sons Enver and Edin were taken with other men on June 4th, 1992, when she last saw them.
“Eight of them were taken away that morning in a transporter. We found out that they were all taken to Seljani. The transporter came, and they cursed their mother,” says Hodzic, who after the war found the remains of her children and husband in a grave on Dizdar’s field in the village of Pljesevica.
“I saw them that morning, so I say that I at least hugged and kissed the children, but no. And I never saw them again. Only the dead,” she says.
At the trial of the former president of Republika Srpska (RS), Radovan Karadzic, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for genocide and other war crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), the protected witness spoke about the inhumane treatment at the High School Center, where he had been imprisoned since May 1992 with his family.
“My family experienced a terrible calvary. My daughter was raped then in 1992 – at the age of seven and a half. And several times. My son, who was 13 years old, was raped for months, and that hurts the most. They raped me too, but I endured itsomehow, but when it comes to children, it’s difficult,” he said, adding that his wife was also taken away, but that they never discussed it.
Residents of Rogatica and residents of the surrounding villages were also imprisoned in other facilities – “Sladara”, Crkveni dom and agricultural estate “Rasadnik”.
A protected witness from Karadzic’s trial described that life in Rogatica before the war was full of understanding and that mixed marriages were not rare.
“Rogatica was a city where you could live comfortably, where we all had our jobs, children went to school, we had outstandingnatural beauty, which we all used together, we celebrated together. It gave a really beautiful image of a small Bosnian town that was cut off in May 1992 and bloodily cut off by the Serbian army,” said the witness.
However, due to the crimes that took place, many decided to continue their lives elsewhere, and the few who returned are now afraid to speak in front of the cameras. They say that maybe because of this, someone withholds information about potential locations of mass graves. According to the data of the Institute for Missing Persons of BiH, so far 435 people killed in the Rogatica area have been exhumed, and another 300 missing persons are being searched for, Detektor reports.
E.Dz.
