On May 3, 1992, members of the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA), the police, and Serbian paramilitary formations took control of Doboj. A curfew was imposed on Bosniaks and Croats. Their movement was restricted. Abuse, murder, rape, and other types of crimes and inhumane acts became a pattern of behavior against non-Serbs by members of various paramilitary groups. The Red Berets, the White Eagles, and Milan Martić’s police unit that arrived in Doboj from Croatia in mid-May were some of the paramilitary formations that ruled the city at that time. Pred’s Wolves – soldiers of Predrag Kujundžić’s Doboj volunteer detachment – were not far behind them. But neither were members of the Special Detachment of the Center for Security Services (CSB) led by Zdravko Samardžija and Ljuban Ećim, nor were a group of former soldiers under the command of Nikola Jorgić, known as Jorga.
The facts established in the case against the wartime Minister of Police of the Republika Srpska, Mićo Stanišić, and the former head of the Banja Luka CSB, Stojan Župljanin, state that over a thousand non-Serb civilians were imprisoned and released from the Central Prison in the town on the Bosna River from 2 May to 11 December 1992. The civilians were initially brought to the Security Services Centre. They were beaten by members of the Red Berets. Sometimes they forced other Serbs who were in the CSB to join them in the beatings. After that, the inmates were taken to the Central Prison. The non-Serbs who were brought to the prison were without any papers and in civilian clothes. There they were subjected to mistreatment. Paramilitaries raided at night. They beat the detainees. The administration could neither prevent the raids by soldiers nor take any action for the purpose of punishment.
In addition to the CSB and the Central Prison, the Serbian authorities established several detention centers in the Doboj area. According to the publication “Camps and Other Places of Detention During the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina 1992-1996, Part I” published by TPOS/CDTP, some of the detention centers were: the warehouses of the Military Economy “3 May” in the settlement of Bare, the compound of the “Energoinvest” factory in the village of Kožuhe, Perčin disco in the settlement of Vila, military hangars on Usora, the High School Center, the courtyard of the Cultural Center and the Elementary School in Kostajnica, private houses in the village of Grapska, the Elementary School in the village of Rosulje, the hangar of the mountain lodge on Ozren, the Stanari Coal Mine, an abandoned house on Putnikovo Brdo, the Youth Center in Donji Pridjelo, the Handball Stadium, the JNA barracks in the village of Ševarlije, the Agricultural Cooperative in the village of Majevac, the labor camp in Kotorsko, the shed in Tumara, the General Hospital, the JNA barracks “4. July” in Miljkovac.
The situation to which the non-Serb population was exposed in Doboj, based on the case against the former President of the National Assembly of Republika Srpska Momčilo Krajišnik, led to their rapid departure from that city.
Trials for war crimes committed in the Doboj area during the 1990s were conducted, and some are still ongoing, before several domestic and foreign courts. A German court sentenced Nikola Jorgić to life imprisonment in 1997 for genocide, murder and kidnapping in the Doboj area. He died in 2014. The Hague Tribunal found former heads of the Serbian State Security Service (SDB) Jovica Stanišić and Franko Simatović guilty of inhumane acts, forcible transfer and persecution as crimes against humanity committed in connection with the capture of Bijeljina, Doboj and Sanski Most. In 2020, the Higher Court in Belgrade sentenced paramilitary member Nebojša Stojanović to eight years in prison for the criminal offence of war crimes against prisoners of war.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, trials have been held, and some are still being held, for war crimes committed in Doboj. The Association for Social Research and Communications (UDIK) has documented cases from the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the District Court in Doboj, and the Supreme Court of Republika Srpska in two publications. The first publication presents the cases of the state court that sentenced Miodrag Marković, Predrag Kujundžić, and Slobodan Karagić to prison terms ranging from six to seventeen years. Đorđe Simić was acquitted of charges of crimes against humanity committed in the town of Ševarlije near Doboj in 2018.
Since April 2016, the State Court has been prosecuting Borislav Paravac, Andrija Bjelošević and Milan Savić for their participation in a joint criminal enterprise and the persecution of Bosniak and Croat civilians from the areas of Doboj and Teslić. In a 2024 verdict, which was later confirmed by the Appellate Chamber, Paravac, Bjelošević and Savić were acquitted of charges of murder, unlawful detention, forcible transfer of Bosniak and Croat populations, attacks on civilians and settlements, enforced disappearances, physical abuse, torture, looting and destruction of religious sites.
The second publication presents the verdicts of the District Court in Doboj, which heard several cases, which were later heard in second instance before the Supreme Court of Republika Srpska. Seven trials have been completed before the Doboj Court, with three acquittals and four convictions. Three former members of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) were acquitted of charges for crimes in Doboj, namely: Branko Milanović, Marko Poletan and Vojin Lukić. Five individuals were sentenced to sentences of one to eight years, namely: Branislav Ninković, Milovan Peulić, Miladin Stević, Staniša Miljanović and Vojislav Brestovac. This publication also provides a list of 219 exhumed identified persons from the Doboj area, as well as a list of 137 persons who are still being sought and who are missing in the Doboj area. The data was obtained from the Missing Persons Institute of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Like all other UDIK publications in the series “War Crimes – Transcripts of Court Verdicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina”, these two publications aim to document the judicially established facts about war crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the period from 1992 to 1995. Because only through court facts and relevant information can we achieve a true confrontation with the past, which is the foundation for building a better future in our country. We remember all the war victims of Doboj.
