Belgrade, 10, Vlajkoviceva st.

Telephones: 330-369, 341-107

Fax: 334-133

DECAPITATION AS A MEANS OF GENOCIDE OVER THE SERBS

IN THE FORMER BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

The magazine "Novi voks" published in Sarajevo promoted

the most extreme Moslem stances and openly called for genocide of

the Serbian people.

Thus in its October 1991 issue No.3, on page 40, in a

regular feature called "Documents", "Novi voks" published an

article entitled "What (is to be done) with the Serbs in the

Moslem Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina", which, inter alia,

states the following:

"1. Every individual Serb must be aware of the

responsibility of the entire nation for his own

uncontrolled acts. The punishment for evildoings

committed will be collective - for one Moslem house

torn down ten Serbian houses will be demolished, for

one dead Moslem 100 Serbs will be liquidated. For a

wounded Moslem, depending on the severity of the wound

- 10 to 50 Serbs.

2. All Serbs will have 12-hour working days, the

salaries of all employees will reflect the degree of

their loyalty and will as a rule be by 30% below the

salaries Moslems occupying the same posts receive.

...

9. A good Serb is a live and obedient Serb; or a

dead disobedient Serb....".

The front page of the No.3 issue of this magazine which

came out half a year before the so-called Republic of Bosnia and

Herzegovina was proclaimed in April 1992, carried the message

"Khanjar division readying" illustrated with a drawing of an

armed Moslem soldier beneath whom were the cut off heads of the

Serb leaders Karadzic, Koljevic, Milosevic and Seselj with the

Moslem soldier trampling Karadzic's head underfoot.

The khanjar division was a military unit composed of

Moslems from Bosnia and Herzegovina, which, having previously

been specially trained in France and Germany, fought on the side

of fascist Germany in World War II and is remembered for the war

crimes committed against the Serbian people by its members.

This cover page presaged what would start happening to

the Serbs a year afterwards, when civil war broke out in the

territory of the former Bosnia and Herzegovina as well.

There ensued a massive genocide of the Serbian people

which involved the killing of Serbs by decapitation, as was

characteristic of the period of Turkish rule in these lands, when

the beheading of Serbs was common practice also. Ivo Andric, who

was born here and is the only Yugoslav Nobel laureate for

literature, also describes this in his books.

Following are some examples of this practice of killing

Serbs by decapitation:

1. On May 26, 1992 Zvonko Zovko, from Podorasac near

Konjic, a member of Croat-Moslem armed formations, chopped off

the head of the Serb Sretko Kuljanin from Bradina near Konjic,

who was captured in Bradina, took it to Konjic as a trophy,

kicked it around the streets and in the end impaled it on a

stake.

When Sretko's wife Branka, seven months pregnant, heard

of this on May 28, she went into labour. However, the Moslem

gynecologist in Konjic, Dr. Jusufbegovic, refused to attend to

her although her waters had broken and he returned her to the

Musala camp in Konjic where on June 14 1992 she gave birth to a

child which, according to the findings of the Mother and Child

Care Institute in Belgrade, was born with brain and optical nerve

atrophy (in his second year a pronounced retardation in the

development of the motor functions was established manifested as

incomplete control of the head, inability to sit, stand on his

legs and impaired vision with oculogyration and the inability to

fixate the source of light). In the view of the physicians of

this renowned child care establishment this is the consequence of

premature birth and of adverse influences before birth and the

prognosis is that the child will remain severely handicapped for

life.

Proof: Documentation of the Committee 106/94.1

2. After June 8, 1992, there remained only 13 Serbs,

elderly men and women in the village of Ledici, the commune of

Trnovo, most of whom met their death at the hands of Moslem-Croat

military formations commanded by Ethem Godinjak, Head of the

Secretariat of Internal Affairs in Trnovo before the war.

In this way was killed Rade Mijovcic (f. Aleksa), 70

years old. His body was found on August 7 with the head severed

from the rest of the body.

The body of Savka Vasic (f. Nikola), a woman 78 years

old, who was butchered on her doorstep, was also found without

the head.

Members of Godinjak's unit found and arrested the last

five remaining Serbs from the village of Ledici on June 18 and

19. They drove them in the direction of Treskavica and killed

them on a spot called "Ledicka krivina".

During the in situ inspection carried out after the

Serbs liberated this territory the beheaded bodies of all these

five Serbs were found: Tankosava Mijovcic (f. Jovica), a woman 70

years old; Ljubica Vasic (f. Djura), a woman 84 years old;

Ikonija Vasic (f. Lazar) a 92-year old woman; Zoran Vasic (f.

Jovan), 71 years old and Milka Vasic (f. Danilo) a 56-year old

woman.

Three of the heads were not found and two heads were

found away from the bodies.

Proof: 228/94-30.

3. On October 5, 1992, Moslem armed formations attacked

the house of Sreten Djokic in the village of Divovici near

Bratunac, and two days later the bodies of the people killed in

Divovici were handed over to the Serbs.

The body of Sreten Djokic was given without the head

and the right arm. On the neck hung a patch of skin with hair

from the top of his head.

The head and the arm were never found and the body was

buried without them.

Proof: 37/94-6.

4. Nedeljko Lukic, 52 years old, was killed in the

orchard in front of his house in the village of Vujicic near

Brcko on September 14, 1992. His head was then cut off and taken

away. He was buried without the head.

Proof: 144/95-10 and 617/95-14.

5. The Moslem Ejub Dugalic, a member of the

"intervention platoon" in Slavonski Brod, forced Mirko Djeric

from the village of Donja Mocila near Brod out of his house on

July 12, St. Peter's Day, 1992.

He maltreated and tortured him and then returned him to

the house and killed him in the bathroom. Then he cut his head

off and left it in the attic.

Proof: 227/95-15.

6. Sometime in July 1992 Ivko Soldan brought two

amputated human heads to Sijekovac near Bosanski Brod and showed

them around Sijekovac and in the restaurant of Hazim Cutic saying

that those were the heads of Serbs whom he had slain.

Proof: 227/95-15

7.The heads were also cut off of the Serbs Stojan

Pudic and Perica Jovicic who had been taken prisoner by members

of the 108th Bosanska Posavina brigade when the village of

Bodeliste was attacked in March 1993.

According to the findings of the post mortem examiners

of the corpse of Stojan Pudic his head was cut off most probably

in two stages. The edge of a mechanical instrument severed the

soft tissue of the neck in the first stage and in the second the

body was cut through of the fourth cervical vertebra at a stroke

with the edge of a heavy instrument. In the opinion of the

examiners, he was probably first wounded by firearms in the lower

limbs and then, as he lay there still alive, his head was cut

off; the firearm wounds on the head and chest were inflicted only

after the head had been cut off.

The findings in respect of Perica Jovicic were similar.

He first sustained lacerations and contusions on the left side of

the face and a double fracture of the jawbone and then while he

was in lying position and still alive his head was cut off. The

wound from a hand gun in the area of the left breast was

inflicted after death i.e. after his head had been cut off.

Proof: 144/95-9.

8. Marko Ivanovic from Lisovic near Trnovo was killed

by decapitation; his head was not found with his body on June 6,

1992 when the Serbs liberated this village, so that his body too

was buried without it.

Proof: 228/94-26.

9. Janko Popovic was slaughtered in front of his house

in Gornja Presjenica near Trnovo on July 7 1992. After slitting

his throat they cut off his head.

Proof: 228/94-15.

Darko Parezanin, a captured Republic of Srpska soldier,

taken prisoner on June 30, 1992 in Skoripov Gaj near Trnovo, was

beheaded.

Spasoje Popovic was captured at the same time and his

head was also cut off and it was never found so that his body too

was buried without the head.

Proof: 228/94-32.

11. Zivko Markovic, 61 years old, was killed in the

village of Mirusic in the commune of Foca.

His head was cut off and then put on a tree. This

happened on May 20, 1992. His head was cut off, his left arm was

cut off, he was flayed, his stomach ripped and saturated with

salt.

Proof: 36/95.

12. On November 13, 1994, four members of the Army of

the Republic of Srpska were taken prisoner at the Herzegovina war

theater. After capture they were taken to the cellar of the

Museum of the Revolution in Jablanica which had been turned into

a camp for Serbs. In December 1994 they were killed.

Mirko Simic was killed by beheading. Adnan Salcin, a

member of the Moslem army cut off his head with a saber. His body

was exchanged in Podvelezje without the head, as was also noted

in the post mortem examination carried out on March 18,1995.

Proof: 392/95 and 371/95.

13. Niko Males, born in 1931, was killed by

decapitation on April 7, 1992 in the village of Rilic in the

commune of Kupres.

Proof: 117/95-4.

14. In an attack on the Serb village of Brezani, the

commune of Srebrenica, on June 30, 1992, members of Moslem armed

forces killed 19 serb villagers. The body of Milos Novakovic from

the hamlet of Cicevac was found with the head cut off.

Proof: 493/94-9, 493/94-5, 493/94-6, 493/94-7,

493/94-8 and 635/94-9.

15. Slavko Mladjenovic,(f. Ljubomir), born in 1965, was

killed on August 8, 1992 during an attack on the village of

Jezestice, the commune of Bratunac.

He was buried without the head which had been cut off

and taken away.

Proof: 68/94 and 635/94-28.

16. In an attack launched on the village of Vrasalici,

the commune of Rogatica, on November 20, 1992, Milos Kovacevic,

about 65 years old, was shot dead in front of his house by Rusmir

Balas. When Milos fell on the ground, Rusmir cut off his head and

right arm at the elbow and his penis and then threw the head and

penis away from the body.

Proof: 137/95-8.

17. Pero Ozic was killed in 1993 in Fojnica. He was

first forced to dig his own grave and then killed and beheaded.

Responsible for the killing is Omer Pobric, a militia commander

in Fojnica before the war.

Proof: 319/95.

18. In clashes between Moslem armed forces and those of

the Army of the Republic of Srpska on November 5,1992 in the area

of Kamenica, the commune of Zvornik, the Moslems captured and

killed by beheading Vlado Grabovica, Savo Djokic, Dragomir

Bozic, Slavko Tijanic, Savo Kazanovic and Radomir Pavlovic.

Dragomir Bozic was massacred and the head severed from

the body.

The head of Slavko Tijanic was found without the eyes,

ears and nose, a 6 mm diameter iron bar was found in his chest,

while his neck, hands and feet were tied with wire.

The head of Savo Kazanovic had also been cut off, his

chest pierced with a large nail, and he himself nailed to an oak

tree and crucified.

A head without the body was also found which is assumed

to have belonged to Milos Grabovica.

The following were also killed in Kamenica on November

5,1992: Miladin Asceric, 28 years old; Mico Tesic, 24 years old

and Nikola Milinovic, 27 years old. They were also beheaded.

Proof: 184/94-5, 184/95-6, 184/95-7

and 184/95-8.

19. In an attack launched on May 29, 1992 on the

village of Bavar, the commune of Jajce, members of the

Croato-Moslem army killed Stana Trifunovic, 68 years old. They

slit her throat and then chopped her head off with an axe.

Proof: 116/95-12 and 333/95-1.

20. Mirko Dejanovic from Majevac was killed on May 6,

1992 in Ritesici by members of Croat armed formations from the

villages of Ritesici and Brezak. They killed him by cutting his

head off with a pickax. They cut off his penis and put it in his

mouth.

His body had over 100 stab wounds inflicted with a

knife. Jela Titura (female) from Ritesici took part in the

killing.

Proof: 30/94

21. In July and August 1992 Moslem youths aged 15-16

carried around Sarajevo the heads of killed Serbs, which they

found in the cellars of the part of Sarajevo called Dobrinja 5.

They played with and kicked around the heads and threw

them in garbage bins.

Proof: 234/95-1.

22. In an attack carried out on June 3,1992 on the

village of Brezane, the commune of Srebrenica, Moslems killed

Milivoje Mitrovic and Stanoje Mitrovic. When this village was

liberated in April 1993 their headless bodies were found.

Stanoje Mitrovic's throat had been slit by one "Kemo"

from Pale.

Proof: 635/94-9.

23. The Moslems killed the Serb Sredoje Jovanovic from

Krnice by beheading him when they attacked this village on July

5, 1992.

Proof: 493/94-13.

24. Milos Pepic from the village of Pepic, the commune

of Kladanj, over 60 years of age, was killed on January 31, 1994

in the area of Banderka near Sehovici. They killed him by

chopping his head off on a block with an axe.

Proof: 184/95-34

25. On September 24,1992 Moslem forces occupied the

village of Podravanje in the commune of Milici, set it to fire,

looted it and killed all the wounded whom they found in the

village. They killed 19 persons on that occasion and massacred

their bodies.

Zulfo Tursumovic from Suceska had the severely wounded

Tomislav Perendic put his head in his (Tursumovic's) lap and then

slaughtered him and cut his head off.

Svetozar Jovanovic's head was cut off and impaled on a

stake and Gojko Tomic was beheaded and his head thrown some 20

metres away from the body.

Proof: 184/95-34.

26. During the Moslem attack on the village of Snagovo

on February 19, 1992, four villagers were killed. The head and

one arm of Dobrivoje (other particulars are being established)

were cut off.

Proof: 184/95-1.

27. Andja Vukomanovic was slaughtered early in August

1992 and her body was found towards the end of October 1992 in

front of the house in the hamlet of Svaljak, the commune of

Trnovo, with the head severed from the body.

Proof: 228/94-31.

28. After Trnovo was taken in July 1992, Serb civilians

found in Trnovo and the vicinity were killed.

Danilo Misovic, 78 years old, was killed in front of

his house in the village of Tosici near Trnovo. His remains were

found buried under a dump heap.

These burials were organized by the so-called "Land

Sanitation Commission". During in situ inspection and exhumation

on August 13, 1992 his body was found without the head.

Drago Golijanin, 86 years old, was killed on July 31,

1992 on Rogoj, in an area called Rankcev Do. His remains were

found on September 22, 1993, when it was established that the

head had been severed from the rest of the body.

Proof: 228/94-23 and 228/94-25.

29. The Moslem Zijo Kubac slit the throat of the Serb

Vasilije Lavljiv in mid-October 1993 in Sarajevo, on a spot

called "Kazan", and then cut off his head with a knife and Mrs.

Lavljiv was killed by Esad Tucakovic who also cut her head off.

Then their bodies were hurled into the abyss.

Proof: 432/95.

30. In mid-September 1993 the Serbs Dusko Jovanovic and

Ervin Nikolic were brought into the premises of the Headquarters

of the tenth mountain brigade of the so-called Army of B&H in

Bistrik, where they were beaten and then taken towards Bogusevac

to a spot called "Kazan". There they took them into the sniper

platoon dugout where they were again beaten and then Samir

Ljubovic killed Jovanovic with a knife and Samir Pajkic cut off

Nikolic's head.

Proof: 432/95.

31. In mid-October 1993 Predrag Salipur and his wife

Katarina were arrested in their flat in Sarajevo, Borisa Kidrica

street No. 3. On the orders of Musan Topalovic they were taken to

the Headquarters of the 10th mountain brigade of the so-called

Army of B&H together with Branislav Radosavljevic who happened to

be in Salipur's flat. There they beat them.

Afterwards they were taken to a spot called "Kazan"

where Nihad Hodzic cut the throat of Branislav Radosavljevic

slashing it twice or thrice with a knife and then cut his head

off. Then he gave the knife to Husein Hodzic who severed with it

the head of Predrag Salipur who had been previously killed by

Sabahudin Ziva and Omer Pendzo. Then they threw their bodies into

the "Kazani" precipice.

Proof: 432/95.

32. According to the witness heard, a peasant woman 57

years old, while she had been held in prison at the Secondary

Education Centre in Jajce in mid-1992, she had been made to

listen to a tape describing the ordeals of Serbs at the hands of

Croats and Moslems. Members of her family were also mentioned on

the tape as having been slain by Croats and Moslems.

Specifically, she heard that her husband and son had

been killed and that Moslems and Croats played soccer with their

chopped off heads. She was made to listen to that tape every day.

After having been released from prison, she stated, she

was so tormented and lost that she was unable to recognize her

own son and husband when she was reunited with them.

Proof: 561/94-4.

33. Zekira Mulasmajic, an elementary school sixth

grader from Novi Seher near Maglaj, speaks about the beheading of

Serbs in her Diary.

In her entry of September 29, 1992, she wrote that the

Moslems had taken Glipova Glava, and stated, inter alia:

"... On that same day I saw something I never ever

imagined I would see, a chopped off head of a Chetnik.

Safet (Devletin) told Hido how some guys had brought a

Chetnik head and were playing ball with it. I and Lalo

immediately went downtown to see whether that was true.

And indeed some guys downtown were really carrying a

wrapped head. Down by Bahro's shop they unwrapped it

and I saw it... The face was black and the hair was

horrible ... they say that the lad had been young, 22

at most. Nothing is surprising in this fratricidal war.

There are lots of heads rolling about..."

Proof: 471/95.

34. In the area of Kruzno Groblje near Crni Vrh the

following Serbs were killed by decapitation in mid-September

1992: Branislav Djuric, 40 years old, from Gornji Teslic; Blagoje

Blagojevic, 46 years old and Nenad Cetkovic, 22 years old, from

Jasenava near Teslic.

A mercenary from Saudi Arabia had his photograph taken

with their cut off heads.

Proof: Zarko Krstanovic, By Genocide

Against the Serbs, Belgrade, 1995.

35. In exchanges of bodies the Serb side is being given

an increasing number of headless corpses, with it being

established by post mortem examinations that the heads had been

cut off. Thus the Moslem side handed over the headless bodies of

the following persons, post mortem examinations of which were

carried out on November 11, 1993 at the cemetery in Vlakovo in

Sarajevo:

1. Slavko Rajcevic (f. Milan), born in 1957, from

Sarajevo, and

2. Bosko Mizdrak (f.Steva), from Sarajevo.

In the vicinity of Trebinje such post mortem findings

were established on March 7, August 17 and February 23, 1993 on

the bodies of the following persons:

3. Slobodan Pejakovic (f. Ilija), born in 1960,

4. Zoran Radovic (f. Martin), born in 1966,

5. Petar Sekulovic (f. Danilo), born in 1960,

6. Djordje Bulut, born in 1949, and

7. Sasa Maras, born in 1973.

In the vicinity of Bileca such post mortem findings

were established on July 11, 1992 on the bodies of the following

persons:

8. Mile Trsic (f. Dragutin), born in 1946, from

Mostar,

9. Milan Bojanic (f. Dragutin), born in 1956,

10. Luka Papic, born in 1954, and

11. Goran Mrkovic, born in 1960.

In the vicinity of Nevesinje, on March 18,1995, such

post mortem findings were established on the body of:

12. Trifko Zuza (f. Dusan), born in 1947.

In the vicinity of Priboj, such post mortem findings

were established on May 5,1994 on the bodies of the following:

13. Jovan Tomic (f. Steva), born in 1939, and

14. Dragan Jurkovic, born in 1965.

In Bratunac such post mortem findings were established

on March 21 and 22, 1993 on the bodies of the following:

15. Bora Blagojevic, born in 1973,

16. Dragica Mastikosa, born in 1955, and

17. Miodrag Vorkapic, born in 1971.

In the village of Kravice such post mortem findings

were established on March 18 and 19, 1993 on the bodies of the

following:

18. Lazar Veselinovic (f. Kostadin), born in 1935,

19. Mitar Nikolic (f. Cvijan), born in 1927,

20. Kristina Eric, born in 1921, and

21. Djordje Miladinovic, born in 1936.

In Fakovic such post mortem findings were established

on July 10 and 11, 1993 on the bodies of the following:

22. Ranko Rankic, born in 1933,

23. Zora Prodanovic, born in 1941, and

24. Obren Bogicevic, born in 1932.

In Zvornik such post mortem findings were established

in October 1994 on the bodies of the following:

25. Cvija Kostic, born in 1927, and

26. Milorad Milic-Lazarevic, born in 1918.

Proof: Forensic findings of Dr. Zoran

Stankovic, reg. under No. 471/95.

[ 2 of 2 ]

Committee for the Collection of Data

on Crimes Committed against Humanity

and International Law

Date: March 15,1995

Belgrade, 10, Vlajkoviceva st.

Telephones: 330-369, 341-107

Fax: 334-133

TORTURE IN THE CAMPS FOR SERBS IN THE FORMER BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA

- FORENSIC MEDICAL AND PSYCHIATRIC ASPECTS -

The present Report, which provides a summary of certain medical

findings, covers all the detainees examined by a team of

physicians of the Medical Faculty in Belgrade who have been

engaged by the Committee. The team included:

- Prof. Dusan J. Dunjic, M.D., specialist in forensic medicine;

- Assistant Prof. Branimir Aleksandric, M.D., specialist in

forensic medicine;

- Assistant Dragan Jecmenica,M.D., specialist in forensic medicine;

- Prof. Maksim Sternic, M.D., specialist in neuropsychiatry;

- Assistant Aleksandar Jovanovic, M.D., specialist in neuro-

psychiatry;

- Dept. Head Julijana Puric-Pejakovic,M.D.,specialist in neuro-

phsychiatry.

Medical examinations were performed at the General Hospital in

Brcko and in Samac (1994), at the General Hospital in Trebinje

(1994), the General Hospital in Derventa (1994), the General

Hospital in Jajce (1994), the General Hospital in Zvornik (1995)

and at the General Hospital in Modrica (1995). A detainee from

Tuzla was examined at the Institute for Forensic Medicine in

Belgrade in 1995.

Serb victims of Croato-Muslim detention camps were examined

The data presented here must be interpreted very tentatively, as

a rather small number of detainees have been examined by the

above Team relative to the total number of detainees. The

examined victims agreed to undergo examination on a voluntary

basis,reported of their own free will on their discomfort and

made observations which we have reported on. In our talks with

them, we established that a large number of detainees did not

wish to recall the period they had spent in the camps, nor to

undergo medical examination. This applied in particular to raped

women. Complying with the humane and ethical principles of our

profession, we have not referred to such cases in our report.

Thus,the report covers only 2 cases of women who have spent a

while in detention camps (in Herzegovina) of which just one

agreed to speak out about the rapes she had been subjected to.

All victims who have been examined by the Team have also been

photographed following personal identification (identity cards,

passports, refugee cards, military service cards).

Apart from forensic-medical-neuropsychiatric examinations,

additional examinations have been carried out as well (X-ray

examinations and check-ups and findings by physicians

specializing in other medical fields). In the preparation of the

final written expert opinions, medical documents provided by the

patients have also been made use of. Examinations were carried

out on the basis of previously structured questionnaires in

compliance with relevant international standards.

MEDICAL FINDINGS

A total of 92 detainees have been examined: 2 at Brcko; 18 in

Samac; 22 in Trebinje; 22 in Derventa; 2 in Jajce; 8 in Zvornik;

17 in Modrica and a detainee from Tuzla examined at the Forensic

Medicine Institute of the Medical Faculty in Belgrade.

The length of stay at a camp is shown in the chart. The data

were disaggregated according to the number of days spent in

detention. However, these numbers below must be taken with a

certain reservation as most detainees were unable to give precise

information on the duration of their stay there.

The length of stay in camps in days

N - 92

Up to 31 days 10

Between 31 and 60 days 29

Between 91 - 180 days 30

Between 181 and 365 days 15

Up to 365 days 8

Effects of inflicted injuries as evidence of torture

a) Neuropsychiatric effects

Any research into the long-term physical and psycho-social

effects of torture of persons held captive by the enemy in the

course of the on-going Yugoslav civil war calls certainly for a

comprehensive prospective study. This follows primarily from the

fact that over 45 % of respondents examined by the Team within

the framework of the activities of the War Crimes Committee have

- as a result of torture they had been subjected to by the enemy

in the course of their captivity during the current Yugoslav

civil war - developed a post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD),

of a chronical nature and with frequent complications in the form

of major depression and suicidal thoughts, drastic psycho-social

consequences and grave effects on their corporal health (see the

chart on the neurological and psychiatric effects of torture).

Neurological and psychiatric effects of torture

N - 92

Without any neurological or psychiatric effects 7

Neurological effects only 12

Psychiatric effects only 47

Both neurological and psychiatric effects 26

b) Corporal effects

The tables and charts on corporal (physical) effects show the

total number of effects on the examined detainees by body parts

established impartially by our examinations. These effects have

been classified under the following headings: scars on the skin;

bone scars; deformities (deficiencies, disfigurements); and

missing teeth.

Corporal effects of torture

N - 92

Without any scars/missing teeth/deformities 4

Scars on the skin/missing teeth 51

Scars + deformities/disfigurement 37

In addition, it is particularly important to recognize the fairly

established number of the effects corporal traumas had on

specific parts of the body. In this context, we wish to mention

that the established number of chest injuries are not absolute,

i.e. do not correspond to the number of established rib

fractures. Namely, in all cases with rib fractures where no

visible scars or deformities could be observed, we only noted

that the examined person had suffered one chest injury, although

their X-ray findings pointed to multiple rib fractures on one or

even on both sides.

Head

3 and more scars - 17 %

2 scars - 10 %

1 scar - 33 %

no scars - 40 %

Number of scars confirming torture and their distribution N - 92

No scars 1 scar 2 scars 3 scars and over

Head

Neck

Chest

Stomach

Arm

Leg

Genitals

Methods and means of torture

Numerous research findings (Moric-Petrovic et al., 1963; United

Nations, 1985; Turner, S., Gorst-Unsworth, C., 1990) have shown

the worst psycho-traumatic experience to be the one deriving from

stressors of human design and causing in the victim a state of

intensive anxiety, terror and helplessness. The prototype of such

experience is torture to which victims are subjected in

captivity. Torture is here defined in conformity with the

criteria contained in the relevant United Nations conventions on

torture and other cruel, degrading and inhuman treatment and

punishment (United Nations, 1985). We believe that the

distinctive and destructive nature of this experience is

adequately exemplified by the list of methods and means of

torture which, according to their own reports, the examined

persons had experienced or seen (classification of the methods of

torture into physical, mental and combined is given tentatively

and adopted primarily for reasons of clarity; by activating the

tress mechanism, each torture, basically, affects all personality

aspects):

1. M e t h o d o f t o r t u r e

A. Corporal (or mostly corporal):

1.Beatings with different objects, hitting, kicking and

punching on all parts of the body;

2.Kicking with a heavy soldier's boot or with a solid

object always the same place (most often knee, elbow, head or

sole of foot);

3.Tying by the wrists and/or legs and beating with fists,

heavy soldier's boots, butt of a rifle, gun handle, hammer,

truncheons, flogging with wire or with iron bars of all body

parts including head and genitals;

4. Firing of blank cartridges into the anus of the victim

(death occurs 5 to 6 hours later with grave meteorism and as a

result of internal hemorrhage);

5. Smashing the victim's head against the wall;

6. Hours-long suspension by the wrists or legs with and

without simultaneous beating or rape

7.Forcible pouring of petrol or salty water into the

victim's mouth;

8. Forcible "bathing" with the use of fire-fighting hoses

at close range.

9. Tying of victims to a tree in wintertime and pouring

ice-cold water on them until they freeze

10. Forcing victims to stand motionless in the sun for

several hours in summertime

11. Causing burns with the use of welding torches, red-hot

tongs and with other red-hot objects

12. Causing skin burns by suddenly turning on hot water

during bathing

13.Putting out cigarettes by pressing them against the

victim's body,

14. Putting out butts in the victims mouth

15. Forcing victims to eat pebbles or chew broken glass

16. Putting a helmet on the victim's head and hitting it

with different objects

17. Tying the victim's genitals to his ears with an electric

wire and turning on electricity or flogging the victim on the

back

18. Nailing the victim's two hands to a board with a hammer

and forcing the victim to walk around like that for a whole day

19. Enucleation of a part of the victim's body (a testis or

an eye) and forcing the victim to swallow it;

20. Making cuts in the victim's body, esp on the neck or

genitals (often sprinkling salt on created "pockets")

21. Tearing the victim's skin off and sprinkling salt on

the wounds

22. Knocking out teeth

23. Gouging eyes with fingers or with a knife

24. "Stereo" torture (the torturer causes ear-drum popping

in the victim by punching him simultaneously on his ears with

both fists in kid gloves or without gloves)

25. Forcible pushing of objects into the victim's anus,

mouth, eyes, nose or ears

26. Shooting the victim with a firearm at close range

27. Giving injections of petrol or a salty solution

28. Starving the victim by not giving him anything to eat

for several days

29. Torturing the victim with thirst especially in

summertime by giving him salted food

30.Tying the genitals with a metal wire and stretching them

31. Setting on fire the victim's beard and body parts

32. Shutting victims up in special airless chambers until

they lose consciousness

33. Making victims run and walk barefoot and in heavy

soldier's boots for several hours until the soles of their feet

become sore all over

34. Tying with chains and torturing in a variety of

otherways.

35. Bringing the camp guards' children and wives to beat

naked detainees;

36. Beating a victim with metal spiked gloves

37. Punching the victim on the head with different objects

38. Continuous beating for several hours.

B. Mental (or mostly mental)

1. Forcing victims to eat the meat of a roasted newborn

2. Cursing and calling detainees names

3. Forcing victims (under the threat of death) to listen to

the other victims of torture screaming or to eye-witness their

torture or their death

4. Making victims imitate animals (a dog, a pig)

5. Preventing victims from falling asleep

6. Taking victims out for false executions

7. Putting the end of a gun in the victim's mouth (sometimes

followed by execution in the presence of others)

8.Telling the victim that his next of kin have been killed

(raped and their throats slit)

9. Forcing the victim to urinate and defecate in a crowded

dormitory (or in a trailer with a tarpaulin where they are kept

for several days) without providing any pots

10. Forcing the victim to curse his own faith, its patron

saints or to spit at icons

11. Forcing the victim (under the threat of death) to speak

nicely about the conditions of his captivity before

representatives of international humanitarian organizations or to

sign a statement attesting to fair treat-ment received while in

detention/prison.

C. Combination (of mental and corporal torture)

1. Individual or group rape of female detainees including anal

rape and fellatio.

2. Forced placement of captured female adolescents in brothels

and making them work as prostitutes until they conceive and their

"release" when they are 7 or 8 months pregnant.

3. Forcing inmates, especially brothers or a father and his

son to engage in mutual fellatio or to have anal intercourse.

4. Putting the victim viciously to death, following long hours

of torture and intimidation in the presence of others (by

slitting his throat, firing a bullet in his mouth, hanging,

tearing off his skin, by strangulation with bare hands, roasting

the victim on a spit or by impaling him)

5. Forcing the victim to pluck out grass or lick the blood-,

faeces- or urine-stained floor

6. Forcing the victim to drink his own urine, swallow his

cut-off hair or cigarette butts soaked in urine and the like

7. Defecating or urinating in the victim's mouth

8. Forcing inmates to dig trenches on the frontline or to

sweep minefields with consequent victimization

9. Making the victim stand waist-deep in water and hold a dead

suckling of pig in his hands ordering him to make sure that the

pig does not drown

10. Forcing detainees to slap each other on the face,curse each

other, swear and spit

11. Taking detainees through an urban area encouraging locals

to lynch them

12. Bringing to the camp villagers from nearby communities and

letting them beat the tied-up inmates in a variety of ways and

with a large number of different objects

13. Bringing combatants to the camp after a battle and letting

them indulge in the abuse of detainees

14. Walking detainees on a chain around or outside the camp as

if they were animals

2. M e a n s o f t o r t u r e

A. Mechanical

1. fist/knee

2. head (blow)

3. bites /biting off an ear/with one's teeth

4. sole of foot (heavy soldier's boot)

5. knife (bayonet)

6. butt of rifle

7. a metal bar/baseball bat

8. truncheon

9. whip (metal)

10. hammer/mallet

11. axe/hatchet

12. a variety of solid objects (stone, bench, weight on

a scale and the like)

13. rope or a wire to tie up the victim with

B. Physical-chemical

1. low-voltage electricity

2. thermal (freezing/burns)

3. chemical preparations

4. special electric clubs

C. Firearms

D. Nutritional

1. Denying food and/or water

2. Giving inadequate food and/or water

E. Combined

What is of special importance is that most victims have been

subjected to:

- a combination of methods and means of torture

- frequently repeated torture during the same day or the same week

- group torture or to torture of an individual in the presence of

a group of detainees.

The table on page 4 offers a summary break-down of the methods of

torture into three groups: mostly corporal; mostly mental and

combined forms of torture. Specific individual cases have been

dealt with under a separate heading titled "Specific cases".

All the above-mentioned cases are also shown separately in the

tables that form an integral part of this report (see Annex).

Note: the codes given to respondents refer to the place where the

examination was performed and the number under which they were

examined. (B - Brcko, Der - Derventa, T - Trebinje, Mo - Modrica,

S - Samac, Ja - Jajce, Zv - Zvornik, Tz - Tuzla).

M E T H O D S O F T O R T U R E YES NO

MOSTLY CORPORAL TORTURE

beating 91.99% 11%

firearms 21.23% 71.77%

forcing to eat repugnant substances 22.24% 70.76%

forcing to stand for long hours in the

sun and/or in water 8.9% 84.91%

burning a part of the body 17.18% 75.82%

putting out cigarettes on the body 27.29% 65.71%

torture with the use of electricity 13.14% 79.86%

knocking out/extracting teeth 16.17% 76.83%

breaking bones 33.36% 50.64%

stereo torture 9.10% 83.90%

torture through starvation and thirst 49.52% 44.89%

cutting/pricking 36.30% 56.61%

pulling out nails 7.8% 85.92%

MOSTLY MENTAL TORTURE

cursing, shouting, insulting in different ways 84.91% 8.9%

false execution 40.43% 52.57%

prevention from falling asleep 10.21% 73.79%

false reports on the death of next of kin 5.5% 87.95%

witnessing torture and killing

of other detainees 20.22% 72.78%

witnessing rape of next of kin 2.2% 90.98%

making victims commit perjury 12.13% 80.87%

COMBINED TORTURE

individual and group rapes 10.11% 82.89%

forcing detainees to perform mutual

fellatio and to have anal intercourse 10.11% 82.89%

forcing detainees to beat one another 18.20% 74.80%

defecating and urinating in detainees' mouths 3.3% 89.97%

forcing detainees to lick the floor stained with

faeces, blood and beating them as they do so 6.7% 86.93%

forcing to dig trenches on frontline or

sweep mine-fields 16.17% 76.83%

SPECIFIC CASES

asphyxiation in a hermetically sealed manhole,

had to eat his plucked-out hair twice during detention

pressing on the throat with the hands, rape

had to run bare-foot in heavy soldier's boots

until the soles of his feet got sore

chained to the old bridge in Mostar

his testis taken out with spiked gloves

attempted a suicide in the camp

and then treated for "conjunctivitis"

burnt with hot-red tongs

burnt with a hot-red wire

forced to eat meat of a roasted newborn

chained, beaten and starved

enucleation of eyeballs

enucleation of eyeballs, jumping from a-high

onto the ground "as if into water", beaten by children

they applied salt on his shrapnel wounds

his penis tied with a wire and stretched

his ear bitten off

his neck broken

amputation of arms and legs

The present civil, religious and inter-ethnic war in the space of

Yugoslavia has since its outbreak in the early 1990s, by

destroying human souls and family homes, created a terrible

endemic hotbed of war-related PTSD and the afflicted victims have

been admitted to our mental wards in ever larger numbers and this

will continue long after the end of this war considering the

unfavourable social and economic milieux (Cucic, V., Bjegovic,

V., Djokic, D., 1994; Popovic, M., 1994; Zalobar, J., 1994),the

chronic nature of the disease and the possibility of

long-lasting, sometimes yearlong, latency of the forms with

postponed incidence (Andreasen, N.C., 1985; Horowitz, M.J.,

1994). We can only guess the scope and implications of this

phenomenon, both in the health and the broader social context,

given that the afflicted persons also tend to report serious

functioning disorders in their family and in their broader social

and professional environs. Sight should here not be lost of the

fact that, according to statistics, 15-20 % of the adult

population are prone to this disorder and up to 80 % of children

exposed to extremely strong or disastrous life stressors

(Andreasen, N.C., 1985). This disorder is, evidently, graver,

lasts longer and has a higher incidence probability when it

appears as a result of man-made destruction, as, for example,

with war-related PTD cases (WHO, 1994). It could be said that

there is increasing professional experience in our miliuex in

treating this ever more frequent disorder in the wake of the

ongoing war and related social and economic turbulences

(Polovina, N., Divac, Lj., 1992); Pejovic, M., 1992; Kalicanin,

P., Lecic- Tosevski, D., 1994). It is, therefore, in that light

that the significance of this paper should be seen for it renders

a contribution to the study of family relations as an important

factor of pathogenesis and in the treatment of PTSDs.

There is no doubt that the price of developing the technology of

evil, aggression and destruction in the on-going psychological,

economic and armed conflicts is not only being paid by the

victims of primary (direct) traumatization, but also by all those

(family members, first of all) who are exposed to secondary

traumatization, i.e. the symptoms of those afflicted by the PTSD;

the victims of what is known as tertiary traumatization have of

late been increasingly in the focus of attention as the victims

of secondary traumatization can exert a pathogenic influence on

their surroundings and their offspring (Davidson, S., 1980;

Agger, I., Jensen, S.B., 1994).

It is a well-known state of fact that the stressors of human

design are characterized by higher probability of causing

intensive anxiety, terror and the feeling of helplessness in the

victim, and accordingly of PTSD as well, as shown by countless

studies into the state of detainees who have survived torture in

detention camps (Bailly,L., Jaffe, H., Pagella, A., 1988;

Rasmussen, O.V., 1990; Lifton, R.J., 1993), but also by the

research on the torture inflicted in peace time upon sexually and

physically abused children or women and/or on the victims of

violence(Coons,P.M.et al.,1989;Pitman, R.K.,Orr.,S.P., 1993).

The availability of case history data of relevance to psychiatric

heredity was established much more often in patients with PTSD

than in other respondents. Case history data of relevance to

psychiatric heredity reflected the existence of mental patients

or suicidal patterns among the respondent's closest (primary)

relatives. These findings are in keeping with the research

conducted so far which generally indicates that the families of

patients with PTSD run a higher risk of contracting mental

disorders than other families (Davidson, J.R., Hughes, D.,

Blazer, D.G., George, L.K., 1991).

The feeling of those taking part in the war that their personal

physical integrity and life were at risk was an integral part of

the unfortunate wartime calamity that severed these people's

links with their peace-time reality and played havoc with their

system of values which enhanced meaningful life, love and

security.

The principal feature of all events which can be described as

the cause of depression is that they inflict damage upon the

person concerned and take away the hope that such damaged is

redeemable. Today people most often speak of three types of loss:

the loss of a dear person; of one's role; and of ideation, and

our respondents have reported losses in all of these categories.

The majority of cases did not come back to work after their

return from the frontline, they withdrew into themselves unable

to bridge the gap between their wartime and peacetime realities,

thus weakening their families economically and exposing them to

a considerable degree of traumatization as a result of their

grave PTSD symptoms. The incapacitation of veterans and refugees

for work or for family-related activities in the professionally

and reproductively most active period of their lives, along with

mental handicaps, have certainly accentuated their feeling of

inferiority and negative future-related expectations. This is why

our patients - war victims did not only need psychiatric

assistance in their mental rehabilitation, but also broader

psycho-social support from their families and from the relevant

professional and social networks.

According to the latest estimates made by the World Health

Organization, the number of refugees, displaced persons and those

living in war-torn areas of the former Yugoslavia totals around 4

million, of which the health of at least 800,000 (20 %) has been

impaired as a result of grave war-related TS reactions (the

symptoms of a completely or partially developed PTSD). If we add

around 200,000 more with peacetime TS reactions, we shall see

that 10 % (or 2 million) of the total population of the former

Yugoslavia have in the past few years experienced at least one

extreme or disastrous peace-time psycho-trauma and that at least

10 % thereof (or 200,000) are now suffering from the resulting

mental reactions. All this brings the grand total of persons in

former Yugoslavia who are at present in need of psycho-social and

mental health assistance due to grave TS reactions (WHO, 1994) to

around 1 million people.

B e l g r a d e

15 March 1995

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1 The documents on all cases specified in this report are

kept by the Committee and shall be made available to juridical

authorities. If there is interest, the Committee can forward

additional information, except those protecting the integrity of

witnesses.

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