Watching the murders from the barn

Despite the crime, 22 years later no one has been held responsible for the crime.

Nedjo Vukovic was hidden in the barn, from where he watched the murder of his mother, father, brother and three cousins on June 20, 1992. He managed to survive and he spent the few first days after his closest ones were murdered at his neighbour’s place where he hid.

At the same time when the Vukovic family was murdered, in another village of Visoko municipality, Hlapcevici, four Serbs were also murdered. During that same month, about 3,000 residents of Visoko were expelled from their homes.

The majority of those who did not leave were detained. Among them was Ljuban Tesanovic, who was tortured during his detention.

After the war, only a small number of Serbs returned to Visoko, and the majority of the population from that area have never heard of the crimes that their former neighbours managed to survive. While some believe in the possibility of coexistence, for others it is not possible.

He lost the whole family

In the village of Kolosici, Nedjo Vukovic’s mother Draginja, father Bosko, brother Rajko, his brother’s son Miodrag and relatives Jelenko and Zdravko Vukovic were murdered on June 20, 1992.

“At the daybreak of black Saturday, we were blocked, and since we were the minority, we could not go anywhere. At that time, when we were working and watering livestock, a group of unknown and masked men came over. They entered the barn where I had previously hid myself, and took my father into the yard,” recalled Vukovic.

He said that his mother was killed on the doorstep there and then.

“My brother got out of the house, they called him, and his son also came out after him. Cousins Zdravko and Jelenko were a little bit further in the yard. When they gathered all of them near the house, they surrounded and killed them,” said Vukovic, recalling the event he saw from a close distance.

Vukovic said that shortly after the shooting, the bodies of the killed ones were transported by van, and that he remained hidden in the barn. He found his salvation in his neighbour’s house, who was his long-time friend.

Nedjo Vukovic was hiding for 15 days at his neighbour’s house, when he managed to go to Kiseljak, where one Croat family gave him shelter for three months.

Four Serb civilians were murdered in the village of Halapcevici: Danica Damjanovic, Dusanka Ristic, Slavko Damjanovic and Zeljko Ristic, while Zoran Damjanovic, and Sreto Masal were wounded.

Nisvet Ramic, former member of the Commando Group of the Territorial Defence of Visoko was sentenced by a second instance verdict for this crime before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2007. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison and is currently serving his sentence.

When the war started, Nedjo’s former neighbor, Ljuban Tesanovic was in his cottage near Visoko with his family. Tesanovic did not go with the Serb population who had fled the area. He was detained and spent more than a year in prisons in Olovo, Visoko and Zenica.

He was the spent the longest period of detention in the military barracks in Visoko.

“There was abuse there, there was everything. They beat me there, broke my nose and jaw, my head is broken, too. Then when they were beating me, almost the entire wall was covered with blood,” said Tesanovic.

The bayonet underneath the throat

He said that he will never forget the night when he was taken out to the “boiler-room”.

“One soldier came, a young man, and laid me on his car boot and put a bayonet under my throat. He said: “Talk”. I do not know how to tell you this, but I was not afraid then. There is some psychic in a person, I do not know how to explain it, but when he put me as a lamb to slaughter me, it was all the same for me,” recalled Tesanovic.

Nowadays, very few Serbs have returned to Visoko. Nedjo Vukovic and Ljuban Tesanovic are living in Bijeljina, an area where the majority of families from Visoko migrated.

Tesanovic survives on a pension to the amount of 300 Konvertible marks. Although he is every day among his former neighbours, he says that he longs for his old place of living.

“We cannot ever be separated. We are connected. They can say what they want, but we cannot do without each other,” said Tesanovic, adding that he wonders “why we cannot continue to live together”.

Unlike Nedjo Vukovic, he still believes in a common future.

“I think that is hard to continue to live together. What has to be done together, let it be done, like economy and co-operation, but as far as living together like before – there is nothing of it,” Vukovic said, adding that he could never again put his foot in Visoko.

In a survey which the BIRN – Justice Report team conducted in Visoko, the majority of residents said that they had never heard of the crimes which were committed in that area.