Former Detention Camps in Drvar Now in Ruins

The only son of Fatima Brehrem was 22 years old when he was detained in the Kamenica detention camp. According to Brehrem, her son was killed after he left the camp and was taken to Ripac in the municipality of Bihac.

Salko Behrema, Razija Mesic’s brother, was also detained in the Kamenica camp. Mesic said the last time she saw her brother was in a school building in Orasac, with his hands tied up with wire. He was later transferred to Kamenica. Three years ago, his relatives found his shirt and a letter written by him in the camp.

Brehrem and Mesic said they found peace after the bodies of their loved ones were found in the Tihotina mass grave.

“It’s much easier for me since I found the bones of my child. Now I know where his grave is and I can recite the Fatiha [prayer for the dead] to him,” Brehrem said. Brehrem said the people who killed her son should be ashamed, because they murdered him only because his name was Hajrudin, an Islamic name.

Emira Masanovic and her two children still haven’t found peace, because they still haven’t found the body of her husband.

“We have found several photos at some friends’ houses, because our house was demolished and everything was destroyed. My children only remember their father based on those photos. It’s a terrible feeling when you search without success for so many years,” Masanovic said.

Masanovic obtained information that her husband was detained in the Prekaja camp and that he disappeared without a trace. She asked anyone who has any sort of information to reach out to her and she also called upon the authorities to start the investigation.

Former detainees said that Kamenica and Prekaja were not large camps, but that they were among the worst due to the cruelty and inhumane treatment inflicted upon the prisoners. Around 300 civilians from all the towns in the Una-Sana Canton were detained in the Kamenica camp.

Enes Salihagic, the president of the Association of Camp Detainees in the Una-Sena Canton, said that a family from the village of Hrustovo in Sanski Most, specifically a woman, her child, and her mother-in-law, were killed in one of the camps. Their bodies were never found.

Salihagic said only two people were sentenced before the state court for the crimes committed in those camps. Ratko Dronjak and Dragan Rodic were sentenced to 23 years in prison.

The visit to the Drvar camps was part of a commemoration ceremony held for the victims of the Ljutocka Valley.