Bosnian Torture Victims ‘Neglected and Invisible’

The former detainees from the Tuzla area used the annual International Day in Support of Victims of Torture to highlight their grievances about the lack of legislation in Bosnia and Herzegovina to ensure torture victims’ rights.

Former Bosnian Army serviceman Nedim Mustacevic told journalists at a press conference in Tuzla on Wednesday that he was captured by Bosnian Serb forces during wartime, detained and violently assaulted in a prison camp, despite the fact that he had already been shot and wounded.

“After being captured, I was moved to Prijedor, then to Bijeljina and lastly to the Batkovic camp. With a body full of bullets, I lay there bleeding for three days. They took the bullets out, and then I was beaten up for days. They broke my arm, nose and two vertebrae,” said Mustacevic.

He said that 18 years after the war, the authorities were now trying to take away the few rights that torture victims have, and to erase the memories of what they suffered.

“If they could, our politicians would remove the existence of camps, camp detainees, torture… They reduced my disability benefit several times. MPs are doing their best to change the law so that they could take away the right to sue those responsible for our stay in the camp,” Mustacevic claimed.

Jasna Zecevic, from the Vive Women association which campaigns for former detainees’ rights, said that progress will only become possible when the public becomes aware of what torture victims suffered.

“Only when all citizens start to understand people who went through horror can we start talking about the process of reconciliation in Bosnia,” Zecevic said.