Montenegrin Pension Fund terminates contract with notorious "Vilina Vlas" center, a site of torture of Bosniak women during the war

(Patria) - The Pension and Disability Insurance Fund of Montenegro (PIO) will terminate its cooperation with the Rehabilitation Center "Vilina Vlas" near Višegrad in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Fund's Director Vladimir Drobnjak confirmed on Thursday.

The termination of the contract comes after pressure from parts of the media and the civil sector for the Fund to terminate its ten-year contract with the Center in Višegrad, where, according to a UN report, 200 women of Bosniak nationality were raped during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) from 1992-95.

Drobnjak told Podgorica's "E Televizija" that the management of the PIO Fund was unaware of the purpose of the Center in Višegrad during the war.

"The PIO Fund cannot change history, but what it can do now that we have seen all these facts is to terminate the contract, which has been announced to the management of that spa," Drobnjak said.

The "Vilina Vlas" spa resort was converted into the headquarters of the "White Eagles" in 1992 - a Serbian paramilitary formation associated with the Serbian National Renewal (SNO) and the Serbian Radical Party (SRS). Bosniak women and girls were held there, and around 200 of them were raped, according to a report by a special UN Committee. The report also states that some of them were killed, and some committed suicide.

17 abducted Bosniaks from Serbia, from Sjeverin near Priboj, were also killed at "Vilina Vlas" in October 1992. For this crime, the court in Belgrade sentenced Milan Lukić and Oliver Krsmanović to 20 years in prison each. Two others were sentenced to 15 years in prison each.

According to the verdicts of the Hague Tribunal, around 600 women and 119 children were killed in Višegrad in 1992. The most horrific crimes were committed on June 14 and 27, 1992, by paramilitary units under the command of Milan and Sredoje Lukić.

Milan Lukić was sentenced to life imprisonment, Sredoje Lukić to 27 years, and Mitar Vasiljević to 15 years in prison by the Hague Tribunal. Ten members of the Serbian armies and police have been convicted in nine other cases for war crimes committed in Višegrad before the BiH Court and the Supreme Court, while two are still on trial.