Camp survivors testify for NAP: Paravac was at the barricade in Kostajnica when they expelled us from Grapska

In the proceedings before the State Court against former member of the BiH Presidency Borislav Paravac, for war crimes in BiH in the 1990s, dozens of his Bosniak neighbours from Grapska near Doboj will testify.

In the Association of Camp Survivors of Grapska, they told the Bosnian news agency Patria that former camp survivors from Grapska have already provided hundreds of pages of written material about crimes in the Doboj area, and part of those testimonies also relate to crimes that their neighbour Paravac must have known about, as he then held the high office of president of the Crisis Staff of the Serbian Municipality of Doboj.

The youngest victim was an 11-year-old boy

Strong military, paramilitary and police units expelled more than 3,000 Bosniaks from Grapska in May 1992. 104 residents of this place were killed, among whom the youngest boy was only 11 years old, and the oldest victim, an elderly woman, was over 80 years old, writes Patria. Families are still searching for 32 sets of remains of the killed.

- Serbian forces “rounded up” the Bosniaks and took them to the Community Centre in Kostajnica, from there to the “Vuk Karadžić” school, then to the Bare camp, and some Bosniaks to other camps – one of the former camp survivors told Patria, who, like his colleagues, spoke on condition of anonymity for his own safety and because of the entire court proceedings currently underway for crimes in Grapska.

- At the barricade in Kostajnica, which was held by Serbian forces, Paravac was also there at the time, as president of the Crisis Staff of the Serbian Municipality of Doboj. Incidentally, Kostajnica is his birthplace. We knew him before the war as well. In the early 1990s, he joined the SDS, immediately after the party was founded. He quickly became a high-ranking cadre – adds this camp survivor. He explains that he personally cannot claim that Paravac directly participated in the abuse and liquidation of Bosniaks, but as the top political figure in Doboj at that time, he must have known what the army and police were doing, and that he did nothing to stop the killing of innocent people.

500 men ended up in camps

Some of the Bosniaks from Grapska were allowed to cross into free territory, while about 500 men were taken to the Bare military hangar, the Central Prison Spreča, the Usora military hangar and the Perčo discotheque. Half of them were later taken to the Manjača camp. Many of those camp survivors did not manage to survive the terrible torture.

For crimes in the Doboj and Teslić areas, the prosecutor of the Special Department for War Crimes of the Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina filed an indictment against four persons. Among the accused is Paravac. Along with him, the Prosecutor's Office also charges Milan Ninković, Andrija Bjelošević and Milan Savić.

In addition to persecution and murder, the accused are also charged with the destruction of a large number of religious and cultural buildings of Bosniaks and Croats, writes NAP.