The Hunt for Reds: The Camp System of the Autonomous Province of West Bosnia

By Dean Džebić

Friday, February 11, 1994, was not particularly different from the preceding war days in the territory of Cazinska Krajina. Or so it seemed at the beginning of the day. The day was completely unremarkable, grey, and cold, and did not foreshadow any gathering of people and the urban population of Velika Kladuša.

After ignoring calls for amnesty and joining the units of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the rebel forces, embodied in Fikret Abdić's paramilitary formations, launched an offensive that day on a wide front towards the units of the Fifth Corps. The leadership of Abdić's pseudo-state, knowing that a significant portion of Kladuša's intelligentsia was pro-Bosniak oriented and despite remaining in the territory of the so-called Autonomous Province of West Bosnia, issued a call for "all those who wish to fight on the side of the Army" to gather at noon on February 11 in front of the Department Store.

The gathered crowd consisted mainly of professors and teachers, engineers, and workers who believed they would actually be transported to the front lines to join the units of the Fifth Corps of the ARBiH. However, the scenario was different because it was written by the pupils of already experienced villains who, using a similar modus operandi, had tired out Prijedor and Sanski Most. A group of Velika Kladuša patriots was rounded up into a bus and taken to an unknown location. Beaten and humiliated along the way, they were brought to the front lines where they were further humiliated before being sent back to the city. This was the beginning of the hunt for the reds, the hunt for corps members, the hunt for dissenters who were meant to be instilled with the idea of the Autonomous Province.

The Hunt for Reds

Camps for political dissidents are a known practice of totalitarian systems during the 20th century, but no one expected them in their most rigid form in the heart of Europe at the turn of the 21st century. Precisely such camps and prison systems were created by the criminal and villainous regime of the convicted war criminal Fikret Abdić, with all the manners of stigmatization, dehumanization, and liquidation of political dissidents. Since his return from Sarajevo in early September 1992, as a member of the War Presidency of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Abdić sought to feed the megalomaniacal ego of a provincial gauleiter. In open betrayal of Bosnian-Herzegovinian interests and collaboration with the aggressors, with strong support formed through joint statements and declarations, Abdić would embark on this path in the autumn of 1993. This fratricidal conflict, which in its intensity did not tend to become as bloody as it would in its second phase, meant that no one could have expected the formation of camps and prisons for fellow countrymen by fellow countrymen.

However, military defeats, especially in June 1994, would significantly radicalize the leadership of Abdić's pseudo-state, which had previously conducted a campaign of denunciation, humiliation, and harassment of the families of Fifth Corps fighters who remained in the territory of Velika Kladuša. The defeat of Abdić's paramilitary formations on June 10 was a prelude to the hunt for the reds, i.e., those who were "dissenters" or "corps members." The reason for arrests and reprisals was the funeral of the fallen Senad Bećirović – Oskar, a resident of Kladuša who died as a fighter of the ARBiH.

Given that the funeral was filmed, all those captured on the video would be arrested the next day, June 11, without any explanation. Mujo Milak, president of the SDA club, recalls: "Police officers from their police came for me, telling me to get dressed and put on my shoes, and that I was under arrest. In front of the building, along with several neighbors, I was taken by refrigerated truck to the hangars in Drmaljevo."

The arrest looked like a scene from a film depicting the twilight of civilization in the thirties and forties of the 20th century. The detained prisoners of Velika Kladuša would remember June 11, 1994, as the beginning of a hell of torture, beatings, humiliation, and killings solely because of their political conviction to fight for an independent Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Camp and Prison System of APZB

By direct order of the war criminal Abdić, the Drmaljevo camp was established on June 11 on the outskirts of the city, in the facilities of "Agrokomerc" intended for a poultry farm. In general, it should be noted that the entire military-political effort of Abdić's pseudo-state relied on the infrastructure of the "Agrokomerc" company. Among other things, before the Drmaljevo camp, private houses converted into prisons were used as detention facilities, including "Hebina kuća" and facilities behind the municipal court building.

The facilities in Drmaljevo were essentially bare concrete with some large fans that the arriving prisoners had to clean, as well as mow the grass, so that the camp guards could later establish a machine-gun nest. On the very first day, over 200 people were brought to the Drmaljevo camp, with a significant number of women and children who would have a separate section. For the first three days, they were sentenced only to water, as no food was offered to anyone among the more than 400 prisoners. Confined in bare concrete hangars, the prisoners had to relieve themselves in the same room, and only on the third day did they receive some pallets to make improvised beds.

Adult men from the camp would be taken to dig trenches under torture and torment, including being forced to look at the sun and lie on anthills, with the inevitable shouting of slogans. Work groups formed from prisoners would, along with beatings and various humiliations by members of the military police and soldiers of the paramilitary formations, often be beaten to death.

The situation in the Drmaljevo camp improved with the visit of UN Special Rapporteur Tadeusz Mazowiecki, who would emphasize in his report that it was a camp, unlike the official explanation of a reception center. Additionally, there was a lack of accommodation capacity for the number of prisoners, insufficient fresh air, and numerous other irregularities.

Of course, for the purpose of this visit, the prisoners were ordered to shave and bathe in the nearby river to feign better conditions. The camp was officially disbanded on August 13, while the prisoners were held until the liberation of the city on August 21, 1994.

In addition to the Drmaljevo camp, the Valionica camp was also established in the same part of the outskirts of Velika Kladuša. The torture, torment, and killings there would be significantly more pronounced during what the local population calls the "Second Autonomy," i.e., the return of Abdić's army with the help of the State Security Service of the FR Yugoslavia in Operation "Pauk." It should be noted that this Second Autonomy was significantly more brutal in its intensity and ferocity than the first, and repressions against the population that did not flee became increasingly rigid.

However, for all the prisoners, the most nightmarish memory would remain the former Dispensary facility in Polje, i.e., the facility where interrogations and unprecedented beatings took place, in which mercenaries from Serbia participated. Among other things, for the purpose of detention and torture, the facilities of "Agrokomerc," i.e., poultry hangars in Dubrave, Dolovi, Brezici, and Nepeci, were also adapted. From June 11, 1994, to August 7, 1995, over 6,500 prisoners, a significant number of whom were women and children, passed through the camps and prisons of APZB.

Legal satisfaction for the victims is non-existent, and it is difficult to even speak of moral satisfaction, considering the legal epilogue of the trials of unit commanders who were distinguished by torture and torment. A large number of those responsible managed to escape justice, while the commander of the Drmaljevo camp, Ćazim Behrić, was sentenced to a symbolic punishment. The entire leadership of the Autonomous Province of West Bosnia is responsible, given that the existence of such a camp and prison system required significant logistical and material efforts. From the perspective of the victims, prisoners, and their families, their greatest sin was loyalty to the idea of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and their oath to the Army of RBiH.