The Association for Social Research and Communication (UDIK) reminds the public of the anniversary of the closure of the Sušica camp, which was established by Serb forces in late May or early June 1992 and was run by the military and local police militia. It was the main detention facility in the Vlasenica area.

According to the Dossier: Svetozar Andrić published by the Humanitarian Law Center Belgrade, Major Andrić issued an order for the establishment of the Sušica camp, based on the decision of the government of SAO Birač. Upon its establishment, the camp manager was Vlasenica SJB member Veljko Bašić, and from mid-June 1992 approximately, the camp was commanded by a member of the Special Police Platoon at Vlasenica SJB, Dragan Nikolić, aka “Yankee”.

In 2005, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) convicted Dragan Nikolić to twenty years in prison after pleading guilty to participating in the 1992 killings, rape and torture of Bosniak prisoners at the Sušica concentration camp. After serving two-thirds of his sentence, Nikolić was released in 2013. He died in Vlasenica five years later.

Dragan Nikolić was the first person to be indicted by the ICTY for crimes committed in SFR Yugoslavia. Nikolić admitted to the allegations in the indictment that the Sušica camp was established as part of the process of expelling the non-Serb population from Vlasenica, through which around 8,000 people passed from May to October 1992.

The detention camp comprised two main buildings and a small house. The detainees were housed in a hangar. The building was severely overcrowded and living conditions were deplorable. Another facility was used for storing military equipment. The guards and the camp commander used a smaller house to interrogate detainees.

Men, women and children were detained at the camp, sometimes entire families. Women and children were usually detained for short periods of time and then forcibly transferred to nearby Bosniak areas. The men were held in the camp until its closure in late September 1992, and were then transferred to the larger Batković detention camp near the town of Bijeljina. Many of the detained women were subjected to sexual assaults, including rape. Camp guards or other men who were allowed to enter the camp frequently took women out of the hangar at night. When the women returned, they were often distraught and traumatized.

UDIK’s publication “War crimes in Milići and Vlasenica – Verdicts” included three cases brought before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina for crimes committed in the pre-war municipality of Vlasenica. The court sentenced Predrag Bastah and Goran Višković to a total of forty years in prison for crimes in Vlasenica, while Dragan Marinković was sentenced to eight years in prison for the crimes against the Bosniaks from Milići. Several proceedings are ongoing before the State Court.

Although thirty-three years have passed since the closure of the Sušica camp and the monstrous acts that befell the non-Serb population of Vlasenica, justice has still not been served. Trials take too long, suspects are seeking refuge in other countries, witnesses are dying, and families of victims are still waiting for the remains of their loved ones. According to the Institute for Missing Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the largest mass grave found in the Vlasenica area is the Ogradica mass grave, from which 232 remains of victims were exhumed in 2003. Thirty-seven victims were exhumed from the Sušica mass grave.

On the occasion of the anniversary, we appeal to the competent institutions to speed up the current procedures and to work more actively on prosecuting the perpetrators of the crimes. Not to be part of the policies of forgetting and denying war crimes, but to build the future of all citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina with justice and truth.

The Association for Social Research and Communication (UDIK) helps post-Yugoslav societies to establish the rule of law and to accept the legacy of massive human rights violations in order to identify the criminal responsibility of perpetrators, to meet justice and prevent the repetition of such crimes. It is the affirmation of the value of an open civil society, with clearly defined priorities in terms of promotion and protection of human rights, as well as youth involvement in social and political processes through peace activism.