Criminal Complaint for Wartime Sexual Violence in Foča

The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC), on August 16, 2024, submitted a criminal complaint to the Public Prosecutor’s Office for War Crimes (PPOWC) of the Republic of Serbia against two individuals, members of Serbian volunteer units, for the rape of two Bosniak women in the Zubovići settlement near Foča, as well as the arrest and detention of civilians in detention facilities in the Foča area in April 1992.

On April 14, 1992, individuals identified as DEDA and PERO, along with about twenty other members of the Serbian forces operating within the Foča Brigade of the Army of Republika Srpska, led by Gojko Janković, carried out an armed attack on the village of Zubovići. Armed soldiers, firing automatic weapons, reached the Mezbur family home, where more than 30 civilians, mostly women and children and a few men, were hiding. The Serbian forces separated the men from the women and children by force, loaded them onto a truck, and took them to the Livade camp (a former weapon depot of the Yugoslav People’s Army), and later to the KP Dom detention facility in Foča.

In the following days, a group of Serbian soldiers, led by a soldier known as DEDA, entered the Mezbur family home, where only women and children remained. They continued to visit the house until the end of April 1992, occasionally spending the night there, eating, and drinking. DEDA, PERO, and other members of the same unit would take the women from the house, usually to a nearby forest, supposedly for interrogation, after which they would return them in a state of shock, disheveled, and with torn clothing.

On an undetermined date in the second half of April 1992, DEDA and PERO ordered Halida Konjo-Uzunović to come with them. They forced her into a car, in front of her five-year-old son, and drove towards Foča, along a forested route. After a short drive, they stopped the car at a clearing, pulled her out, cursed and beat her, tore her clothes, and raped her in turns, before returning her to the house where she was staying.

The next day, in the same manner, PERO took another woman from the house, forced her into a car, drove the same route through the forest, and raped her. He then returned her to the house and threatened to kill her if she tried to leave.

Following the capture of Foča and the surrounding areas inhabited by Bosniaks in April 1992, Serbian forces committed mass atrocities against the non-Serb population. Dozens of women and girls were detained at various locations and raped. Some were held for months in private homes, where they were raped, beaten, and abused, and then sold as sex slaves. Some of them were eventually killed.

In 1993, the Humanitarian Law Center documented sexual violence against Bosniak women in Foča in refugee camps in Serbia, Turkey, and Macedonia. Statements collected by HLC researchers contributed to the initiation of the ICTY’s investigation into rapes in Foča.

The Humanitarian Law Center calls on the PPOWC to investigate the allegations in the submitted criminal complaint, prosecute those responsible, and contribute to establishing accountability and punishing the perpetrators of sexual crimes during the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. This would provide the victims with the right to justice and truth after more than 30 years.