Bukovica engleski.qxd - Fond za humanitarno pravo

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Bukovica engleski.qxd 15.3.2003 13:53 Page 6 6 Bukovica those in the rest of Montenegro, were mobilized into the Yugoslav Army (VJ) and, for the first time, a military command post was set up in Kovačevići. Members of Bosnian Serb armed units easily crossed the porous border and both they and the VJ treated the Bukovica Muslims as the enemy. Muslim homes were searched for alleged illegal weapons, families were robbed of their money and valuables, men were beaten and threatened with death unless they moved out. All this and a number of murders forced the Bukovica Muslims to flee. In just two consecutive days, 15 and 16 February 1993, Bosnian Serb army members took hostage 11 members of the Bungur family to obtain from them information on the involvement of Montenegrin Muslims in the Bosnian Muslim military offensive at Čajniče (Bosnia) on 14 February, and to exchange them for Bosnian Serbs taken prisoner. Six elderly male members of the family returned on 21 March and five others, two women and three children, were exchanged for two Bosnian Serb civilians from Goražde on 23 May 1993. By March 1993, there were 152 displaced Bukovica Muslims in Pljevlja town. The remaining families left the area during that year and the next. Hoping that the situation would soon calm down and make it possible for them to go back home, some of them moved in with relatives in Pljevlja. Those who had passports left Montenegro for third countries. The majority, however, afraid for their lives and without passports, decided to go by foot through the woods and forests and cross into Bosnian Muslim-held territory. Reporting the abduction of the Bukovica villagers a few days after the event, the Montenegrin weekly Monitor strongly suggested that it was part of Belgrade’s policy of creating an ethnically pure strip of land along the Montenegrin-Bosnian border. The Montenegrin
Bukovica engleski.qxd 15.3.2003 13:53 Page 7 Humanitarian Law Center Liberal Party accused the republic’s government of complicity in the expulsion of Muslims from the area by failing to prevent the terror against them. The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) was subsequently able to locate an eyewitness of the 16 February kidnapping and to speak with some 20 displaced Bukovica Muslims in Pljevlja. The HLC report based on their testimony was carried in entirety by the Belgrade daily Naša Borba and is reprinted in this publication. With the help of their relatives and friends in Pljevlja, the HLC during 2000 and 2001 reached most of the victims and witnesses of the terror in Bukovica. The majority now live in Goražde or Sarajevo in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and some died soon after fleeing Bukovica of injuries due to severe beating. This publication is dedicated to the victims of persecution on ethnic and religious grounds in Bukovica. The aim of the HLC is to bring out the truth about events in the recent past, initiate a broad-based debate on accountability, and restore the human dignity of the victims. It is clear from what happened in Bukovica that there was a plan to create an ethnically pure territory, and that the Yugoslav Army and Serbian Radical Party (SRS) were directly involved in carrying it out. For its part, the Montenegrin government did nothing to prevent or stop the persecution and expulsion of the Bukovica Muslims. 1. Political Situation in Montenegro Prior to and at the beginning of the war in Bosnia- Herzegovina, towns in northern Montenegro were rocked by explosions: Muslim-owned stores and houses were being blown up. The state media in Montenegro stayed silent on this but featured many an article alleg- 7
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Bukovica engleski.qxd - Fond za humanitarno pravo

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