T
h e C e n t e r f o r J u s t i c e & A c c o u n t a b i l i t
y
April 29, 2002
THE PLAINTIFFS’ BACKGROUNDS
MEHINOVIC V. VUCKOVIC
BOSNIAN SERB SOLDIER FOUND
TO HAVE COMMITTED WAR CRIMES
Kemal Mehinovic
(currently
living in Salt Lake City, Utah)
Kemal Mehinovic was born in
Bosanski Samac, Bosnia, and is 45 years old.
On May 27, 1992, Mehinovic, a baker and restaurant owner, was taking a mid-day nap at home when Serb police and soldiers knocked on his door. They arrested him (without a warrant), beat him in front of his wife and children and then took him to the police station to be interrogated. He was kept at the police station or at a nearby warehouse for the next six months. During that time he was kept in squalid living conditions with little food and no medical care. He endured mock executions, brutal beatings (including blows to the genitals and beatings with metal pipes, wooden batons and other implements), much at the hands of defendant Nikola Vukovic. Mehinovic had known Vukovic prior to the outbreak of hostilities. He had employed Vukovic’s brother-in-law at his bakery before the war.
Over the next two years,
Mehinovic was transported to a series of labor camps, detention centers and
concentration camps. In early 1993,
Mehinovic was put through a Serb show-trial without witnesses or evidence, and
was sentenced to death for the alleged killing of Serb
children.
Mehinovic was released in
Sarajevo as part of an exchange with Serb prisoners in October 1994 –
two-and-a-half years from the time he was initially arrested by the Serb
police. Upon release, he walked
over one hundred miles into Croatia to find and be reunited with his
family. He and his family arrived
in Utah as refugees on July 12, 1995.
Since coming to the United
States, Mehinovic has done building maintenance and worked as a delivery
driver. However, Mehinovic has
found it difficult to maintain employment due to physical and emotional
disabilities resulting from the abuses he suffered.
Hasan Subasic
(currently
living in the United States)
31 year old Hasan Subasic
was born in Odzak, Bosnia. He moved
to Bosanski Samac with his mother at the age of three and was raised there. Subasic worked as a welder in
Bosnia.
On April 24, 1992 he was detained
by the Serb police and was sent to concentration camps at Brcko and
Bijeljina. On May 13, 1992, he was
returned to Bosanski Samac and held at the Osnovna Skola (OS), a primary school
that was converted into a detention center. At the primary school, Subasic was
frequently beaten, and had four of his teeth forcibly pulled out by his
torturers. Vukovic beat Subasic on
at least two occasions. His
detention at the school overlapped with two other plaintiffs in the case,
Muhamed Bicic and Safet Hadzialijagic.
Subasic was held at the school for approximately five months before being
transferred to the Batkovic concentration camp. He was detained there for approximately
one-and-a-half years (November 1992 – June 1994). During his detention. By the time he was reunited with his
family, he had been detained for twenty-seven months.
Subasic and his family
entered the United States as refugees in September 1995. He currently lives in Salt Lake City
with his family and works full time as a welder.
Safet Hadzialijagic
(currently
living in Belgium)
Safet Hadzialijagic was born
in Bosanski Samac and is now 54 years old.
Before the war, he was the manager of the municipal water system in the
Bosanski Samac municipality.
On April 20, 1992,
Hadzialijagic was arrested and forcibly escorted out of his apartment by Serb
police. Over the next year,
Hadzialijagic was transferred among at least six different detention centers and
labor camps. While being detained
at the Osnovna Skola primary school, Hadzialijagic was subjected to particularly
harsh treatment and torture by defendant.
He was subjected to bouts of “Russian Roulette” and often feared he would
be killed. On one occasion the
defendant “branded” Hadzialijagic with a knife, slicing his forehead and then
forcibly dunking his head into a container used as a toilet by other
detainees.
Hadzialijagic was released
from detention in or about May 1993.
He arrived in Belgium as a refugee with his family in November 1993. He continues to suffer physical and
emotional injuries as a result of the torture and abuse he suffered while in
detention.
Hadzialijagic currently
lives near Brussels and is not employed.
Muhamed
Bicic
(currently living in Germany)
Muhamed Bicic was born and
raised in Bosanski Samac. He is 46
years old.
Bicic came from a prominent
family in Bosanski Samac. He and
his brother owned a restaurant, two
cafes, and a game
parlor. Bicic and defendant Vukovic
were well acquainted before the war, the defendant’s wife having worked in Mr.
Bicic’s restaurant.
On or about April 18, 1992
Bicic was arrested at his home by masked men with machine guns who took him and
his brother to the police station and then later to a warehouse converted into a
detention center. After being
transferred to several different centers and camps, Bicic was held at the
Osnovna Skola primary school in Bosanski Samac where he was personally sought
out by Vukovic and repeatedly beaten and abused by him. He and others were beaten by Vukovic
with implements including metal pipes, a rifle butt, a wooden bat, a two-by-four
board, a chair leg, boots and fists.
Bicic was released in a prisoner exchange in November 1992.
Due to the repeated injuries
to his head, back and hands during the harsh beatings, Bicic suffers headaches,
back pains and continuing injuries.
Bicic and his family have been granted temporary refugee status and are
currently living in Germany. Bicic
is not employed.
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