Vilina Vlas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Vilina Vlas is a health spa that served as one of the main detention facilities where Bosniak prisoners were beaten, tortured and sexually assaulted during the Bosnian War, it is located about seven kilometers north-east of Višegrad, on the way to Gorazde.[1][2]
After the war, Vilina Vlas spa was re-opened as a tourist facility.
Contents |
[edit] The camp
In 1992 the concentration and rape camp at the Vilina Vlas hotel was one of the Višegrad area's main detention facilities. It was established by the Uzice Corps in the end of April 1992 and played a significant role in the ethnic cleansing of the area's Bosniak population. The hotel served as a camp "brothel". Bosniak women and girls, including many not yet 14 years old, were brought to the camp by police officers, members of the White Eagles and Arkan's and Seselj's men.[3] The Bosnian Serb warlord Milan Lukić interrogated, tortured and killed prisoners and raped Bosniak women and girls at Vilina Vlas.
Vilina Vlas was known as a place where only young, beautiful women were detained and in testimony given to the Bassiouni Commission it is claimed that women brought to this camp had been chosen to bear "Chetnik" children and were "selected" carefully. Many of the women were killed while others were exiled, became insane or committed suicide. The prisoners were raped repeatedly and beaten with batons.[3][4]
One report estimates that 200 women, primarily Bosniak, were detained at the hotel and sexually assaulted. It states that five victims committed suicide and many others were killed. One report claims that younger girls were taken to the hotel while older women were taken to other locations, such as occupied or abandoned houses, and raped. The number and consistency of the reports provides reasonable confirmation that a large number of rapes did in fact occur in this hotel. Many rapes in the Visegrad area were allegedly perpetrated in an apparently systematic fashion. Reports state that victims were rounded up and transported to places like the Hotel Vilina Vlas and the Hotel Visegrad, apparently for the purpose of being detained and raped.[5]
During the Sjeverin massacre, 16 Bosniaks were abducted while travelling on a bus from Serbia to Bosnia and were taken to Vilina Vlas, where they were tortured and murdered.[6]
The camp was eventually closed once its existence became known outside Bosnia and the surviving detainees removed to an unknown destination.
Dusko Andric, the alleged wartime director of the Vilina Vlas Hotel, is a pensioner still living in Visegrad. He has never been charged with any offences.
[edit] See also
- Bosnian Genocide
- Dretelj camp
- Gabela camp
- Heliodrom camp
- Keraterm camp
- Manjača camp
- Omarska camp
- Trnopolje camp
- Uzamnica camp
- Vojno camp
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.icty.org/x/cases/milan_lukic_sredoje_lukic/ind/en/vas-ii000125e.htm
- ^ http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/comexpert/ANX/VIII-08.htm#III.A.85
- ^ a b http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/comexpert/ANX/VIII-08.htm#III.A.85
- ^ http://condor.depaul.edu/~rrotenbe/aeer/aeer13_1/Olujic.html
- ^ http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/comexpert/ANX/IX.htm
- ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3150902.stm
[edit] External links
- Final Report of the Commission of Experts Established Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 780 (1992) (United Nations Security Council S/1994/674 - 27 May 1994) - Annex VIII - part 1/10 Prison camps - 85. Visegrad (includes section on Vilina Vlas)
- UNHCR Convention on Civil and Political Rights - Human Rights Committee Document CCPR/C/89, dated 27 April 1993, Bosnia and Herzegovina Report (extensive documentation of war crimes committed in Višegrad and surrounding areas)
- "THE RAPES IN BOSNIA: A BOSNIAC SCHOOLGIRL'S ACCOUNT" by Peter Maass, in The Washington Post, December 27,1992
- "Visegrad Rape Victims Say Their Cries Go Unheard" by Nidzara Ahmetasevic, Nerma Jelacic and Selma Boracic - Institute for War and Peace Reporting Balkan Insight, 18 October 2006 (BIRN report on the ICTY's failure to bring charges in relation to the use of the Vilina Vlas spa hotel as a rape camp)
- International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia Latest Developments (link to Press Kit for Milan Lukic and Sredoje Lukic proceedings)
- "Lukic Murdered 410 Bosniaks and One Serb!" by Edina KAMENICA, in Oslobodjenje (Sarajevo), March 22, 2001 (report of "Merjem"'s experience at Vilina Vlas ; in collection of 2001 articles from Oslobodjenje).
- "Abduction" B92 programme by Veran Matic (transcript of television report on the abduction of a group of Bosniak men from Sjeverin who were detained at Vilina Vlas before being executed on the orders of Milan Lukic).
- "Vilina Vlas, The Fairy's Hair" A Greek TV documentary about the Vilina Vlas rapings. By Sotiris Danezis.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
