Visegrad concentration camps: Institution for the Protection of female children and adolescents

Image: The Institution in Okoliste.

The Institution for the Protection of female children and adolescents (Zavod za zastitu zenske djece i omladine) is located in Okoliste on a hill above Visegrad. It was a former army base which was converted into an Institution which took care of several hundred mentally challenged children from the whole of Yugoslavia.

In 1992, the Republika Srpska Army to whom the Yugoslav Peoples’ Army, handed over control of Visegrad ,converted the Institution into a concentration camp for Bosniak civilians, according to witness accounts, several Bosniak women were raped by Bosnian Serb soldiers in this Institution.

The employees working at the institution were threatened and force to leave or were arrested and murdered by Visegrad Serbs, members of the Republika Srpska Army.

Image: The employees at the Institution; (from left to right standing): Omerovic Rasim, Isic Jasmina, Sabanija Fikret, Susko Behija, Kolasinac Dedo, Tankovic Sevala, Dzafic Jasna, Rasidkadic Dzelal-Lalo, Maluhic Rasim-Baca; (from left to right sitting): Osmanagic Sukrija, Sabanija Avdo, Draskovic Mira, Isic Sabiha, Brankovic Devleta.

Brankovic Devleta was last seen held in Hasan Veletovac School with her parents.  Maluhic Rasim-Baca was murdered in Jelaci.  Omerovic Rasim murdered in Visegrad, his wife was shot and killed while being deported from Visegrad by bus. She was holding her baby son in her arms.  Osmanagic Sukrija escaped to Srebrenica, where he was killed during the genocide in July 1995.  Fadila Avdic, was called home by a family member and never seen again.