Borovac – destroyed Bosniak village

Image: Bosnian Muslim village Borovac in Visegrad, torched and destroyed by Bosnian Serb Army 1992. Pictures by Elvis Komic©

Pictures copyright: ©Elvis Komic

Post-war Visegrad population

Image: Burnt down Bosniak houses in Borovac near Visegrad. All of Visegrad’s Bosniak population was expelled and murdered during the genocide. Photograph credits: ©Elvis Komic

According to the census taken before the genocide in 1991 the municipality had a population of 21,199: 62.8% of Bosniak ethnicity, 32.8% Serb and 4.4% classified as others. Today the population is almost cut in half, all Bosniaks were expelled or murdered from the municipality. A few elderly returnees are seen in surrounding villages.

One part of Visegrad’s pre-war Serbs left for Serbia or other countries in Europe. Some left because they actively took part in the ethnic cleansing of Bosniaks, others left because they witnessed horrible crimes and thus do not want to live in that town. For example, Branimir Savovic, the SDS Crisis Committee President now lives in Serbia along with a few other high-ranking Visegrad Serb officials. Mile Lukic, Milan’s father who also took part in the persecution of Bosniaks, along with his wife lives in Obrenovac. A few dozen other direct perpetrators live with their families in Serbia. At least two perpetrators live in France, one mentioned a couple of times in the Zeljko Lelek case.

But this does not mean that war criminals do not live in Visegrad anymore. Miladin Milicevic, member of the Visegrad municipality war presidency and former Mayor of Visegrad, lives and works in Visegrad. The man who ran the Vilina Vlas rape motel lives as a pensioner in Visegrad. A few other direct perpetrators work in the State Border Police, Police station Visegrad, State Police “SIPA” etc.

Some Serbs who did not agree with the Municipality policy left Visegrad  when they had the opportunity to. For example, a Serb women, who was a witness in the Vasiljevic case VG 115, left Visegrad in 1994. She was a crucial witness of the murders of Medo Mulahasic and an elderly many Kahriman.

The  largest number of Serbs left Visegrad because of the economic situation in Visegrad and Eastern Bosnia. Every year the number of children in classes is smaller and smaller. Anyone who had the opportunity to leave – left. When a pre-war citizen of Visegrad today walks through Visegrad, he or she can recognize only a few people.

Many Serbs were tricked into leaving their pre-war homes in the Federation and moving to parts of Republika Srpska. A large number of Serbs from Sarajevo and Konjic were re-settled in Visegrad. They were promised new homes and jobs by the SDS-government in 1996 after the Dayton Peace Treaty.

Serbs from several villages in the Konjic area were naive enough to re-settle in Visegrad and other towns in Eastern Bosnia. According to Glas Srpske, a fascist newspaper published in Republika Srpska, around 1.500 Serbs from Konjic villages Bijela, Borci, Ostrožac, Čičevo, Glavatičevo, Bradina, Blace, Donje Selo, Kula etc. re-settled in Visegrad in 1996.

It is important to note, that these Serbs from Konjic were not forced to leave their homes but instead did so on a voluntary basis believing the SDS leadership’s promise of a better life and a creation of an all-Serb state.

Edited: 6.01.2010

Genocide against Bosniaks in Visegrad 1941-1945

Image:Yugoslav Royalist Forces commonly known as Chetniks, slaughtering a civilian in this undated picture.

Bosnian Muslim villages in Visegrad destroyed and  cleansed 1941-45: Part I

Gornje and Donje Štitarevo: Around 283 Bosnian Muslims were massacred by local Serbs, members of Yugoslav Royalist Forces(Chetniks) in World War Two. The following families were completely cleansed from the village: Arnauti, Pite, Ferhatovići, Musić,Gaka etc. For crimes committed in this village,thanks to a survivor Nurko Cocalić, three local Serbs were  prosecuted by a Court in Sarajevo: Dušan Vasiljević, Milomir Gogić and  Zdravko Popović.

Rujište: Local Serbs massacred around 65 Bosnian Muslim neighbours including 22 women and children. The main perpetrators were Petar and Milorad Lukić. Entire Muslim families were cleansed from Rujište: Čavkušić, Liske and  Smajlović.

Menzilovići: Local Serbs massacred around 21 Bosnian Muslim neighbours in March 1942. Several Muslim women were raped including a pregnant women Hata Menzilović. The main perpetrators were: Milan Glišić, Rade and Milan Lindo, Blagoje Sapoljnić, Đoko and Ilija Marković, Miroslav Kargan and Zorka Papić.

Stari Brod: Local Serbs and members of Milan Nedić’s Army at the beggining of 1943, gathered surviving Bosnian Muslims civilians, most of whom were women and children, from surrounding villages: Gornje Štitarevo,Vlahovići,Pozderčići, Kapetanovići, Sendići, Prelovo, Omeragići, Presjek, Gostilja etc. These civilians were brought to Stari Brod village where they were barricaded in a house and two stables and burnt alive. A Bosnian Serb Jovan Gogić from the village Blace, admitted that he witnessed this crime.

Omeragići: Around 42 Bosnian Muslims were massacered by their Serb negibours and members of Yugoslav Royalist Forces(Chetniks) in World War Two. One group of Bosnian Muslim men were excecuted in a forest called ”Duboko” and ”Hrtar”. Another group was excecuted in Zvekara cave. Some women and children were burnt alive in live pyres in Stari Brod.

Image: Ćamka Murtić(village Gostilja) and Safa Halilović(village Sase), raped and slaugthered by Bosnian Serbs from Visegrad, 1941. Picture taken by Sejdo Grabovic.

Kurtalići: Around 21 Bosnian Muslims were massacred by Serb neighbours and members of Yugoslav Royalist Forces(Chetniks) in World War Two.The main perpetrator of his crime was Đoko Marković. Both witnesses of this masscare, Nurif and Mehmed kurtalić, were murdered in Kurtalići in 1992 by Bosnian Serbs.

Mušići: Around 60 Bosnian Muslims were massacred by Serb neighbours and members of Yugoslav Royalist Forces(Chetniks) in World War Two.The perpetrators of this crime included: Lazar Đurić, Stjepan Dikić, Ilija Marković, Luka Đurić and a women Zorka Papić. Ćamila Bosno, a Bosnian Muslim, witnessed when Zorka Papić beat to death her Muslim neigbhour Halima, who is Ćamila’s aunt.

Pozderčići: Around 39 Bosnian Muslims were massacred by Serb neighbours and members of Yugoslav Royalist Forces(Chetniks) in World War Two. Their property was looted by neigbouring Serbs. The main perpetrator of this crime was Ratko Mitrašinović who led a group of Chetniks from neighbouring Serb villahe Kragujevac. The remaining Bosnian Muslim civilians – women and children, sho survived this crime were later taken to Stari Brod where all were burnt alive in  live pyres.

Kupusovići: Around 61  Bosnian Muslims were massacred by Serb neighbours and members of Yugoslav Royalist Forces(Chetniks) in World War Two. The main perpetraors were : the Mitrašinović brothers and Miloš Miličević. Aleksa Vojinović from Serb village Blace, kidnapped Hasna Kupus whom he raped and then murdered. The mosque in Kupusovići was completely destroyed and its stone was used in the construction of a church in Blace.

Koritnik: Around 47 Bosnian Muslims were massacred by Serb neighbours and members of Yugoslav Royalist Forces(Chetniks) in World War Two.  Yugosla historian Vladimir Dedijer in his book ”Crimes against Muslims 1941-1945”, documented the testimony of one survivor Mehmed Kurspahic who witness the horrific torture of Mehmed Spahic.

Image: The Mehmed-pasa Sokolovic Bridge, blown up by German Nazi troops.

Žlijeb: Around 109 Bosnian Muslims were massacred by Serb neighbours and members of Yugoslav Royalist Forces(Chetniks) in World War Two. During the first attack in November 1941, most of the village’s populaion fled to Višegrad, but later returned due to garantees from Serbs and most importantly from the Italian Fascist army command in Višegrad. Almost all men who returned to Žlijeb were massacred. The village was left wih 33 widows,100 orphans and almost 15 families were left without a single member. The perpetrators of this crimes were: the Mitranović brothers from Kragujevac village, Ilija Mitrašinović, Miloš Miličević, Petronije Knežević, Sredoje Knežević-Ivankić, the Radovanović brothers from Odžak village,Radoje Novaković from Odžak village etc.

Klasnik: Around 171 Bosnian Muslims were massacred by Serb neighbours and members of Yugoslav Royalist Forces(Chetniks) in World War Two. During the first attack in November 1941, around 26 men were massacred,  most of the village’s populaion fled to Višegrad, but later returned due to garantees from Serbs and most importantly from the Italian Fascist army command in Višegrad. Bosnian Muslims were called to the Chetnik HQ to report and receive a security not for safe passage through their controlled area. Around 29 men went to report and never returned. Since most of the families were left without their menfolk, there was no one to protect them. The Chetniks used this situation for a raping spree. Dozens of  Muslim women in Žlijeb village were raped.

Kapetanovići: Around 55  Bosnian Muslims were massacred by Serb neighbours and members of Yugoslav Royalist Forces(Chetniks) in World War Two. In March 1942, Rade, Sredoje Novaković and Vitomir Krstić from Pozderčići and Milija Radovanović from Odžak gathered around 18 Bosnian Muslim men to take them to the Chetnik command in Odžak to receive a security not for safe passage through their controlled area. After a failed escape attempt, the remaining men were taken to Mount Rogopek and excecuted. Thanks to Nusret Kapetanović, a orphan from Kapetanovići, Rade and Sredoje Novaković and Vitomir Krstić were arrested and sentenced to 20 years prison.

Resnik: Around 102  Bosnian Muslims were massacred by Serb neighbours and members of Yugoslav Royalist Forces(Chetniks) in World War Two. According to witness accounts, several Muslim girls and women were raped.

Kamenica: Around 112  Bosnian Muslims were massacred by Serb neighbours and members of Yugoslav Royalist Forces(Chetniks) in World War Two. The main perpetrators of this crime were : the Gudović brothers, the Vujkić brothers and Lazo Stjepanović from Paočića village. In a live pyre in the house of Bećo Bosno, around 26 women and children were burnt alive. Two Bosnian Serb neighbours Petar Lukić and Božo Ivanović raped Muslim women Šehrija Pjevo and Šefku Dudević. Several Serbs were reported to Police authorities after the war but no action against them was taken.

Mala Gostilja:  Around 43  Bosnian Muslims were massacred by Serb neighbours and members of Yugoslav Royalist Forces(Chetniks) in World War Two. It should be noted that a Serb women Radina Andrić, wife of Ratko Andrć warned Muslims from this village that the Serbs were planning to massacre Muslim men and thus saved a large number of men.

Image: Brigadier Charles Armstrong with Yugoslav Royalist Army General Draze Mihailovic, responsible for genocide against Bosnian Muslims in Eastern Bosnia, near Visegrad 1943 . Mihailovic overlooked the attack on Visegrad and the slaughter of around 3,000 Bosnian Muslims in and around Visegrad. A number of British and American intelligence officers were present during the occupation of Visegrad and witnessed the massacre of Bosnian Muslim civilians.

Source: Krvava Ćuprija na Drini, Mustafa Sućeska, DES, 2001. Mr. Sućeska is a World War Two Visegrad Genocide survivor.

Institutionalisation of Genocide

♦What is Visegrad Genocide?

The Višegrad genocide was an act of ethnic cleansing and mass murder of Bosniak civilians that occurred in the town of Višegrad in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina, committed by Bosnian Serb Army and Police forces at the start of the Bosnian War during the spring of 1992. Over a period of four months, Bosniaks were murdered, tortured, raped and publicly humiliated on a daily basis in Visegrad’s streets, in the victim homes and in concentration camps.

Here are several confirmation notes given by Visegrad Municipality authorities to Bosniaks in 1992. This include: confiscating legally own weapons, travel permits and a signed oath of loyalty.

Image: A confirmation note issued to a Bosniak by Sluzba Javne Bezbjednosti – Public Security Station; a official security authority in Bosnian towns.  This note signed by war criminal Zeljko Lelek confirms that on 21.04.1992, Zeljko Lelek “temporary” confiscated a legally own weapon(a hunting rifle) from this Bosniak.

Image: A travel permit issued to a Bosniak by the Sluzba Javne Bezbjednosti(SJB) and signed by its Chief Risto Perisic. Permit was issued for business reasons on 22.05.1992. Bosniaks could not enter or leave without Visegrad authorities permission.

Image: A signed oath of loyalty to the “Serb Municipality of Visegrad” whereas the undersigned shall respect all decisions and orders from the “Serb Municipality of Visegrad”; the “War Presidency of the Serb Municipality of Visegrad” and all other organs. The oath of loyalty was given purpose of security of the undersigned and his/her family. This statement was signed by a Bosniak civilian and by Miladin Milicevic, a member of the Visegrad War Presidency. Several dozen Bosniak families were forced or tricked into signing this “oath of loyalty”. In this family specifically, only one person managed to survive.

Read more on Visegrad Genocide:

+ Visegrad SDS Crisis Committee

+ What is Visegrad Genocide?

+ Mehmed-pasa Sokolovic Bridge: A Monument to Genocide

+ Eliticide in Visegrad

+ Destruction of Mosques in Visegrad Municipality

Koritnik-The Kurspahic Tragedy

On June 14 1992, in Pioneer Street(Pionirska Ulica) in Visegrad around 60 Bosniak civilians, (women, children and elderly) were barricaded and burnt alive in Adem Omeragic’s house. Almost all were from Koritnik village and a majority of them belonged to the Kurspahic family. Koritnik was looted and set ablaze.

Image: Senad Kurspahic, standing in front of his house in Koritnik next to a board with names of his family who were burnt alive(including a 2 day-old baby) in Adem Omeragic’s house in Pioneer street in the center of Visegrad.

Image: Visegrad genocide survivors and family members gather in Koritnik to mark the crimes committed there.

Image: Family members place boards with names of victims-their loved ones who were murdered by the Bosnian Serb Army.

Image: Genocide survivors and family members leave a sign for the perpetrators: “War criminals, our neighbours first robbed us, expelled us and then burnt us alive. 8 of us survived.”

Read more:

1.Milan&Sredoje Lukic Judgement

2.Huso Kurspahic – Legacy of Truth

3.List of Bosniak Women and Children Burnt Alive in Visegrad

Straziste Mass Grave-Part 2

Image: Straziste mass grave, Visegrad, Bosnia&Herzegovina.

This new mass grave was located in Straziste cemetery. The site was covered with garbage. Among the remains of Bosniak victims were roof tiles, rubbish and especially lime. Information about this mass grave was given by local Serbs: a dying Serb who was witness to the disposal of these bodies.

Read more about it here and see the Part 1 set of pictures here.

Image: Straziste mass grave, Visegrad, Bosnia&Herzegovina.

Image: Straziste mass grave, Visegrad, Bosnia&Herzegovina.

Image: Straziste mass grave, Visegrad, Bosnia&Herzegovina.

Image: Straziste mass grave, Visegrad, Bosnia&Herzegovina.

Remembering Barimo Massacre 1992-2009

Image: The monument in Barimo dedicated to Bosniak genocide victims.

Barimo, a all- Bosniak village near Visegrad, was attacked by Bosnian Serb Army forces in August 1992.  26 Bosniak civilians were killed and the village was set ablaze. A few days ago, survivors of this crime came back to open a monument to their loved ones. The monument was opened by Emina Bajric, one of the rare survivors of the massacre.

Image: Article about the opening of this monument in Dnevni Avaz.

This was one of the worst massacres in the Visegrad Genocide, the ages of victims was from 1900 to 1980, a large number of these victims are women and children. The oldest victim was 92 years old and the youngest 12 years old:
1. Bajrić Omera Mustafa, 1930;

2. Bajrić Džemila, 1918;

3. Bajrić Hrustema Džemila, 1935;

4. Bajrić Mustafe Fadil, 1957;

5. Bajrić Mustafe Nijaz, 1965;

6.Bajrić Fadila Emir,  1980;

7. Bosankić Hadžira, 1913;

8. Bosankić Ibrahima Muša, 1940;

9. Samardžić Smail,  1912;

10. Samardžić Đeše Munira, 1927;

11. Beha Ibrana Ćamila,  1941;

12. Beha Bege Sabaheta, 1968;

13. Beha Bege Hidajeta,  1976;

14. Šabanović Razija,  1933;

15. Kos Sulejmana Vejsil, 1932;

16. Kos Sulejmana Slakan, 1951;

17. Tvrtković Ćamil Muharem, 1933;

18. Puhel Hrustema Kadesa, 1928,;

19. Kurtalić Adila,  1948;

20. Kahriman Dervo, rođen 1938,;

21. Menzilović Huso, rođen 1938;

22. Menzilović Huse Suad,  1968, ;

23. Zuban Mušan Ibrahim,  1953;

24. Zuban Mušan, 1912 ;

25. Zuban Sabira,  1961;

26. Halilović Hanka,  1900.

Image: The opening of the monument in Barimo.

Image: Bosniak Genocide survivors, praying in front of the ruins of the Barimo islamic school (mekteb) which was destroyed by Bosnian Serb Army during it’s attack on Barimo in August 1992. Read more on destruction of mosques in Visegrad Municipality here.

Picture credit: MIZ Visegrad.

Exhumation at mass grave in Visegrad

We earlier wrote about a new mass grave in Visegrad. The new mass grave was located in Straziste cemetery.The site was covered with garbage. Among the remains of Bosniak victims were roof tiles, rubbish and especially lime.Information about this mass grave was given by local Serbs: a dying Serb who was witness to the disposal of these bodies.

Image: Exhumation at a mass grave in Visegrad, where bodies of Bosniak civilians were dumped. This mass grave was found thanks to information given by a dying Serb.

Image: Exhumation at a mass grave in Visegrad, where bodies of Bosniak civilians were dumped. This mass grave was found thanks to information given by a dying Serb.

Image: Exhumation at a mass grave in Visegrad, where bodies of Bosniak civilians were dumped. This mass grave was found thanks to information given by a dying Serb.

Image: Exhumation at a mass grave in Visegrad, where bodies of Bosniak civilians were dumped. This mass grave was found thanks to information given by a dying Serb.

Image: Exhumation at a mass grave in Visegrad, where bodies of Bosniak civilians were dumped. This mass grave was found thanks to information given by a dying Serb.

Image: Exhumation at a mass grave in Visegrad, where bodies of Bosniak civilians were dumped. This mass grave was found thanks to information given by a dying Serb.

Image: Exhumation at a mass grave in Visegrad, where bodies of Bosniak civilians were dumped. This mass grave was found thanks to information given by a dying Serb.

Image: Exhumation at a mass grave in Visegrad, where bodies of Bosniak civilians were dumped. This mass grave was found thanks to information given by a dying Serb.

Who was murdered in Koric’s cafe?

We call upon all who know the identity of Bosniaks murdered in Zijad Koric’s cafe in Nova Mahala street in Visegrad. There were around 4-5 persons murdered in the cafe. Hajra Koric, Zijad’s wife, survived this massacre, but was later shot and killed by Milan Lukic on Bikavac.

Pozivamo sve Višegrađane koji znaju ime i prezime ubijenih Bošnjaka 1992 godine u kafani KORIĆ ZIJADA u Novoj mahali.Znamo da je ubijeno 4-5 Bošnjaka muškaraca među kojima Kadrić Nezira Muhamed. Žena rahmetli Korić Zijada Hajra je uspjela pobjeći ali…… je Milan Lukić i dr. pronašli na Bikavcu i ubili kako bi sakrio izvršeni zločin nad Bošnjacima.

+Read: Who killed Hajra Koric?

“Then they set the house on fire and everyone inside was screaming – I was the only one who got out”.

The Guardian
20 August 1992

“Then they set the house on fire and everyone inside was screaming – I was the only one who got out”.

Maggie O’Kane’s 36-hour trek out of besieged Gorazde brought her to Visegrad with its burned houses along the Drina river valley, a small haven for eastern Bosnia’s Muslims driven from home by conquering Serbs. In the valley, the survivors told their story.

Her ears are melted away. All that is left are two waxy, twisted beige blobs like burned out candles. Her forehead is covered in a huge scab that is still healing and her nose is a maze of burst blood vessels.

She holds out her bandaged burnt arms delicately in front, like a Hindu woman at prayer. She says she is the only one who survived. Her name is Zehra Turjacanin. She is aged 31, a textile worker from Visegrad with a Muslim name. This is her story.

“It happened on June 27. Milan Lukic, a policeman in Visegrad, knocked on our door. He had six Serbs with him from Obrenovac. He said we were to go with him.

“There were eight people in my house: my mother, Djulka, my sisters, Dzehva and Aida and their children, Elma who was four, Ensar who was two, Sada who was five, and Selmir who was seven.

“After about 100 metres we went into another house on Bratislav Street. We were told to go in by the balcony. When we got to the balcony door, I saw that there was a wardrobe against the front door and all the windows had been blocked with furniture.

“There were Serbs all around the house and they were drinking. We tried to stay on the balcony but they started to throw stones at us to make us go inside, then they threw hand grenades. We went inside and it was full of people. They were crying.

“We were the last ones in and then the Serbs took a garage door from another house and put it up against the balcony, so we couldn’t get out. It was just after eight, when the curfew starts in Visegrad, and we were all in a sort of kitchen-dining room. I saw about 10 babies and some old people, but it was mostly families.

“I think there were about 70 people in that room. They weren’t screaming or banging on the doors, just crying because they knew what was going to happen.

“I said to my mother, ‘Don’t worry, they won’t kill us’. Then they set the house on fire and everyone inside was screaming, but nobody could get out. I saw the window in the garage door and I pulled myself through it.

“I was the only one who got out. I was wearing trousers, a jumper and a cardigan, and I pulled off my burning clothes. Outside the Chetniks were standing around watching the house burning. They were drunk and playing music very, very loud, so no one could hear the sound of the burning people screaming inside.

“One of the Chetniks saw me and shouted at me to stop, but they were far away from the house because of the big blaze. Then he just shrugged his shoulders and I ran and hid. I was the only one that survived.

“At one in the morning, I knocked on Ismeta Kurspahic’s door with my foot, and then I went to the Chetnik’s headquarters and I said to the commander: ‘Kill me, just kill me.’ But he said he wouldn’t and he brought Dr Vasiljevic to me and then took me to an old woman’s house.

“I stayed there for a day and then the old woman said Milan Lukic was looking for me, because I was the only one that survived and I knew. So I hid in the cemetery. Then I walked for 18 days and the territorial defence found me and they brought me here.”

Here is the mountain village of Medjedja, in a place the Muslims call the Valley of Freedom. It is a stretch of beautiful Bosnian countryside along the rivers Praca and Drina that wind their way below pine forests and through villages. A 50-mile stretch of the valley that is a last sanctuary for people like Zehra Turjacanin.

Thousands of Muslims have fled here, driven out from towns like Visegrad, Foca and Rogatica, to find peace in this valley. But once inside they are trapped – surrounded by the Serbs. “A bird cannot pass from here,” said one refugee.

But last Friday afternoon, in the driving thunderstorm, the Serbian checkpoint that guards the western entry to the valley was unmanned.

There is no petrol in the valley, so the mountain road along the Praca river is deserted. The Serbs had been through here in April and May. Burnt-out Muslim homes bear testimony to their coming. The people fled into the mountains while their homes were being looted and then moved back to their burnt-out villages, and the Serbs moved on to richer pastures.

A Bosnian soldier came up from the river bank to say we were in Free Bosnia. “Come to the commander,” he said. But the commander came along the river path to us. He and his men melting out of the trees, dressed in teeshirts, jeans and running shoes and carrying rifles. They were young, most in their early twenties and wearing green headbands. They wanted cigarettes; none had come through to their isolated valley for four months.

This Robin Hood band were going “up” – up in to the hills behind Gorazde to attack Serbian artillery positions. The scout who led the way carried a sack on his back, and the noses of a dozen rockets peeped from behind his right shoulder.

The commander, who had a walkie-talkie, was a electrical engineer before he went to war. He wore a green chiffon headscarf with silver spangles around his head. He paused to write our note of passage into his valley.

In the village of Ustipraca, Nehad Devlic said the Serbs had come in April. Then he was a rich man, owned three restaurants and two cars and a lorry. He fled into the forest and when he came out the Serbs had taken his Alfa-Romeo, his Volkswagen Golf and his lorry and burned down his three roadside cafes.

He now lives from the land, on eggs, wild plums and sacks of wheat that come down from the fields high in the mountain. We go to visit the ruin of his roadside restaurant, built in the days when tourists passed on the road to Sarajevo and Dubrovnik. But now the roads have been blocked.

They defend the valley by causing landslides from the hill on to the road to prevent the Serbs from coming back up along the river. The balconies of the modern apartment blocks in Ustipraca are filled with chopped wood. There are no cars, no electricity, and the telephones have been cut off.

There is a tranquillity in Ustipraca, peace among the charred houses in the shade of the mosque, which has a single shell hole left by passing Serbs making their point as they went through. Old men sit in the sun, surrounded by scrawny dogs looking for food and love, with hunting rifles ready for the Serbs if they come back.

In the village of Kopaci it is not so quiet. In Mehmed Mehovic’s back garden, under trees heavy with apples and plums, broken branches cover an 8ft long cluster bomb, designed to open in the air as it falls and send baby bombs scattering over his village. The cluster bomb did not explode and has been embedded in his back garden since June.

The sound of mortars boom outside. The Serbs are still mortaring the village from the distant hills. “It’s okay, they are only 105mm; they could be 155mm, they’ve used them before – takes the house away,” says the commander.

There is no cover, no cellar. The sound of the mortars landing is like the continuous sound of a door being slammed. An unemployed English-language enthusiast, aged 28, says: “Are you British, will you help us? Do you know that song from Black Sabbath – In the Ashes the Bodies Are Burning?”

Every day someone is injured or killed in Kopaci, but they have to hang on. There is nowhere to run to.

“Wait and listen for the whistle of the mortar, then you know it’s close” says Mehmed.

On Saturday afternoon Senad Niakonja, aged 10, was wheeled in his father’s barrow to see the doctor on the hill, to take out the mortar shrapnel in his back.

Among the refugees in Kopaci is Aldijana Hasecic, who tells us of Zehra Turjacanin’s ordeal. He will take us to see her, but first he wants to say that he has come from the woods near Visegrad and has seen the camp where Serbian men are taking Muslim women.

“It’s called Zamnica and it used to be an army barracks. It’s about 10 kilometres from Visegrad to the east. I went there early in the morning of August 9. It was 5am. The people that had escaped from the Chetniks told us there was a camp for Muslim women there. We went to see if we could save them, but it was too difficult. There were too many Chetniks. I didn’t see any of them being raped, but we know it’s happening. I saw them from the trees taking the young women out from the trucks and into the barracks.”

On the hill above the village of Medjedja the next day, a weeping woman in an orange polka-dot scarf says: “They took my daughter. They took all the girls from the village. We don’t know where they are. I haven’t seen her for four months”. Standing with her in the ruins of her house, where the only identifiable object is a scorched fridge freezer, are Hamed Sulejman and his wife, Kahriman. They have come to live in the woman’s woodshed. Kahriman says they were burnt out of their village and now her home is the woodshed where she lays out her jars of pickled fruit on a shelf above the mattress.

All along the mountain top are small burnt-out villages, clumps of houses where the people who have come out from the forests to live again among the ruins tell the same story, of how the Serbs came, looted their homes, burned them down and moved on.

In the lower hill, near Visegrad, a family of Muslims who fled from the town three months ago keep their bags packed in the sitting room. “We are ready to run if they come for us again,” says their son, Milos, who says he knows of the man called Milan Lukic. He says he watched him execute his friend, Hasan Veletovac, aged 16, on the bridge over the river Drina. “I was hiding in the attic of my house which looks over the bridge. They do the killing at night. They drink first in the Visegrad hotel. When the Chetniks go in ac tion they must drink. They bulldozed the two mosques in the main street in Visegrad so we wouldn’t come back.”

We came out through the trees and walked the last couple of miles into Visegrad, in the open along the road. At first no one seemed to notice two strangers in a town that had a population of 20,000 before all Muslims were driven out and into the valley – 10,000 people.

“All the Muslims have gone,” a journalist at the Visegrad radio station would say later, when he came to translate for us in the police headquarters. “Muslim extremists were responsible, they are on the hills around us. They attacked our church and now there is no mosque in this town.”

But first there is a little time to pass quietly to the main street, where on the corner with Bratislav Street rust coloured earth marks the spot where the first bulldozed mosque stood. Further down the street another mound marks the site of the second mosque.

Behind the supermarket on Bratislav Street, looking out on the cemetery, are the tired remains of a burnt-out house. A house that may have been the one where Zehra Turjacanin’s family and 60 others were burnt to death. We asked casually about a man called Milan Lukic.

“Yes,” said the Visegrad radio journalist. “He’s a policeman here. Not the chief, just an ordinary policeman.”

Papers checked. The English journalists are allowed to pass out of town in a police car with a kind Serb driver who offers cigarettes. A truck piled with furniture is parked outside the burnt-out shell of a two-storey house.

“Muslimanis,” he says, and drives us on through another 20 miles of charred Muslim homes and villages, through an apocalyptic rural wasteland that is the new Serbian republic of Bosnia.