Bukovica, Seven Years Later

Montenegrin Srebrenica

Thirty odd villages in Bukovica where at the time of the past war eight hundred Muslims used to live, are still ethnically cleansed

AIM Podgorica, November 11, 2000

In Bukovica near Pljevlje there has not been a single Muslim in the past eight years. In the beginning of 1993, while the war was raging in Bosnia & Herzegovina, the last inhabitant of Muslim ethnic origin fled from here.

Bukovica experienced a classical case of ethnic cleansing at the time. About 800 Muslims were banished, kidnapped or murdered from that mountainous region with 32 villages which borders Bosnian municipalities of Foca, Cajnice and Gorazde. Not a single survival has returned to the homeland to this day.

"We have tried, but the authorities had no understanding for us", declared a few days ago to a journalist of Belgrade Blic daily Jakup Durgut who nowadays lives in Pljevlje.

A couple of years ago, with the help of a Danish humanitarian organisation, some ten odd houses in Bukovica were reconstructed. This was the initial step in carrying out the plan on mass return of the Muslims. It turned out, however, that the organiser was much too optimistic. Nobody has managed to move into the reconstructed homes. Under the cover of darkness in this deserted place, every one of them was looted and demolished.

After that clear warning the inhabitants of Bukovica who had fled from it for a long time did not even consider the possibility of return.

Eviction of the Muslims from Bukovica began on July 1, 1992. On that day men in uniform raided the village of Bunguri and with no reason beat up six inhabitants of Muslim ethnic origin. In the beginning of September, reserve forces of the Army of Yugoslavia started to arrive, and some time later members of the Army of Republika Srpska. They often searched houses, physically maltreated certain inhabitants, confiscated their firearms although they had permits to carry them, robbed the people of their money in foreign currency and jewellery

“Searches, beatings, maltreatment, murders were everyday events. We know many perpetrators of these crimes. They are mostly extremist inhabitants, members of the Army of Yugoslavia and police of Montenegro who are still active and who we still can meet every day in Pljevlje”, says Durgut.

Terrified villagers fled. Mostly to other parts of Montenegro. Later on, from Montenegro, as well. Soon, only a few elderly people remained in their homes. The abandoned homes were soon after that looted. Even windows and doors were taken away.

The villages Madzari, Vuksici, Zejrenci, Ograda, Strazice, Planjsko, Mosevici and Ravni Bunguri were completely deserted in the first exodus.

For a long time the broader public was not informed about the drama that took place in Bukovica. In its issue of February 4, 1993, Belgrade Borba daily reported: “There are practically no Muslims in Bukovica any more. The reason for that are reprisals and threats of the regular forces of the Territorial Defence and reserve froces of the Militia of Montenegro”.

According to the data of the Democratic Forum of Human Rights and Interethnic Relations of Montenegro eleven Muslims were kidnapped from Bukovica in those days. The kidnapping was committed by a group of eight members of the army of Bosnian Serbs and the policemen who had come from the direction of Cajnice. They raided the Seliste hamlet and took away Ramiz (56), Mamak (16) and Zlatija Bungur (25) with two children. The next day, six members of Bungur Family from the village called Ravni were taken away in the same manner. They were all more than sixty years old. They were brought back from Cajnice later on, as stated, thanks to the exceptional efforts of three presidents of the time – Momir Bulatovic, Dobrica Cosic and Radovan Karadzic. It was stated at the time that Republika Srpska had raised criminal charges against the remaining six inhabitants of Bukovica. The reason has never been stated.

The public learnt about this kidnapping only after the kidnapping of the group of Muslims from the train in Strpci railway station which has not been clarified to this day. At the session of Montenegrin parliament on March 6, 1993, the then minister of police said: “There are indications that a group of people from Bukovica have disappeared”. Montenegrin authorities were silent about the several hundred of those who had previously fled. That is how it happened that Montenegrin independent Monitor weekly, which regularly wrote about the attacks of paramilitary groups against the Muslims in Pljevlje, reported about the mentioned kidnapping with a three-month delay. And not a single other media in the then Montenegro ever did.

Sefko Bungur is also a refugee from Bukovica. He is living in Bijelo Polje now.

“In the year 1992 my next-door neighbours started frantically beating up Muslim neighbours. They looted and snatched away their property. Those persons still live up there and we cannot return because of them. That was a case of classical ethnic cleansing, and the state did nothing to protect us the Muslims and punish the perpetrators. Nobody forbids us to return, but nobody guarantees we will be safe either. Of all the inhabitants of three villages in which the Bungurs used to live I am the only one who has stayed in Montenegro. However, I can't visit the house I was born in either, and the house was looted and set on fire. I have been litigating against the state of Montenegro for six years already and I don't hope to win it. But if Montenegro believes it should not join Europe, I don't need to go back to my native Bukovica”, says Bungur.

Many refugees from Bukovica addressed requests to various instances to help them return to their native land. But to no avail.

The protests and appeals of the Democratic Forum of Human Rights and Interethnic Relations, Montenegrin Helsinki Committee, Humanitarian Law Fund from Belgrade and a series of other non-governmental organisations were all in vain. Bukovica is still ethnically cleansed.

Although there is no doubt that this a war crime – mass and systematic eviction of civilian population under pressure and by force – nobody has answered for the misdeed yet.

According to the data of the Helsinki Committee from Novi Pazar at least eight persons were killed in Bukovica. However, since 1992 when the crimes were committed, not a single litigation has been completed.

This is not the end of the problems of the banished inhabitants of Bukovica. They do not even have the status of refugees because theirs is a case of banishment inside the Republic of Montenegro. That is the reason why they could not even receive aid distributed by humanitarian organisations.

From the double punishment, the one that grieves them more, is the first, of course – that not even after so many years they dare return to their homes.

Veseljko KOPRIVICA

(AIM)