STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL REPORT

Victims of War

AIM Banja Luka, 26 May, 1997

Despite the fact that the data on the number of killed soldiers of the army of Republica Srpska in the past war were strictly kept as a state and military secret, a statement issued by the Ministry of Defence of RS signed by Minister Milan Ninkovic leaked out in the beginning of this year. The information, it was explained, had been prepared for the needs of the highest state authorities in Pale in order to "enable necessary planning" and it was founded on data collected from seventy seven municipal departments of the Ministry of Defence.

The data from the statement appeared in Belgrade daily Telegraf unsigned, but with reference to the number and date of the confidential government document. There was no official reaction to the text so it could be concluded that the document had been authentic and the data correct.

The attempt of the AIM journalist to verify the revealed detailed data on the number of killed and wounded soldiers in individual municipalities and regions was only partially gratified. Nevertheless, the data obtained in some of the municipalities "from reliable and well-informed sources" confirmed accuracy of the published data and therefrom authenticity of the information of the Ministry of Defence No. 1-01-1645/96, which the data had been cited from.

From about 300 thousand mobilized conscripts, according to the cited source, 18,392 were killed in the war, and 36,543 were wounded. The biggest number of the victims are from Banja Luka - 920 of them. Banja Luka is followed by municipalities of Ilidza with 861, Zvornik with 684, Doboj with 632, Prijedor with 620, Bijeljina with 598, Ilijas with 583, Teslic with 503, Novo Sarajevo with 488, Bratunac with 482, Derventa with 405, Srbinje (Foca) with 403, Modrica with 364, Prnjavor with 361, Sanski Most with 354, Brcko with 347, Samac with 321 and Novi Grad with 314 killed soldiers.

The group of municipalities with the largest number of victims includes towns where there were no war actions, such as Sanski Most, Prijedor, Derventa and Bijeljina.

It is interesting that the smallest number of killed soldiers were in Herzegovina municipality of Ljubinje (18) which largely bordered the territory militarily controlled by the Croat army during the entire war. At some of the other local "frontlines" it was possible to count this many victims in a just a few days, so that this datum is a specific "oddity" of the war and its military and political strategies.

Observed by regions, the largest number of killed soldiers (3944) are from thirteen municipalities of Banja Luka region. In relation to the total number of mobilized soldiers, municipality of Trnovo suffered the greatest losses, since 35 per cent of mobilized soldiers from it were killed, as well as Gorazde with 29 per cent of killed soldiers. Municipalities of Ljubinje and Srbac had the smallest number of losses, and in majority of municipalities this number amounted to three per cent of conscripts.

Among the total of 36,343 wounded soldiers of the army of RS, most were from Ilidza (2,861), Teslic (2,014), Bijeljina (1,785), Prijedor (1,496), Sanski Most (1,496), Doboj (1,446) and Prnjavor (1,214). Almost every third mobilized soldier from Sanski Most was wounded (28 per cent), and in Gorazde and Cajnice only one per cent of the mobilized were wounded.

Statistical data show tht the largest number of killed and wounded soldiers came from bordering municipalities. These municipalities experienced the severest destruction and demolition as well.

There are numerous bizarre testimonies about the manner in which soldiers were killed. A high officer of the army claims that at least one third of the soldiers were not killed in action. The greatest number of them are victims of lack of military discipline, poor military judgement and unprofessional commanding. He mentions, as an example, the so-called "weekend soldiers" who were literally brought to the frontlines without having been informed either where they were or what their military task was. The blunt statistics warns and will some day be the subject of scientific research, primarily by military experts.

There are no published data about the civilian victims of war on the Serb side. Nobody in the administration wishes to talk about it. Unofficial sources claim that this number is twice as big as the number of killed soldiers and that it must be about 50 thousand. The figure appears exaggerated, but until the official datum is published, any figure and any argument is in the game. The question is whether state agencies have this datum. Even if statistics on civilian victims of war exist in municipalities which have become part of RS according to the Dayton accords, the Serb party has no way of knowing this number for municipalities which have become part of the Federation and through which the latest war offensive had thundered. Nobody has the data on victims among the Serbs on the territory of former Herzeg-Bosnia either, or the territory which was controlled by the Army of B&H during the war. This is best illustrated by the statement given by Jovo Rosic, president of the state commission of RS for exchange of killed and disappeared soldiers and civilians, who claims that RS is searching for two thousand disappeared soldiers and about four thousand civilians, while it is assumed that the number of disappeared amounts to about 13 thousand. Rosic also claims that the state commission has no data for the region of Sarajevo, and that "it is assessed that between five and seven thousand Serbs have disappeared there".

Although it is probably true that not even the administration knows the exact number of victims on the Serb side, the data in the assessments will be used for a long time to come as a convenient means for political manipulations. About the reasons why innocent civilians were killed in such large numbers and about the manner in which they were killed, the authorities will probably never speak out. And these data and figures are the greatest accusation of protagonists of the past war.

Branko Peric