Title
FBU-2007-01-04
Date of Interview
1-4-2007
Interview Location
St. Louis, MO
Length of Interview
110:50
Date of Birth
1955
Gender
Male
Religion and/or Ethnicity
Muslim
Description
Born and lived in Prijedor with his family, which included wife, son and daughter; made a living as a truck driver transporting meat products for the company IMPRO PRIJEDOR; drove locally in the city and from the city to Banja Luka and back; remembers Yugoslavia before the war as a place where you could provide a decent life for your family; had friends that were all nationalities and religions in these days; during census, there was no group listed as Bosnian or Muslim and was forced to identity as Yugoslavian; remembers seeing changes in Bosnia around 5 or 6 months after the war in Croatia had started; groups that had been multiethnic at work and in his private life began to separate; friends such as one of his good friends who was a Bosnian Serb began to act differently towards him, including yelling and cursing at him; large scale propaganda seen on TV showcasing the Serbian people as victims in every sense; on his last day as an employed person he was told he could no longer work at his company by a Serbian guard who was his best friend; given a paper showing that he was banned from the grounds due to his Muslim identity; later received papers from MUP or the military police in Banja Luka confirming everything the guard at the gate had told him; never returned to work after that; family began to use savings for food and other things; life for his family and himself become hard; they would not go outside to buy food but had to contract others to get it for them; during the evening hours would hide with family in home due to the killing, rape and theft that were now occurring in the city; after a short time he was rounded up by the police and his house was set on fire; family that included his wife and kids were stayed with friends while he along with neighbors and other extended family members were taken away; taken to the Keraterm camp around May 13th, 1992; guards spent the first two days there getting and accurate number of prisoners and a general roll call; after this initial stage, the beating of prisoners began; every day at the start of each new shift, the guards would circle around the whole building and choose prisoners to torture and beat; they would also be taken out for questioning and accused of false charges; if they denied the charges they would be beaten more; they were allowed to eat around noon but had to run the whole time to get around four or five spoonfuls of soup and warm water; prisoners were often beaten or killed during; the camp included everyone from Prijedor that was not Serbian, including Bosnian Muslims, Bosnian Croats, and Roma people; when Keraterm was closed, all the prisoners were put on buses and moved to Omarska, his group consisted of 24 people who after arrival were separated; 12 of them who were seen as more radical Muslims and potential threats (sometimes due just to their names) were sent to the "White House" for questioning; at the White House, they were questioned and beaten more and every night new prisoners would arrive; every night some of the prisoners would be killed; stayed at the White House for 17 days until MUP from Banja Luka arrived and they were told they would be transferred to a military prison in Gradiska; only 4 of the 12 prisoners were taken first to Banja Luka and then transferred to the military prison in Gradiska; Gradiska was operated by people that were not from the Prijedor region and they had a way of questioning and torturing at the same time; they tied him up to a chair, shined a bright light in his eyes and hooked up a battery to his toes and fingers; he was then accused of things such as killing Serbian children; when he denied the charges they would beat him and if he passed out they would pour water on him; after about 5 days, a Bosnian Serb officer came in and told them to either kill him or let him go back to his cell; was taken back to cell and held there for two days; periodically the guards threatened execution by firing squad; he was taken out and put against a wall and then waited hours to be shot, after which the guards bring him back to his cell; after some time, he and around 5 buses of prisoners were taken to the Croatian border and exchanged for Bosnian Serb officers; he was one of the first to cross during the exchange, after which the exchange was called off; arrived in Croatia and held in a military camp for victims of concentration camps; there he had very little freedom and suffered from health problems and had lost close to 120 pounds; applied for papers to go to the United States; after approval taken via truck to the Zagreb airport and then to the United States; arrived in Idaho where he did not know the language; had no funds and his family was not with him; has not returned to Bosnia and has fears and stress from the war; afraid to travel to Bosnia and Prijedor; suffers from headaches, anxiety, and stress along with memory loss.
Keywords
Keraterm, Omarska, Prijedor, Gradiska prison, Croatia, Idaho, United States, Refugee camp, Concentration camp, Beatings, Torture, Executions
Pre-War Residence
Prijedor
Wartime Residence
Prijedor
First Country of Residence
Croatia
First US Residence
Idaho
Document Type
Oral History
Collection
Fontbonne University
Digital Format
MP3, MP4
Digital Publisher
Center for Bosnian Studies
City
St. Louis, MO
Copyright Note
These oral histories are made available by the Center for Bosnian Studies for research, educational, scholarly, and/or creative purposes only. All uses should adhere to the principle of fair use established under Section 107 of Title 17 the 1976 Copyright Act. More on fair use is available here: https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/.
Rights Statement
