Written by: Dr. sc. Amir Kliko
Writing his book about the war in central Bosnia in 1992-1994. In 1993, I came across information about the death of five children of Croatian nationality and the serious wounding of three more in Vitez on June 10, 1993, who soon died as a result of their injuries.
Seven more children were slightly wounded. Looking at their names and information about them in the documents I used, I was overcome with heavy emotions.
The same as when I described in the same book how HVO criminals gouged out the eyes of eleven-year-old Nermin from Ahmić, less than two months earlier, and then slaughtered him.
Nermin and his brother are not the only children killed in Ahmići on April 16 that were recorded on the pages of my book, nor did HVO criminals kill Bosniak children only in Ahmići and only in central Bosnia.
My emotions were not any easier when I transferred the information from the document to the aforementioned book about the death of the three-year-old boy Danijela, who died on January 9, 1994, from a bullet in his small back.
I admit that it was somewhat easier for me when I saw in the autopsy and police documents of the HR HB authorities that he was killed by someone's stray bullet, because on that day, which was fatal for him, fierce fighting took place between the ARBiH and the HVO in his village, which he hasn't even gotten to meet him yet, let alone run into him. The death of a child is terrible regardless of the circumstances, but still the world seems less evil when it is seen that it was not intentionally killed, although the grief remains the same in each case.
I didn't have any dilemmas even in my mind, researching the war in central Bosnia, "whose victims" and "whose crimes" I will deal with, so that in my book many criminals and victims are recorded, regardless of their nationality.
I have set myself an ugly and difficult obligation - one cannot say honor as it should be in the case of something beautiful - to also mention the suffering of eight children of Croatian nationality in Vitez on June 10, 1993.
I now look back on that hard truth with the same sad emotions as when I wrote about their deaths in my book.
The reason for this is Dragan Bursać's text published on June 13 last year and now repeated on the Al Jazeera portal under the title "How the Flying Dutchman Killed the Children in Knight", in which he stated only one truth, namely that on June 10, 1993 in Vitez, eight children of Croatian nationality were killed by 120 mm mortar projectiles.
All other statements from his text are incorrect.
Bursać actually mentions one 120 mm grenade. In the HVO documents that I have, it is stated that two 120 mm mortar mines fell. Bursać claims that the "grenade" was produced in the Netherlands. I am engaged in serious research of the past war in Bosnia and Herzegovina and I have never come across data in sources and literature that the ARBiH procured war material from that country.
I understand Bursać's need to portray the horrors of that event as emotionally as possible. I fully support her, because I know the feeling of heaviness in my chest when writing about innocent victims, especially children.
However, it is unacceptable when untruths are added to the description of the event, with the aim of completely changing the context in which it took place - even if it was for the sake of harmless dramatization, which is not even necessary in this case, because the truth in itself is a tragic truth from the past war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Bursać's undisguised goal is the prosecution of "responsible criminals" from the ranks of the ARBiH.
A particularly negative weight is given to his text by the clear intention of the author to portray the ARBiH in this case as criminal.
For the children who died, he says that they were "killed" in order to lead the readers to conclude that their deaths were deliberately caused by the ARBiH. He then firmly asserts that the ARBiH deliberately targeted the place where the children had gathered in order to kill them: "A 120 mm shell, the big, vile, devastating one. Directed precisely from the position of the Army of BiH, right at the playground. Right at the children... Eight children were killed in the criminal attack by the BiH Army."
He cites no evidence for his arbitrary, bold and brazen claim.
She is insolent, because she makes serious accusations without any evidence. It is supported only by the fact that the truce was in force on June 10 and by his own assertion that ARBiH snipers were killing children in Vitez even before this event: "And the sniper was like a mosquito. He was eternally present that spring of 1993 in that Vitez. children also perished."
However, the truce was not respected at all, and those were the days of the war with the fiercest fighting by both warring parties in the Lasvan valley. From Bursać's text, it can be concluded that only the ARBiH did not respect the truce, which also does not correspond to the truth.
The sniper activity of both warring parties in central Bosnia was intense during the entire armed conflict between the HVO and the ARBiH.
As proof of this, it is sufficient to mention that out of 530 total victims (HVO fighters and Croatian civilians) in the municipality of Vitez, as many as 61 were killed by sniper bullets. It is important to know - which Bursać was not even obliged to say due to the topic of his text - that on the "opposite" side (Bosniak) the number of people killed by HVO snipers was almost the same, with the difference that HVO snipers also killed Bosniak children, and ARBiH snipers did not kill Croat children.
It is here that Bursać makes his first incorrect claim that children were also killed by snipers. Admittedly, he does not explicitly say which nationalities, but it could be counted with high probability that he is referring to Croatian children, because in his text he clearly portrays the ARBiH as the criminal party in this case.
However, among the mentioned 61 victims (HVO fighters and Croatian civilians) of ARBiH sniping in HVO-controlled territory, there is only one child, a seventeen-year-old boy (Damjanović Dalibor, born in 1976, killed on August 1, 1993) whom the sniper could easily mistaken for an adult male person, especially if he was wearing something from military clothing, which was a very common case with boys in the war.
In any case, according to data from the HVO Vitez Defense Office dated February 24, 1994, he was killed as a civilian. In the same document, there is information about another seventeen-year-old boy who was killed by an ARBiH sniper, but there is a note next to him that he died as a HVO fighter.
If there is only one seventeen-year-old among the 61 victims of ARBiH sniper action, then it cannot be said, as Bursać says, that the victims were also children. They didn't, at least not by ARBiH snipers, if he meant her. His claim can only be considered correct if he was referring to the HVO's sniping of Bosniak children. Clearly he didn't mean it that way.
From the HVO's general attack on the ARBiH in Travnik, in the evening hours of June 3 to June 17, 1993, intense infantry battles were fought in the entire Lasvan valley, to which Vitez and Stari Vitez belong, then under siege by the HVO. Most intensively during the entire armed conflict between the HVO and the ARBiH.
During those two weeks, the ARBiH waged a convulsive struggle to defend Travnik from the attack of the HVO and many Travnik Bosniak villages that were then located in its surroundings, then part of Novi Travnik and the Novotravnik Bosniak villages under its control, but also Stari Vitez, which is the HVO continuously attacked and destroyed with artillery from April 16.
In those battles, both warring parties made maximum use of the available artillery support for their units, depending on their supply of artillery ammunition. The lines of demarcation of the HVO and the ARBiH in the largest part of central Bosnia, and especially in the Lašvan valley, went through populated areas, so artillery action against the enemy's defense lines and the facilities it uses was always in populated areas. In addition to the defense lines, both warring parties used construction facilities in populated areas for their own needs, and thus exposed civilians to artillery fire.
Due to space limitations, I am not in a position to describe each day in detail and provide information about the dead fighters and civilians on both sides. I will briefly describe only June 10 in order to show that the truce was not respected on either side and that bloody battles were fought that day around Vitez and in Vitez, the place where eight Croatian children were killed.
With the mediation of UNPROFOR, Rasim Delić and Milivoj Petković signed a cease-fire agreement on June 10, which was supposed to enter into force on the same day at 2 p.m. Article 3 of that agreement referred to the humanitarian convoy to Tuzla, which the HVO had already detained for several days on the way from Tomislavgrad to central Bosnia. It was agreed that he would continue his journey safely to his desired destination.
After 2:00 p.m. on June 10, an HVO sniper in Novi Travnik seriously wounded an ARBiH fighter and a four-year-old Bosniak child. From the direction of Busovača, eight 128 mm VBR projectiles were fired at the inner city area of Zenica. One Bosniak child was killed by artillery fire in Tolovići near Vitez.
"Convoy of Joy", with about 500 vehicles and 2,000 people, left Split at the beginning of June with humanitarian aid for Tuzla. Under the escort of UNPROFOR, he traveled for six days to Prozor, where he arrived on June 6. Due to the intense fighting of the HVO-ARBiH in the Lašvan Valley, he was held at Makljen for three days.
During those nights, Croatian bandits stole vehicles and things. There was a large number of women, children, business people and sick people in the convoy. According to the truce agreement on June 10, the convoy continued from Makljeno to Gornji Vakuf. On the eve of the same day, he arrived in Trenica near Novi Travnik, where he was stopped due to the shelling of Zenica by the HVO.
However, the convoy moved on led by a UNPROFOR patrol. Regardless, the first part of it was stopped by the HVO at Franjga's Houses near Novi Travnik and started killing the drivers. Eight drivers were killed (according to some reports ten). The drama with the drivers of the Tuzla "Convoy of Joy" near Novi Travnik happened the same evening when Croatian children were killed in Vitez.
I can't say for sure what happened to the two of them a minute ago. Therefore, according to Article 3 of the Armistice Agreement, the Tuzla "Convoy of Joy" should have arrived safely at its destination in Tuzla.
The Croatian Defense Council desecrated the signed ceasefire and brutally attacked the unprotected civilians in the convoy. In addition to those killed, many suffered physical violence. Most of the convoys were looted along with the vehicles and the passengers' money.
In order to avoid confusion for those unfamiliar with the Lašvan Valley, Novi Travnik is located very close to the place where the Croatian children were killed in Vitez on June 10. On the territory of the municipality of Novi Travnik, fierce fighting took place that day, which was also transmitted to Viteška due to its proximity and connection.
As fierce as the fighting was, it is enough to say that seven fighters of the HVO Stjepan Tomašević brigade were killed on the night of June 9-10 alone. Strong combat operations were conducted in Vilenica, but also in the valley of the Bila river. All of these are areas in the immediate vicinity of the place where the children were killed.
The place where the innocent children suffered was not safe due to the consequences of combat operations, for which the HVO, not the ARBiH, is responsible. The location is too close to the HVO-ARBiH front line around Stari Vitez.
That front line was created by the HVO as early as April 16, when it persistently tried to occupy Stari Vitez in order to expel Bosniaks from it, and more likely than that, to kill them as in nearby Ahmići.
Therefore, the HVO brought war between Croatian homes and in the vicinity of all children, regardless of their nationality.
Due to the specific conditions in which civilians were found on both sides of the front, it was not possible to evacuate the population of either Croat or Bosniak nationality from the combat zone to a safe place, which is the obligation of the military authorities. So the unfortunate civilians were stuck near the front lines because the war was fought in urban and small areas. Unfortunately, they paid the price with their lives. They couldn't even move to a safer place on their own, because there was nowhere for anyone in the Lašvan valley.
An additional problem for the safety of civilians was again caused by the army using civilian facilities in populated areas for its own purposes.
As for the specific location where the children were killed, apart from the fact that it is only about a hundred meters from the HVO-ARBiH line around Stari Vitez, the HVO used several commercial and business facilities in its vicinity for its own purposes and thus made the location a legal military target.
It had bases for the accommodation of personnel and warehouses for material and technical resources. He used the high school center, Jaruga, carpentry workshop "Mlakić", Nebašce, Cinema "Moša Pijade" and all other similar facilities.
The injured children were actually playing in a very dangerous war zone. It was dangerous due to its proximity to the front and due to the use of the facilities located there for the needs of the HVO, which unfortunately made it a legitimate military target.
And what actually happened there on June 10, 1993?
Hrvatsko vijeće odbrane u Lašvanskoj dolini bilo je od kraja proljeća 1993. u ozbiljnim problemima s nedostatkom artiljerijske municije, ali je imalo na raspolaganju ogromne kapacitete tvornice eksploziva u Vitezu. Inžinjeri iz tvornice pronašli su rješenje kako da iskoriste te potencijale.
Tvornica je počela praviti improvizirane eksplozivne naprave. Vatrogasni aparati, bojleri, veće metalne cijevi i slični objekti punjeni su eksplozivom i ubojitim metalnim komadima (šarafi, svjećice, piljci, šiljci i slično).
Potom su iz katapulta izbacivani na teritoriju pod kontrolom ARBiH (na njene linije odbrane i bošnjačka civilna naselja u njihovoj blizini). Za aktiviranje je korišten običan fitilj. Katapulti su bili veoma kratkog dometa, radi čega su morali biti u blizini linija odbrane ARBiH.
Jedna grupa tih katapulta bila je na lokaciji gdje su izginula djeca.
It was active all day on June 10, according to Stari Vitez. The catapults did not make firing noises, so they did not disturb the inhabitants near their position.
According to the testimony of Ibrahim Abdić, which I took in my research, on that day the HVO crew that serviced the catapults and used them towards Stari Tež was allegedly commanded by Rajković Mladen aka Magyar.
From the headquarters of the ARBiH in Stari Vitez, they asked their superior command to act with artillery at the location from where the HVO acted with catapults on the fighters and Bosniak civilians confined to a few hundred square meters of territory under the control of the ARBiH in Stari Vitez, and that in the complete environment of the HVO.
They asked to "shut up" the catapults, because that day they were beating fiercely. The ARBiH fired one or two 120 mm mortar mines from the direction of Počulica, killing children. There was no intention of killing them nor could they see children from the Old Knight. Children in particular could not be seen from Počulica because it is very far away.
That location is also protected from any sniping from the direction of Stari Vitez, and not a single resident of the settlement where the children died could ever have been their target.
There are several constructions and a patch of forest between the place where the ARBiH held the line of defense and the place where the children were killed. Ibrahim Abdić claims that Marković Mladen, aka Hega, told him that the HVO had recorded a conversation between the ARBiH from Stari Vitez and his superior command in Počulica, from which it is clear that the ARBiH from Stari Vitez requested action on the HVO catapults, and not on the children who and do not mention in that conversation.
At that time, Marković was engaged in the HVO wiretapping center, which makes him a credible source of this information. Interested investigative bodies can check all these allegations with Abdić, Marković and Rajković.
(Reporod.info)