In the course of the following month, a lot of foreign journalists came to visit us at our Community building. At the same time, the local newspaper "Glas Srpski" stated that the mosques had been destroyed by the Muslims themselves. In connection with these events, a member of the Committee of the Islamic Community in Banja Luka told me that the police had taken him to the Trappist woods 6 km away from the city, where they beat him up and threatened him, in an attempt to get him to sign a statement that the Ferhadija and Arnaudija mosques had been destroyed by the Muslims in order to put the blame on the Serbs.
A prominent Serb from Banja Luka told me that when he found out that a decision had been made in Pale to destroy all the mosques in Banja Luka, he went to the CSB in Banja Luka in order to try to prevent the destruction of at least the Ferhadija and the Arnaudija. He was told there that they knew it was a precedent, but they could not do anything since they had to follow orders from Pale.
As a consequence of the destruction of the mosques, during the same year some 10,000 Bosniaks fled Banja Luka. One of the most preposterous acts related to the mosques was when Gudalo proposed that we estimate the cost of the damage, which was supposed to be a basis for some sort of compensation. In my letter, I refused and said it was impossible to make a cost estimate for a sacred building that was more than 400 years old.
On 17 May 1993, the Hadzi-Zulfikar mosque was burned down, and on 26 May 1993, the Behram-Efendi mosque. Thus, in April and May 1993, Serb fascists destroyed five mosques in Banja Luka.
In June, none of the remaining mosques in the city was demolished; it seemed the Serbs were waiting to see the reaction of the international community to their previous acts.
Then, on the 4th of July 1993, the following mosques were destroyed: the Gazanferija mosque; the Sofi Mehmed Pasha mosque; the Hadzi-Begzad mosque and the Mehdi-Beg mosque. Ten days later, on 14 July 1993, the Hadzi-Saban mosque and the Hadzi-Kurt mosque were destroyed as well.
On 28 August 1993, there was an attempt to murder our mufti, Ibrahim Halilovic. We sent a letter of protest to the local authorities and to international human rights organizations.
On 8 September 1993, the Hadzi-Osmanija mosque was destroyed and on 9 September 1993, the Hadzi-Omer mosque and the Hadzi-Salihija mosque were also demolished. The Hadzi-Salihija was the last mosque out of 16 in the Banja Luka municipality destroyed by the Serb fascists. A few days before the incident Voja Marcetic, a high-ranking officer in the Chetniks' army, suggested the Muslims should demolish the last remaining mosque themselves in order to prevent damage to Muslim houses in the vicinity.
On the night of 12 September 1993, Muammer Katkic, a son of our imam, phoned asking me for help since some burglars were trying to break into his house. I reported it to the police and to the local UNHCR office, and soon thereafter Louis Gentile and Indrika Ratwate, two young UNHCR officers, came to help Katkic. The burglars ran away. The next day, the Katkic family did not dare to spend the night at home and their house was plundered.
On 16 September 1993, Vahdet Alemic, our imam, went to the local Military Recruitment Office to establish his status, but the police took him away to an unknown destination. The same day, the police searched his room and took away our mufti Ibrahim Halilovic and Jusuf Dedic, who were living in the same house. After a four-hour interrogation, the police let them go. They told me the police were mainly interested in Alemic, asking them where he was. The next day Alemic was back home after having been severely beaten up by officials of the Public Security Center, at the very same place where Dedic and the mufti were interrogated. Alemic was hospitalized, and after a week was evacuated to Zagreb.
By the end of September 1993, 60 percent of the Bosniaks in Banja Luka had left their homes. We did not try to stop anyone from leaving, nor did we suggest they stay. At the beginning of September, we wrote an official request to the local authorities to restore some mosques which had not been completely demolished. On 13 December 1993, we sent the same request to Mayor Radic and to Mitrakovic. The reply came two days later - on 15 December 1993, the Halil-Pasha turbe (mausoleum, often adjacent to a mosque) and the Sahat kula (clock tower) were severely damaged by explosions. Using bulldozers, the authorities quickly demolished any parts still standing. The work was done by JKP "Put" (public utility company). I asked Dragan Peric, the operations manager, to show me his work order, but he said he didn't have one since Jerkovic, the managing director of the company, had told him to just "level the ground." On 16 December 1993, Nicholas Morris, the head of UNHCR for the former Yugoslavia, came to visit, following the latest destruction of sacred buildings. Accompanied by the local UNHCR officers Ratwate and Gentile, he went to see Mayor Radic. The next day I was informed that Radic had told them he didn't have a clue who gave the order to the "Put" company to do this work.
The beginning of 1994 was even worse, as the Chetniks intensified the terror and pressure against non-Serb citizens of Banja Luka. People were brutally seized and arrested in public places and forced to do hard labor. Cleaning streets, factories and Chetniks' homes was humiliating, but digging trenches on the Serb front lines was dangerous. It was another Chetnik measure to get rid of all remaining non-Serb inhabitants.
At the beginning of February 1994, Gentile asked our permission to evacuate some 50,000 Muslims still remaining in the region. We refused, even though Gentile told us that in his estimation the Serbs would stop at nothing to complete the ethnic cleansing of the area.
At the end of March, a new massacre took place in Prijedor. It was just one of many "reprisal actions" by Chetniks when some 40 Bosniaks and Croats were brutally murdered in the town. UNHCR and the ICRC were ready to evacuate all 6,000 Bosniaks and 2,000 Croats still living in Prijedor. Together with the Catholic Bishop Komarica and his parish priest in Prijedor, Father Tomislav Matanovic, we had a meeting with Christian Brunner, the head of the Banja Luka ICRC office. We protested since neither a Croat nor a Muslim representative had been consulted in the matter. That evacuation was cancelled.
During the first days of April 1994, we were required to apply to the Military Recruitment Office for our work permits to be extended. I did not get one, since they considered me a civilian working at the Islamic Committee. From then on, for the first time in my life, I kept on living and working in my home town illegally.
In the summer of '94, there were some 10,000 Bosniaks remaining in the municipality, approximately one fifth of the number living there before the aggression against our country. In the Vrbanja neighborhood, a suburb of Banja Luka, a lot of people were expelled from their homes, especially under pressure from the newcomers, "imported" Serbs from Zenica. Among the most enthusiastic ones in marking wealthy Muslims' houses and organizing night attacks was Branko Rajak, a Serb from Zenica. Every day, men were taken away for hard labor and murders were committed more frequently in broad daylight. Milorad "Mile" Golub also played a great role in the ethnic cleansing of the area. In 1991 the number of Bosniaks living in that part of the city had been 4,500; by the end of the summer of '92, it was down to 300.
On 12 August 1994, another incident happened. Following a religious service, two policemen - one of them was Milan Maglov - started to terrorize our believers. We reported it to the police station, and Milan Sutilovic, the chief, promised it would not happen again.
At the end of August, the local authorities announced they would start the full implementation of the previously mentioned "regulation of compulsory labor." According to this regulation, every individual between the ages of 16 and 60 was under obligation to do labor duty. Since the Serbs were serving on the front line, those "privileged" to do labor duty were the Bosniaks and the Croats.
Because of my position in the Islamic Community, every day I heard some bad news: somebody had been taken away for hard labor, beaten, robbed, murdered. Every day I had to watch our people being forced to work on the renovation of a building that had been bought by Dragan Batar, a war profiteer and prominent Chetnik, as part of the compulsory labor program. The only option these people had was to leave, which they finally did.
On 27 April 1994, I saw a leaflet on the front door of my building in which the Ministry of Defense of Herceg-Bosna [the parastate set by Croat extremists in Herzegovina] called on all non-Serb civilians not to vote for a Greater Serbia. I knew that this leaflet was, once again, a Chetnik provocation. On 29 August 1994, in the newspaper "Glas Sprski" I read that leaflets containing this message had been found in public places and that this was "a plot against the Serbian people" and that the police were "searching for those responsible for this terrorist act." On 31 August 1994, I was informed that the remaining members of the Committee of the Islamic Community and the SDA (Party of Democratic Action) in Banja Luka had been arrested: Safet Filipovic, Smail Djuzel, Asim Jakirlic, Zijaudin Smailagic and Osman Gojasic. Their houses were searched. Djuzel was savagely beaten up by the police, in front of his wife and 13-year old daughter. Then they tied the Koran around his neck and took a photograph of him. The next day, on 1 September 1994, we went to see Mayor Radic and made a protest about the brutal behavior of the police, who were also insulting the religious feelings of our people. We pointed out to Radic that the individuals who had been arrested were members of a political party (SDA) which was not legally forbidden in the city.
On 2 September 1994, I read in "Glas Srpski" that the "Valter" terrorist group had been arrested. According to the newspaper story, they were "spies operating against the Serbian people and telling lies about the status of the non-Serb civilians in Banja Luka." It was clear to us that the whole incident was a set-up by the Serb authorities in order to justify the arrest of these Muslims. After this incident, people became even more frightened and we understood that it was just one more measure against all people who were non-Serbs. Finally, I was fed up. I could no longer listen to Jovo Turjanjanin and his comments that "... problems are the same everywhere because of the war," to Brdjanin, who was constantly threatening "the Turks" who "contaminated his city, and therefore it should be cleaned up", to watch Nikola Deretic and Svetlana Pezer on TV and listen to their fascist comments. On 22 September 1994, I received a phone call from the CSB and was ordered to go there "for a little chat." The investigator, Sreto Anisic - nicknamed "Sosa" - was expecting me and told me immediately that the five arrested men had confessed to him that I was the one supplying information to others in the area. He was especially interested in my trips to Zagreb, as I used to go there every three months with the "Merhamet" [Muslim relief] convoy, and was asking me a lot of details, mostly names and functions. I answered his questions and told him all of my activities were legal and according to the law of the Serb authorities. Sosa was interested in how many Muslims remained in the city. According to Sosa's accusations, I had been attacking the Serb authorities via various "enemy media". I answered that we did not refuse to communicate to the media, and what they got from us were facts that were already known anyway. As for the local media, we were not even allowed to give our best wishes for Bairam for our community of believers, let alone refer to our status. Sosa interrogated me for two hours straight, and finally informed me I was not allowed to leave the "Republika Srpska". Since we had been planning a convoy to Zagreb on 26 September 1994, and I had already received papers from the military authorities, I asked him for permission to go. He agreed, on condition that I reported to him the same morning. On the morning of 26 September, I reported to Sosa. After one hour of interrogation, he finally let me go, but as soon as I came back I was ordered to report to him. I knew my trip would be just a new piece of "evidence" to create an indictment against me, since for the Banja Luka authorities, Zagreb is a forbidden word.
On 5 October 1994, I decided to leave Banja Luka together with my family, and asked the chief of the UNHCR office in Banja Luka, Mr Vladimir Tsiurko, to help evacuate us.
On 1 November 1994, I was supposed to go to Zagreb; this was an arrangement I had made with [the Catholic charity] Caritas in Banja Luka, since the Merhamet convoy had not been there for weeks. On 31 October, Sosa informed me I could not leave and warned me they could "take me away even to Gradiska." On 1 November, using well-known methods to produce complete exhaustion in a victim, Sosa interrogated me again. He kept asking me questions about my stay in Zagreb during the period 26-30 September, and I told him the essence of my stay there.
Afterwards, he announced that "a real conversation" would follow. He suddenly raised his voice and asked about our relations with other religious communities in Banja Luka, especially the Catholics. I told him that the Serbian Orthodox Church and their Bishop Jefrem did not want any contact with us; as for the Catholic Church and their Bishop Komarica, our relations were very good.
Further on in the interrogation, Sosa asked me questions about Mr Pero Grgic, the head of the Caritas organization in Banja Luka. I answered that he was the head of a humanitarian organization giving aid to all individuals and medical institutions in the city, and my contacts with him were very good. Sosa wanted to know whether I had seen a computer in Grgic's office and whether I knew what was in it, which I refused to answer, telling him I was nobody's spy. He asked me the names of all Serbs I had contacts with. I told him I was, officially, contacting the following people: Predrag Radic, Predrag Mitrakovic, Vojislav Denic, Nikola Kasavbasic and Jovo Turanjanin. In a private capacity, I had contacts with: Veselin Sandic, Viktor Petric, Dragoljub Grmusa and Milenko Sibarevic. He asked me about my opinion on the status of Serbs in Sarajevo, Zenica and Travnik, which I was not able to give him since I did not live there. I could only speak about the status of Muslims and Croats in Banja Luka. However, it was a fact that there were still Orthodox churches in Sarajevo, Zenica and Travnik, while in Banja Luka there were no mosques any more. After an interrogation that lasted for 14 hours, Sosa let me go, but on 4 November 1994 I had to report to him again for a "real conversation." He yelled at me and told me they would take my son, "the one I loved more" to "a safe place" until I started to talk. He asked me who Vesna Bozic was, a name which was totally unknown to me. Then he told me she was a Reuters reporter from Belgrade and that she had interviewed me, which was possible, since after the Ferhadija was destroyed I had been interviewed by many journalists.
Afterwards, Sosa started with physical torture, and told me I had recommended Bozic to Slavko Podgorelac, a journalist with "Vecernji List" from Zagreb, who was "their man" and who had recorded conversations that I had had with him. At that moment, I knew for sure that Podgorelac was really working for the Chetniks. Then, Sosa kept on beating me and "persuading" me that I was really a Serb. On 3 November 1994, a bishop from The Netherlands had visited Banja Luka on the initiative of Bishop Franjo Komarica. Sosa asked me about the content of our conversation with the guest and asked me what kind of orders we were getting from Komarica. I answered that our religious community was equal in status to the Catholic one, and that we did not get any orders from anybody. Finally, Sosa told me that the fate of my child was now in my hands, and that he hadn't yet decided what to do, but that "a real conversation" would follow soon.
On 7 November 1994, together with my family, I illegally left Banja Luka. There is nothing more to be said or added, except for the fact that my story is just one of thousands of similar stories that any Bosniak or Croat from Banja Luka or the Bosanska Krajina region could tell you.
I left Banja Luka, whose soul had been taken away and just the skeleton remained, inhabited by: Radoslav Brdjanin, "a director" of the Omarska concentration camp, a war criminal and exterminator of Muslims and Croats; Radisav Vukic, a promulgator of Serbian fascist ideas; Prof. Predrag Gugo Lazarevic, promoter of genocide; Rajko Kasagic and his follower, Dusan Radusinovic, who signed thousands of documents enabling the expulsion of Bosniaks and Croats from their homes; Vojislav Denic, whose signature ensured that several thousand non-Serbs were taken away to dig trenches on the Serb front lines; Predrag Mitrakovic, who said on their TV that "despite the war, everything of cultural and historical value in the city of Banja Luka had remained untouched" - this at a time when all 16 mosques in the city had already been demolished ...
If there is anything I should be ashamed of it is the fact that I belong to the same human race as Slobodan Milosevic, Radovan Karadzic, Biljana Plavsic, Ratko Mladic, Radoslav Brdjanin, Serbian Patriarch Pavle and his followers, as Fikret Abdic and other Chetnik vermin.
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