CCPR/C/113/D/2022/2011
conjunction with article 2 (3), of the Covenant. The authors are represented by counsel. The
Optional Protocol entered into force for the State party on 1 June 1995.
The facts as submitted by the authors
2.1
The events took place during the armed conflict between the Bosnian governmental
forces on the one side and the Bosnian Serb forces and the National Yugoslav Army on the
other that led to the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The conflict was
characterized by ethnic cleansing operations and other atrocities in which thousands of
persons were killed, were taken to concentration camps or disappeared without trace.1
Several of the disappearances occurred in Bosnian Krajina between May and August 1992,
most prominently in the region of Prijedor, which includes the village of Hambarine.2
2.2
The authors used to live in the village of Hambarine. On 20 July 1992, members of
the National Yugoslav Army and of paramilitary groups arrived in the village and
surrounded the house of the Hamulić family. Ms. Hamulić, her husband, Ms. Hodžić,
Husein Hamulić and another brother, Mustafa Hamulić, were present. Since soldiers
apprehended Mustafa, Husein hid behind the family house and escaped into the woods
surrounding Hambarine. Three persons, T.H., S.R. and I.H., who also hid in the woods, saw
Husein alive for the last time. To avoid looking suspicious, he and the other three persons
decided to split up. Husein’s fate and whereabouts remain unknown. The authors claim
that, at the time, the area was under the control of the National Yugoslav Army, and that
Husein fell into the hands of the Army’s members.
2.3
The authors remained in their house for over two weeks. Afterwards, they moved to
the village of Travnik. Seven days later, Ms. Hodžić left with her children for Slovenia and
then went to Finland. Ms. Hamulić and her husband remained for six months in Travnik.
Ms. Hamulić’s husband reported the disappearance of his sons, Mustafa and Husein, to the
local chapter of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Later, Ms. Hamulić
and her husband joined Ms. Hodžić in Finland, where Ms. Hamulić and her husband also
contacted ICRC concerning their sons’ disappearance.
2.4
The armed conflict came to an end in December 1995, when the General Framework
Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina entered into force.3
2.5
After returning to Hambarine on 1 September 2004, the authors and other members
of their family filed an ante mortem questionnaire with regard to Husein and Mustafa
before ICRC, the “Association of the Red Cross of Bosnia and Herzegovina” and the “Red
Cross of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina” and gave them DNA samples to
facilitate the process of identifying the mortal remains exhumed by local forensic experts.
Mustafa’s mortal remains were located in a mass grave in Kevljani and exhumed in 2004.
They were buried in the graveyard of Hambarine.
2.6
On 1 November 2007, the authors obtained a certificate by the Federal Commission
on Missing Persons stating that Husein Hamulić had been registered as a missing person
since 20 July 1992 and that this information was based on data derived from the
1
2
3
The authors refer to the report submitted by member of the Working Group on Enforced or
Involuntary Disappearances Manfred Nowak on the special process on missing persons in the
territory of the former Yugoslavia (see E/CN.4/1996/36, paras. 22, 49-60, 67-68, 85 and 88).
The authors refer to annexes I-V to the final report of the commission of experts established pursuant
to Security Council resolution 780 (1992) (S/1994/674/Add.2 (vol. I)).
In accordance with the Agreement, Bosnia and Herzegovina consists of two entities: the Federation of
Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srpska. Brčko District was formally inaugurated on 8 March
2000 under the exclusive sovereignty of the State and international supervision.
3