CCPR/C/113/D/2028/2011
The facts as submitted by the author
2.1
The events took place during the armed conflict surrounding the independence of
Bosnia and Herzegovina, between the Bosnian governmental forces on one side and the
Bosnian Serb forces and the Yugoslav National Army on the other. The conflict was
characterized by ethnic cleansing operations and other atrocities, in which thousands of
persons were killed, taken to detention camps or disappeared without leaving trace.1 Several
of these disappearances occurred in Bosnian Krajina between May and August 1992, most
prominently in the region of Prijedor. Hundreds of inhabitants of the area in and around
Prijedor were brought to detention camps established by the Bosnian Serb forces, one of the
most notorious the detention camp being at Omarska.2 Between 3000 and 5000 civilians
were imprisoned in this camp, kept under inhuman conditions, physically and
psychologically abused, tortured and arbitrary killed. In general, they stayed in
overcrowded places and without proper hygiene arrangements, sufficient food and water
and adequate medical care.3
2.2
When the events took place, Mr. Ičić was living in Trnopolje, Prijedor. The author
claims that, on 10 June 1992, he was working in a field outside his house when members of
the Bosnian Serb forces apprehended him. They threatened him with guns and rifles and
forced him to walk in the direction of Omarska. Along the way, Mr. S.D. was also
apprehended. While walking towards Omarska, they stopped for a while in front of the
house of Mr. M.S. and Mr. S.S., who could see Mr. Ičić and Mr. S.D. in the hands of the
members of the Bosnian Serb army. Afterwards, they were taken to the detention camp of
Omarska.
2.3
On 11 June 1992, Mr. S.D. was allowed to leave the Omarska detention camp. When
he arrived in Trnopolje, he contacted the author and told her that her son, Mr. Ičić, was
being held in Omarska. He also told her that her son was being held in inhuman conditions
of detention and was at risk of death. Mr. Ičić’s fate and whereabouts remain unknown
since then.
2.4
On 17 June 1992, while the author was at home with her other four children, a
soldier of the Bosnian Serb forces came, started shooting and ordered her to leave the
house. They were brought to the detention camp in Trnopolje, where they stayed for one
night. Then they went to Zenica, where she reported her son’s disappearance to the local
office of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). On 3 July 1992, the author
and her children fled to Slovenia.
2.5
In August 1992, the author reported her son’s disappearance to ICRC in Jasenice,
Slovenia, and, in 1993, she sent a letter with pictures of him to ICRC in Croatia. Between
1995 and 1996, she approached the local office of ICRC in Slovenia and the ICRC Tracing
Agency in Zagreb, without success.
1
2
3
See E/CN.4/1996/36, paras. 22, 49-60, 67-68, 85 and 88.
See reports E/CN.4/1995/37, paras 3, 36 and 52; and E/CN.4/1997/55, paras 3, 94 and 98-106.
See final report to the Security Council of the Commission of Experts established pursuant to Security
Council resolution 780 (1992), S/1994/674/Add.2 (Vol. I). See also the jurisprudence of the
International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in relation to case Prosecutor v. Radoslav Brdanin,
judgement of the trial chamber of 1 September 2004 (case No. IT-99-36-T), paras. 118 and 159; and
case Prosecutor v. Miroslav Kovčka et al., judgement of the trial chamber of 2 November 2001 (case
No. IT-98/30-1), paras. 18 and 28-44.
3