BiH: a whole family abducted

In July 2009, an individual communication against Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) has been submitted to the Human Rights Committee concerning the enforced disappearance of Fikret Prutina. The Advocacy Center TRIAL (ACT) is representing Fatima Prutina, wife of the disappeared.

On 4 May 1992, Fikret Prutina was arrested in Svrake (BiH) by the Serb army together with his wife and their sons Asmir (mentally disabled, then 16 years old) and Hasib (then 18 years old) and most of the inhabitants of the same village. They were all taken to a concentration camp known as Kasarna JNA in Semizovac. A few days later, Fatima Prutina, together with her son Asmir and other women and children, were freed. Fikret Prutina and his other son Hasib were kept prisoners and transferred to different concentration camps, where they were subjected to torture and forced labour. Fikret Prutina was last seen on 16 June 1992 in the concentration camp known asPlanjina kuca, located in the municipality of Vogosca. His fate and whereabouts remain unknown since then.

Hasib Prutina, who eye-witnessed all the mentioned events, was freed from the concentration camp one month later. To date, he suffers from severe post-traumatic stress due to the brutality he has been subjected to, as well as to the horrifying facts, including the ill-treatment and disappearance of his own father, he was forced to assist.

More than 17 years after the events, no serious investigation has yet been undertaken by BiH authorities in order to locate Mr. Prutina or his remains or to identify, prosecute and sanction those responsible. Mrs. Prutina has taken several steps to obtain information about her husband, through the police of Visoko and Vogosca, the State Commission for Tracing Missing Persons, the Sarajevo Cantonal Prosecutor’s Office, and the Red Cross Society of BiH. These initiatives have proved vain.

• Read more about the Prutina case here.
• See also the General allegation submitted by TRIAL to the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances relating to the situation in BiH.