SECURITY COUNCIL

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Deposition made by S.K. from Sarajevo, Belesici, on 23 November 1992 at the Gynaecology-Obstetrics Clinic in Belgrade

I was born 7 February 1972 in Sarajevo, where I lived until the outbreak of the war. When it broke out, I was taken to prison last April at the time when the roadblocks began to be set up.

I completed elementary school and the high hairdressers' course.

I worked in a private hairdresser's lounge, "Buba-Mara", and was a part-time student of the Faculty of Physical Education (I completed two years).

While I was returning home from my job, I was stopped by four armed members of the green berets [Muslims] who pushed me into a car, blindfolded me and drove me to a basement (I do not know where it was located). When we arrived there, I was put, together with a 16-year-old girl named Jelena, [Serbian name] in a small partitioned corridor having no windows or ventilation.

On the first night, 12 men wearing black overalls, which served as a kind of their uniforms, came. They first molested Jelena and then forced themselves upon me. I did not know any of them; I only heard that they called one of them "Alibaba". He tore all my clothes and, since I was virgo in tacta, he was very brutal, he slapped me and made me have both oral sex with him and intercourse. Then the other two came who pinned me down on the floor while Ismet Bajramovic, known as Celo (I later found out what his name was), led the rape. He was the leader of the group. He has an organization of his own which still operates in Sarajevo. He assaulted me first, then the others took their run and the whole ordeal was repeated throughout the night: I had to have oral and intercourse with them. I found out his name during my 25-day detention with Jelena in that corridor. Jelena stayed behind when I left. As I could see later on, it was a smaller apartment building which had a basement where the two of us were detained. The basement space next to us resounded with cries and screams of other women. During those 25 days I was there, I was repeatedly abused day in day out; both of us were forced to have oral sex and intercourse. All those who did that to us said the Serbs were doing the same to their Moslem sisters. This was their pretext, a justification for what they did.

On my last, 25th day there, Ismet Bajramovic-Celo came and told me he had to let me go because of the strings pulled on my behalf, advising me to forget all about what happened to me there for my own sake.

The husband of a friend of mine, a Moslem, used his connections to find out where I was and get me out. He told me that the building I had been in was in Pofalici [suburb of Sarajevo]. Everything has been pulverized and there is no Serb house left in that suburb now.

I left in the same manner I was brought in - blindfolded. They drove me to Kosevsko Brdo, a Moslem-controlled sector of Sarajevo, opened the door and threw me out. I walked to a friend, Emir Tufekcic [a Muslim name], whose wife Radmila is a Serb.

Since I was mentally disturbed, My friend Emir Tufekcic, who was not a member of the green berets at the time but had to comply with a work order, and his wife Radmila helped me to go to the psychiatric clinic "Kosevo" in Kosevo, to see a Dr. Haris, whose surname I do not know. I found out what his name was while I was treated at the clinic: they called him Haris there. I was hospitalized for 28 days. Having left the clinic, I stayed with Emir and Radmila Tufekcic who hid me in their home.

After a month I felt sickness, I vomited, which indicated pregnancy. I went again to "Kosevo" clinic [under Muslim control] intending to have an abortion. They said that I could have it only if I said to the journalists that I was raped by Serbs. I indignantly refused, since I could not besmirch my people, the religion I belong to, and myself. They have no humanity or compassion; they salute each other with "Selam alekum and merhaba". So, I decided: if there was no chance for me to have an abortion, I would give birth to the child and strangle it. I hope one can understand such thoughts in such moments. The child was not a fruit of love; I would feel only hatred and rage for it and it would always remind me of the awful and horrible things I went through.

I was still with my friends Emir and Radmila Tufekcic, who fed me and gave me clothes, since I did not have any clothes of my own. There was no chance for me to pass to the Serb-controlled territory. I was with them until 15 November (midnight). They helped me to be included in the list of people to be evacuated to Serbia. The list began to be compiled in July, but it was not until November that the convoy of evacuees left for Serbia. The convoy departed Sarajevo on 15 November and reached Belgrade on 17 November 1992. I arrived in Belgrade at midnight, where I slept and a day later I was admitted to the Gynaecology-Obstetrics Clinic, where I gave birth.

Deposition taken by: Milica Dunic S.K. Senior Stenographer at the Federal Assembly

Deposition made by: S.K.

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