Bosnia’s Code of Silence:
REPORTER: David Corlett and Geoff Parish
An ethnic and religious war tore apart Bosnia and Herzegovina two decades ago and has David Corlett, the host of Go Back To Where You Came From discovered when he visited recently, suspicion is still a big part of society, following a Melbourne family as they try to unravel a family mystery.
For Damir Mitric, Melbourne is peaceful and secure but he is haunted by horrors that occured a world away. He and his family fled the brutal war that began in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992.
DAMIR MITRIC: Like any war would affect anybody, it's something that's always a part of you. So I think it has a really profound influence on anybody and certainly had has on me.
Girl: What is this cake?
DAMIR MITRIC: For eating.
Damir came to Australia with his parents. He's now rebuilt his life but the war tore his family apart. I first met him through our work on refugee issues.
DAMIR MITRIC: That's mum and dad. That's what dad looked like just before the war. That's my brother, that's myself.
I'm intrigued by his struggle to make sense of the conflict in Bosnia and what it's done to his family.
DAMIR MITRIC: That’s my uncle.
Damir loved playing with his cousins before the war broke out. Soon after, they disappeared and their bodies have never been found. There isn't even a photo of them. Now, 20 years after the war ended, he's going back to Bosnia to find out who killed them. He's determined to solve this family mystery no matter how hard the truth.
DAMIR MITRIC: I always wanted to know what happened to them and also to tell their story. So that people know. And then there is also the other side of the story for people who are trying to live in a country that is very, very divided.
In 1992, Bosnia and Herzegovina exploded into a vicious ethnic conflict. For four years, neighbor slaughtered neighbour. There was genocide. Mass rape and concentration camps as Serbian forces conducted ethnic cleansing against Bosnian Muslims. Bosnia is peaceful now. The markets and cafes are vibrant.
DAMIR MITRIC (Translation): Come on, come on, how are you?
GIRL: Damir!
And it's a warm welcome in the capital Sarajevo for Damir from his aunt Munevera and her granddaughter.
DAMIR MITRIC (Translation): Aunty, how are you? What’s up? Nothing new.
Today, Damir wants to show me the suburb he grew up in.
DAMIR MITRIC (Translation): And on which side is the school?
MUNEVERA KUBAT (Translation): On this side, here behind this building.
It was under constant attack during the war. Munevera remembers the terror of those days.
MUNEVERA KUBAT (Translation): That’s where the sniper was, I remember every moment, every corner of what happened and the fear we went through. And that’s that. And now…horrible, sad, sad.
And this is Damir's family apartment. It's where his childhood was ended abruptly.
DAMIR MITRIC: OK. So here we are in my home, my humble home, looking very empty, but fixed after the war.
The apartment was hit and burned down.
DAMIR MITRIC: This was my and my brother's room. So this is where our beds were. Fear was part of that time, for sure, because as a kid you started realising that people die. At night, shooting would intensify. You could see outside, grenades or ammunition flying through the air. So we would then make a call and all neighbours would go down to the cellars.
The war cut a swathe through family and friends who had lived together for generations. Damir is the child of a mixed marriage. He has a Bosnian Muslim mother and a Serbian father. His uncle was killed fighting for the Serbian army, the very forces that destroyed Damir's home. He's laid to rest here.
DAMIR MITRIC: It is very complicated for children of mixed marriages. We're living monuments of a time of living together. And also living monuments of pain and suffering because we all suffered on all sides. I'm sad about this. I'm sad that I can't come here and visit my uncle and have a coffee with him rather than to visit his graveyard.
Damir believes his multi-cultural heritage gives him the authority to talk about truth and reconciliation.
DAMIR MITRIC: I actually really believe that our perspective is kind of very important if we are going to be able to imagine a Bosnia in the future. I think it's exactly the sort of loss of people like myself which need to be taken into account in the present as we're trying to imagine a coexistence here.
But imagining a coexistence won't be easy. At this commemoration service for 8,000 men butchered at Srebrenica, Bosnian Muslims stoned the Serbian Prime Minister. He had once called for their slaughter. Damir, his aunt Munevera and I leave Sarajevo on the search of what happened to Damir's cousins, and I'm wondering after 20 long years his quest for the truth can be realised.
DAMIR MITRIC: That's the family tree that gives you a sense of basically who my cousins are.
As Damir sketch it is family tree, the extent of the devastation is clear.
DAMIR MITRIC: Clear sign have been found on a mass grave. On that Obram, Ibrahim and Munevera have never been found. So one of the cousins, one of my cousins, they believe they have found a fragment, but it's not quite clear.
His two missing cousins were the same age as Damir, they disappeared as the conflict saw war crimes committed by all sides with more than 100,000 people killed. And 2 million more displaced.
DAMIR MITRIC: So it goes back to the why. Why people disappeared. How it is possible to separate children and kill off ten members of one family. And also probably also interested to see how some of my other family survives and deals with that. Because we still have family who has returned and who are trying to rebuild lives.
We're heading to the Nevesinje Valley. It's where Damir's cousins lived and where they were last seen alive. He's hoping to find clues of their fate from members of family still living there. The whole area was ethnically cleansed when Serb forces slaughtered or forced out Bosnian Muslims. But as we approach Nevesinje town we're joined by one of Damir's uncles who's not so sure about us filming
there. He says that the town is full of perpetrators who haven't been brought to justice.
REPORTER: So what's his concern?
DAMIR MITRIC: His primary concern, as I understand it, is really what effect, us being in the town
would have on, you know, on his immediate family really in terms of the sort of - the lives they're trying to rebuild in a town that is not speaking about the reality of local neighbours killing their
local neighbours.
Damir's not about to jeopardise his relatives living here, but he's also determined to break the code of silence so this country can move forward in the right direction. We proceed with caution.
DAMIR MITRIC: It seems to be not safe to be in town to film people that possibly have been committing horrible crimes and who are here in a completely ethnically clean, to use that term, place.
And in the middle of Nevesinje, we come across this poster celebrating the notorious Serbian general Ratko Mladic. Mladic has been tried in the Hague for war crimes including genocide, and his verdict will be announced soon. He clearly has many sympathisers here. Damir's caution may well be warranted.
REPORTER: This is the house here?
DAMIR MITRIC: Yes, we are here.
We eventually find where Damir's cousins lived. And he's edgy. As an outsider, he doesn't want to create a problem for his relatives in the valley.
DAMIR MITRIC: There's a car coming so just wait. We'll just...
REPORTER: Do you want us to walk around the corner so we're not obvious until the car has gone by?
DAMIR MITRIC: I really want to capture this before we... So we are now in my family's little village, if you like just really beautiful place before the war. It was really clean and tidy and as you can see
it's very overgrown – it’s basically destroyed. Feels a bit like a ghost town really. And just here is the shop that my - that belonged to my family, it was the local, you know, if you want, like a corner store.
Damir's relatives are dead or driven out and now someone else has taken possession of the shop. The ethnic cleansing did what it was supposed to do.
DAMIR MITRIC: So it is quite eerie. Quite eerie. Yeah. And I do feel, you know - actually, yeah, I can't really tell you what I feel right now. I feel probably numb. Yeah, maybe I feel numb. That's -
that's all.
MUNEVERA KUBAT (Translation): Everything is taken, gone. A heart has been ripped out. I feel horrible. There that’s it. Horrible, when you know that they are gone, that you will never see them again.
DAMIR MITRIC: Yeah, I feel really terrible. I feel terrible being here and I feel terrible, but I also feel very proud that my aunty's - that we're here together. Yeah. It's just, yeah, it's really hard. Heartbreaking.
MUNEVERA KUBAT(Translation): It’s okay, let’s go.
Further down the valley, these houses stand testament to ethnic cleansing by Serb forces, their owners slaughtered or driven off. And this is Halil, another of Damir's uncles. He's a survivor and despite the murderous past, he and his family took the brave decision to return home and try to rebuild their lives.
HALIL ZOLJ(Translation): I have returned for a simple reason, because before the war I lived an exceptionally nice life.
Halil says he's safe and gets along with his neighbours, but no one talks about the war.
HALIL ZOLJ (Translation): I don’t discuss this topic much, you can’t shove everyone into the same context. Here are also our neighbours… In general, all people are really nice, but there are villains, on all sides.
DAMIR MITRIC: It seems to be people are accepting safety on the condition that they don't threaten the code of silence. This is what I see personally as a danger for Bosnia and for the future. We must have justice, we must have people being prosecuted for the crimes that they have committed which would mean the code of silence would have to be broken. So that we can have an honest discussion about who did what to whom.
These are lofty sentiments from Damir but Halil believe it is Government is not committed to truth and reconciliation.
HALIL ZOLJ (Translation): If there was a little more care about repatriation from the upper levels of government, maybe there would be ten Halils, not just me.
DAMIR MITRIC (Translation): Let me hug you. I will come again, definitely, God permitting.
HALIL ZOLJ (Translation): Thanks very much.
DAMIR MITRIC (Translation): Not at all.
Meeting with Halil and hearing about his need for silence hasn't made Damir's quest for truth and justice any easier.
DAMIR MITRIC: It's a confusing place, Bosnia, just a million emotions at the same time, really difficult to put into words. So many feelings.
We leave Nevesinje without speaking to anyone outside of Damir's family and what concerns me is that people we're not talking to.
DAMIR MITRIC: It's about searching for the truth and getting justice out of the truth as a foundation for a future.
REPORTER: So we're doing, in fact, exactly what you're seeking to do.
DAMIR MITRIC: Exactly.
REPORTER: But we're not going to ask the perpetrators?
DAMIR MITRIC: It's not possible to do it. I wish we could do it. We're seeking the dialogue, seeking that contact but clearly it is not happening and it is the core of the issue. And it goes to the core of
everything that we do, but, you know, this will not happen today. Just as much as it has not happened since 1995, you know. This is not - it's an illusion to think that this is what we're going to be doing.
Searching for truth and breaking the silence is also driving the man we're about to meet. His name is Sudbin Music. He's returned here to Prijedor. Sudbin understands Damir's quest for missing relatives. He had to search for his own father who was killed by Serbs. Damir hasn't seen him since they were refugees 20 years ago. Despite Bosnian Muslims being massacred in the surrounding streets, he decided to come back.
SUDBIN MUSIC: And one way you feel yourself as a victor, as you know, somebody decided to kill you, to deport you, to destroy your homeland, look at me now I am a survivor. I'm a victor. You're stupid philosophy you're following is your last.
Life could be good here, but Sudbin thinks his victory in returning may be fragile. He feels the political climate is getting worse and he's concerned about the future.
SUDBIN MUSIC: You are starting to feel yourself not as a victor anymore. You're starting to think, "Oh, my God, I'm losing it again."
This morning, we're travelling to an area where Bosnia's history and destiny collide. Sudbin's taking us to a mass grave.
SUDBIN MUSIC: We're very close. The mass grave is over there but we have to take a while, just drive, just move on.
It's a reluctant ritual for him. He calls himself a curator of non-existent memorials, someone who brings others to site of horrendous crimes that are not yet acknowledged.
SUDBIN MUSIC: It's a place where everybody should be quiet.
This is the third time that this area at Jakarina Kosa has been excavated as part of on-going investigations into war crimes.
SUDBIN MUSIC: Can you imagine to hold the head of your father in your hands? I did it. Yeah. This is something what is outside of your reality. And we are in 21st century. In the heart of Europe. Mines, mass graves, war criminals.
It is a deeply sobering experience to be here. We weren't allowed to interview any of the police or officials carefully sifting the area. As more remains are unearthed, Damir's thoughts return to his missing cousins, wherever they may lie.
DAMIR MITRIC: They're not even being searched for because people do not know where a mass grave could be. But even if you take this out, this is the reality of even in Bosnia, whether they have lost somebody or they know somebody who was involved in a crime or whether they're a bystander or whoever they might be. And it matters to everybody.
And Sudbin wants us to see another infamous site. Hundreds of people were buried here. Tomasica is the largest mass grave in Europe since World War II.
SUDBIN MUSIC: People were used for collecting bodies and then killed here as the last witnesses. Surrounded with Serbian settlements, you know. They know. We know that they know. They were all involved.
If Bosnia's past lies buried here, then the presence of Damir and Sudbin, the two activists for truth and reconciliation, may represent the future.
SUDBIN MUSIC: Bosnia is not only the state, it is the idea and my presence here is making Prijedor multicultural, multi-confessional, multivitamin, whatever…
DAMIR MITRIC: To be standing at Tomasica and to be discussing the future of Bosnia is absurd in some sense. But I think it's also the foundation of any possible living together of the peoples of Bosnia, this will be the foundations of it. And I think if we cannot incorporate this, if we cannot use this as the cement that we're going to use to lay the foundation, then the house will crumble. There's no question about it.
SUDBIN MUSIC: OK, let's go. I cannot stay here anymore. . Yeah. Really.
With our trip to Bosnia drawing to a close, Damir's heard from someone in the historic city of Mostar who says his cousins were captured by Serb forces, but is this the truth?
Mostar is the most devastated city, worse than Sarajevo. It's a vicious fight and it has a long way to go. Built in the 15 hundreds, the city was smashed during the war. Today, it's been rebuilt. And high on a hill overlooking the city, we meet Senad Omerika, an author and documentary maker. He says he has the answers that Damir is looking for.
DAMIR MITRIC (Translation): How is it possible to know exactly what happened?
SENAD OMERIKA (Translation): It is very simple, in 90% of the cases there are witnesses who survived.
He's done years of research with Sarajevo University about the ethnic cleansing that occurred in nearby Nevesinje.
SENAD OMERIKA (Translation): None of the guesses, none of the assumptions, none of the prejudice, put a pure and naked truth.
At long last, Damir is about to learn the fate of his cousins. He knows the truth will be dark.
SENAD OMERIKA (Translation): The first group, actually men were immediately separated and after brutal torture, were taken to a nearby mass grave called Breza, and all of them were shot. The women and children were taken to the town Nevesinje, to a concentration camp called “The Boiler Room.” Which were obviously established at that time. From there they were taken away and all of them were killed at a mass grave.
Damir may never find his cousins' remains, but his belief in a peaceful multi-cultural future is unshakeable.
DAMIR MITRIC: I’m dedicated to this cause. We're fighting for the truth, justice for all people of
Bosnia. Of all ethnic backgrounds, of all people who have lost someone, who have suffered, and we need to honour and preserve that and we need to remember that in order to be able to use our energy more productively.
Reporter
DAVID CORLETT
Story producer
GEOFF PARISH
Camera
WES GREENE
Story editor
RYAN WALSH
MICAH McGOWN
BRENDAN WESTON
Translations
SELIMA DEDIC
FARAH CELJO
Editors
MICAH MCGOWN
DAVID POTTS
RYAN WALSH
Title music
VICKI HANSEN
17 th November 2015