Croats turned on Muslims they had just rescued from the Serb army
Evidence
It is too late for the Muslims of Stolac to “heed the traffic signs.” Stolac was a magnificent small town, built along a rushing river beneath rugged hills with ancient Ottoman fortifications and ancient pre-Ottoman Bosnian tombstones known as steeaks. It was also known for its exquisite, small-scale, seventeenthcentury mosques. Stolac was occupied in 1992 by the Serb army; when Serb forces were driven out, they began shelling the town from nearby mountains. Then the HVO, wearing the masks favored by Serb militias during such operations, turned on the people it had helped save from the Serb army only months before. Here is an account from the UN High Commission for Refugees: “On 23 August 1993, four mosques in Stolac were blown up. That night, witnesses said, military trucks carrying [Croatian] soldiers firing their weapons in the air went through the town terrorizing and rounding up all Muslim women, children, and elderly. The cries and screams of women and children could be heard throughout the town as the soldiers looted and destroyed Muslim homes. The soldiers, who wore handkerchiefs, stockings or paint to hide their faces, took the civilians to Blagaj, an area of heavy fighting northwest of Stolac.” — Michael A. Sells, The Bridge Betrayed, 262
Categorization
- SEED: The betrayal-of-the-rescuer structure (allies who saved you become your executioners, wearing masks to hide identity) is a powerful narrative and essay seed.
- SHARE: Would send to someone working on atrocity forensics or refugee testimony — the UNHCR eyewitness account is a vivid primary document.