secrets of lake perucac

SECRETS OF LAKE PERUCAC

DIJANA MUMINOVIC

I arrived to Visegrad for the first time in September of 2010. Famous for its Ottoman-era bridge, and Nobel Prize winner, Ivo Andric, the town is usually

visited by tourists. I, however, surpassed the bridge and headed towards the Lake Perućac (peh-ruh-cha-ts). I was with two other friends, and despite our promise to be on time, we took the wrong tunnel and arrived late. But Samir, the investigator from the Missing Persons Institute of Bosnia and Herzegovina, waited. He stopped all cars and trucks full of people on their way to the Lake, and welcomed us. I felt more important than ever to be a photojournalist. “You’ll have to leave your car here, then we’ll hop on a canoe.” On a small boat, I was mesmerized by the beauty of my own country: the mountains reflecting in green lake that flows into the river Drina, and there was still some fog—heaven for photos; it all seemed like a wild adventure. Then we arrived. The lake bed was cracked and dry, and people instantly began digging. With tools, hands or whatever gave them more strength, they dug in the same rhythm. My whole body was shaking. Is it possible that at such a beautiful location we were searching for bodies of those killed and thrown in the lake two decades ago? This book is a memory, not only of Visegrad, Lake Perućac and those who still lay beneath the water, but it’s a memory of those who, regardless of weather conditions, searched to find bodies. It was the most humane act I’ve ever seen where people all over the country par-ticipated. Perućac became one of the most significant locations and stories of my life.

By Dijana Muminovic

Secrets of Lake Perucac 2

45 tunnels lead you from capital Sarajevo to Visegrad, where hidden lake Perućac flows into the river Drina. Owned jointly between the municipalities of Srebrenica and Visegrad in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Bajina Basta in Serbia, this artificial lake was created in 1960 by damming the Drina River and combining its flow to power the Bajina Basta hydroelectric power station. As the border between Bosnia and Serbia was often the scene of the conflict, Lake Perućac best tells this story as it reveals its secrets:

In July 2010, due to maintenance at the power station, the lake began to dry. The bodies of people killed in Visegrad in 1992 during the Bosnian War, that ‘disappeared’ were found floating on the surface. The lake uncovered yet an-other secret: an assumed 60-year-old small cemetery of German soldiers from World War II. The lake, 54 km long and 1,100 m wide, is now considered to be the largest mass grave in Europe.

The Missing Persons Institute (MPI) of Bosnia and Herzegovina took advantage of the waterless lake, and began a massive search to find the missing bodies.

Secrets of the Lake


Visegrad in winter of 2011.

VisegradLocated in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Republic of Srpska entity, Visegrad is best known for its Ottoman-era bridge, Mehmed-Pasa Sokolovic, and Nobel Prize winner, Ivo Andric, for Bridge Over Drina novel, written during the World War II. Symbolically, the book speaks of children who were followed by their mothers to the river where the children were taken across on a ferry and the mothers could no longer follow.

Every day during the war in 1992 in Visegrad, one person was killed on the bridge. Their bod-ies were thrown in the lake; 600 of those were women, and 120 children. Just how many people need to be killed for the whole Bridge to be cov-ered in blood?

Visegrad was one of the scenes of ethnic cleans-ing and massacres carried by Bosnian Serb forces against Bosnian Muslims civilians. Accord-ing to the 1991 Yugoslav census, the town had a population of almost 25,000 before the war, where 63 percent were Bosnian Muslims and 33 percent Bosnian Serbs, and 4.4 percent were unclassified. Today, in a predominantly Serbian town, with population of 11,000, only 200 are Bosnian Muslims (Bosniaks).


VolunteersWhen the Missing Persons Institute realized the size of the mass grave Perućac, they publicly announced an invitation for anyone who was able to help. Close to 2,000 students and elderly men and women, all participated in the 74-day search. Though this was the largest volunteer turnout in post-war Bos-nia and Herzegovina, Medical Science Doctor, Hamza Zujo, wished more people knew about the lake. Under the leadership of Amor Masovic, Chairman of the Bosnian Federal Commis-sion for Missing Persons, the MPI was able to find more than 500 mass graves, but close to 10,000 people are still missing. The number of people thrown in the lake is unknown, but with the help of volunteers, 300 were exhumed from Perućac.

Secrets of Lake Perucac 8High School students leaving after their first visit to Lake Perucac.

Admir (Atko) Sabanovic, survivor of the Visegrad Concentration Camp, hoped to find his father at the Lake Perućac, who had been missing since 1992. Like most Bosnian Muslim men in

Visegrad, Atko was taken and locked in a concentration camp, but managed to escape through a back door. “Today, that’s an elementary school,” he said.

When the MPI invited volunteers to Lake Perućac, Atko didn’t think twice. Despite his everyday search, the body of his father was not found at the lake. Then, early morning of Nov. 27, 2010, Atko received the news of where his father’s body may be. As the war legend tells: in a forest near village Rujista near Visegrad, with another man, where the two got shot.

With brother, Azmir, the MPI investigators, forensic antrhopologist, Esma Alicehajic, friend Mirza Smajlovic, and a few other people, in a very personal search, Atko was digging through every hole. On the third day of the search, Atko found a skull. “Twenty years I have been waiting,” he exclaimed. A few meters apart, clothes and shoes were found. Atko’s brother called their mother to describe them. After the search, Atko was able to properly identify and bury his father.


(Page 11 from left to right)Dalila Velic, Adisa Karisik, and Semira Dzanic, volunteer at the lakePerućac, near city Visegrad, to find the bodies of those killed and thrown in the lake in 1992. “I lost two uncles and when I heard that women are going too, I wanted to help to speed up the process,” Velic said.

“It was September 9, 2010, and that evening I watched the news. It was announced that the Missing Persons Institute was seeking help from volunteers with the excavation of mass graves in Lake Perućac. I thought about it all night. I didn’t know what to do. How will I survive if I go? Then I found the information on the Internet where I needed to go to catch the bus. When I arrived, I saw other people, and we exchanged our feelings about all this. Six buses left from Sarajevo, and not all people were young, there were some elderly too. That day was raining and cold. And it was not easy to walk be-cause our loved ones lay beneath the surface. My first day, I did not find much, but I got more energy and inspiration to come back. I wanted to see how it all looked once more when at least one piece of the bone is found. I’ve lost a great num-ber of family members. I lost my father too. This was one of indescribable experiences, mixed with happiness because I was able to find bones, meet new people, and hope that they would find their family members...It was a satisfaction to be there, even in the pouring rain.

-Lejla Dzanic, volunteer

(Page 9) Admir Sabanovic, 30, at the Lake Perućac, searching for remains of his father that was killed in 1992 during the attack of Visegrad. Sabanovic’s fa-ther was found two months later in a forest, an hour away from Lake Perućac.


“I’m searching for four of my cousins.” -Samir Sabanija, investigator and survivor

“I’m searching for four of my cousins, Samir Sabanija, investigator from the Missing Persons Institute said. They were last seen in their houses in Visegrad.”


(Page 15) Goran Micic, left, shows an ID to Admir Sabanovic, right, that was found in a pit while searching for remains of Sabanovic’s father who was killed in 1992. With the help of few friends, the MPI, and the ICMP, Saba-novic was able to find bones of his father. The ID belonged to the man found with Sabanovic’s father; father of Adisa Karisik who volun-teered at Lake Perućac.

(Page 16) Scull found at the Lake Perućac, Sept. 20, 2010.

(Page 18) Forensic Anthropologist, Dra-gana Vucetic, at the Tuzla Identification Coordination Division (ICD) July 9, 2010. The ICMP has helped exhuming bodies from Lake Perućac.

“I waited twenty years to find him.”-Atko Sabanovic, survivor


Identifying PersonsIn the last 20 years, the Missing Persons Institute has worked to find missing persons in Bosnia and Herzegovina. With help from the In-ternational Commission for the Missing Persons (ICMP), 180 victims were identified from Lake Perucac. “The identification is done through the DNA,” Forensic Anthropologists, Dragana Vucetic, explains. “We take blood samples from family members and then match them.” Before this process, people were simply identified by their clothes, but professionals have found that victims used to share clothes, and therefore some of the identified members had to be re-identified.

The house of Kustura family is an example of many of the houses in Visegrad, but also in Bosnia and Herze-govina. Just before the war, people began building new homes, but unfortunately never finished them. Thou-sands of houses were destroyed, robbed and their owners either killed or forced to flee. During the Bosnian War that lasted almost four years, 2.2 million people were displaced. 64,341 Bosniak soldiers and civilians, 24,724 Serbs, and 7,632 Croats were killed for a total of 100,000.


“The hardest part is when we have to call the person and let them know we found their family member.”

-Samir Sabanija, investigator

() Medical Science Doctor, Hamza Zujo, walks by the flags put next to the bones found in Lake Perućac, Sept. 22, 2010. “This is the most hu-mane job,” Dr. Zujo says about volun-teers who came to help. “But I think there should be more volunteers to help speed up the process.” Dr. Zujo said that he’s expecting a lot of blood samples.

(Page 22) Volunteers helped searching for remains at the Lake Perućac on a rainy day, Sept. 29, 2010.

Vernes Mulic, volunteer

“I ask myself, what is it that prompted me to go? If for a moment you forget reality and put yourself in a position of those who twenty years later, still don’t know anything about their loved ones, it is easy to see how Perućac was almost an obligation. In order to help a friend as they searched for their loved one, only to find peace and closure, is something I can hardly explain to anyone who was not there at least once. Call for volunteers was something that changed me as a person. But it’s strange how in all that sadness and fear, it gave me the opportu-nity to meet and get to know an amazing group of people who will forever remain in my heart. Perućac was the duty of all of us, and should I have the same opportunity, I wouldn’t be a bit hesitant.”

Divided TownWhile on one side of Drina River people dug the ground to find their loved ones, on the other side, people built cafes, went fishing and swam in the river. The town is ethnically Serbian now. Where once people were locked in a concen-tration camp, today it serves as an elementary school. But the landscape of this area continues to hide all its cruelty.


(Page 27) Suvad Halilovic, MPI investigator and a survivor, makes a stop in Rogatica near Visegrad before going to Lake Perućac. The place will be investigated by Halilovic and his team.

(Page 28) A local person from Visegrad catches fish close to the area where bodies were exhumed at the Lake Perućac.

“This was the concentration camp I was locked in. Now it’s an elementary school.”

-Atko Sabanovic, survivor

Admir Sabanovic looks inside an elementary class-room where he was once locked in, as the room served as a concentraion camp during the war. Secrets of Lake Perucac 30

“Mom, I would give the entire river Vrbas for a meter of Drina,” Dalila Velic ex-claimed when she first saw the green river flow in Visegrad, back when she could have never imagined its tragic secrets.

“I would come to Visegrad, and my grandparents and uncles would welcome me. Today, there is no one waiting for me. Uncles were taken, then killed two days before my third birthday. They were tortured and thrown in a pit along with 50 other men. My grandfather died before the bodies of my uncles were found. In 2003, my parents and my grandmother returned to Visegrad. Before grandmother died, her only wish was to be buried next to her sons.

Each visit to Visegrad amazed me. I had gotten to know other returnees and their unfortunate destinies. So when I heard about Perućac on the news, I took a shovel from my aunt and off I went. I had one goal: to help find someone who is looking for their loved one so that we can bury them with dignity, and have a place for them where someone can say a prayer.

My whole family supported my decision. The first day I feared the un-known, and I imagined how I would react if I saw a skull. But then I thought of all the missing people, beneath all that sludge.

I became friends with Mirsada, a French teacher, and together with 10 young men, older men and women, we dug around the lake. One day we found remains of one grandma, her blouse and her scarf. I thought, how can someone carelessly throw an old, feeble soul in the river like a worth-less object? How can a human arm tie a child to their mother with a wire and throw them into the cold Drina, like you throw stones into the water?

Every dig brought new hope, and every found bone brought more encour-agement. My wish is that one day I’ll have a chance and again help find the ones we left. Until then, I ask Drina to guard their graves.”

-Dalila Velic, volunteer


3000 Roses Every year at the end of May, to commemorate the 3,000 people killed from Visegrad, people all over the country gather on the Mehmed-Pasa Sokolovic bridge, and throw 3,000 roses in the river. This symbolic act is followed by a funeral where people say their last goodbyes to those who were found and properly identified that year. In 2011, Wom-en in Black of Serbia also arrived to show their support, amidst the continued tension between ethnicities.

(Page 35) Women In Black of Serbia, hold roses during an anniversary in Visegrad, in memorial to the 3,000 people killed in the war. Amidst the continued tension between ethnicities, the Women In Black of Serbia are one group trying to reach out a hand between the communities.

(Page34) Women during the anniversary of Visegradgenocide prepare to throw roses in the river Drina to commemorate those killed during the war in 1992.

“How can human’s hand tie a child to their mother and throw them into the cold Drina, like you throw stones into the water?”

-Dalila Velic, Volunteer


Women gathered during the 15th an-niversary of the Srebrenica genocide in Potocari July 11, 2010. Majority of the victims found in Lake Perucac were from Visegrad, however, some were from Srebrenica and Zepa.

“We knew about the Lake since 1992, when people from the surrounding hills saw bodies floating in the lake, but we were not in a posi-tion to do anything,” said Samir Sabanija, an investigator and survivor. “Anyone who listened to stories of survivors knew that,” added Hikmet Karcic, volunteer. 120 bodies were extracted in Slap, place on Lake Perućac. Some were from other places like Srebrenica and Zepa. After the victims are identified, they are buried during the annual memorial for Visegrad victims.


Lake FloodedI knew an end to Lake Perućac was coming. There wasn’t enough time, not enough people. As I looked at the already submerged orange flag, usually placed by found bones, Samir kept telling me that it will all be flooded soon. “But why in the mists of search? We haven’t even picked all the bones we found,” I thought. But the conflict between the Bosnian and Serb border was still much in the air. Then Samir called: “We begged them not to release the water, we begged them.” So many people hoped to find their family members when the Perućac mass grave was discovered. Before Perućac, there has never been a greater number of blood samples given for the DNA analysis. Unfortunately, thousands of bodies continue to lay beneath the water; some people will never find their loved ones. Exhumation at the Lake may never hap-pen again, Samir said, perhaps in 50 years if another error occurs at the dam.

(From left to right) Nerma Mujkic-Mustafic, Admir Sabanovic, Namir Basic, Elvisa Tatlic, Aida Sendo Bajric at the Lake Perućac.


“We could have done better, we could have done more. Forgive us our fathers, mothers, daughters, sons. Forgive that we couldn’t get to you, and that the cold Drina remains your eternal grave.”

-Dalila Velic, volunteer


Three years after the Lake was flooded, an unecpected but wishful trip to Perućac took place. Bajina Basta al-lowed another search that lasted the whole month of September 2013. The MPI, with the help from firefighters, found 19 victims. It hasn’t been determined if the remains are part of those found in 2010, or new victims. As of now, this was the last chance at the Lake. Perhaps 50 years from now, some other people will rediscover the tragic secrets of Lake Perućac, and finish what we couldn’t.


(Page 43) Volunteers leaving the Lake after a whole day of searching for remains of those killed and thrown in the river.

(Page 45)“Just few meters on the right a helicopter landed when we were exhuming here, Samir Sabanija said about the lake that was filled with the water. Sabanija was present at the lake every single day for three months. “We came here today and everything is gone.”

You can never be as dullas I can be deaf.You can never be so voraciousas I can be giving.You can never destroyas much as I can create,and you can never, and never, be as cruel, as I can be kind.

–Ivo Andric


THIS BOOK IS INTENDED FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES AND EVIDENCE OF THIS PARTICULAR EVENT. IT IS PROHIBITED FROM ANY PROPAGANDA, MISUSE AND MISREPRESENTATION. ALL STORIES AND PHOTOGRAPHY ARE REAL CONTENT AND EXPERIENCES FROM SURVIVORS AND VOLUNTEERS.

TO SAMIR AND KOPACI AMATERI © All Rights Reserved Dijana Muminovic www.dijanaphoto.com

Dijana Muminovic/Alexia Foundation

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