(VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED) Sanjak (Bosnian: Sandžak) is a region divided between Serbia and Montenegro, mainly populated by Bosniaks Muslims. During 1990s, it was a place of brutal killings, torture and ethnic cleansing of the Bosniak population perpetrated by the oppressive Serbian regime. Hundreds of Bosniak Muslim villages in Sanjak were ethnically cleansed, looted and burned to the ground. Many people were killed and many went missing. Serbian regime kept the area under tight military control and intense media blockade.
According to the Sanjak Committee for Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms, “Although the authorities of Serbia, Montenegro and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia were trying to prove that there hasn’t been any violations of human rights and freedom of Bosniaks [in Sanjak] – the facts were telling the opposite story.” For example, until 1992 Bosniaks had lived in Sjeverin, Kukurovici, Milanovici, Zaostro, Socica, Zivinac, Voskovina, Jelovik, Batkovici, Medjurecje, Radnje, Dragovici and then, they disappeared.
In the spring and summer of 2006, a team of human rights activists from the Sandzak Committee for Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms visited ethnically cleansed Bosniak Muslim villages in Priboj municipality: Kukorovici, Valovlje, Lisicine, Voskovina, and Sjeverin. By that time, only few residents returned to their pre-war homes. These villages were completely destroyed and burned to the ground, while Bosniak population was forced to flee from their homes – with many residents killed or missing.
The Sanjak Committee for Defence of Human Rights and Freedoms published a book “Svedocenja iz Sandzaka” (Testimonies from Sandzak), documenting numerous victims’ testimonies and human rights abuses in the area. The book is currently available in Bosnian language and you can read it at this link.