Yugoslavia (Serbia): hostage-taking / fear of deliberate and arbitrary killings

Armed and masked men abducted 16 of those referred to above, Sandzak Muslims from the village of Sjeverin in Serbia, on 22 October 1992. They were travelling to work in the neighbouring Serbian town of Priboj and were abducted in the village of Mioce, which is in Serb-held Bosnian territory. They were allegedly told that they would be exchanged for Serbs held by Muslim forces and that no harm would come to them. The 17th person, Sabahudin Catovic, “disappeared” from his home in Sjeverin the previous night. None of the 17 have been seen since. A Belgrade newspaper reported on 24 October that 17 Muslims were killed in the neighbourhood of Visegrad in Bosnia on 22 October. The president of Yugoslavia formed a state commission to investigate the “disappearances” on 24 October.

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