Elementary School in Grabovica
Grabovica bb, 78220 Kotor Varoš1992
During 1992, around 200 men, women and children were detained in the Grabovica Elementary School near Kotor Varoš, of whom 150 were later killed. During their captivity they were beaten and abused.
Court facts
ICTY
The Bosnian Serb Army attacked the town of Kotor-Varoš on June 11 and 12, 1992 and forced many Bosniaks and Croats to flee into the forest. The village of Vrbanjci was also attacked. (para. 622. Brđanin, p. 216.), (para. 459. Krajišnik, p. 173.), (paras. 376., 378. Stanišić and Župljanin, volume I, p. 121.), (para. 921. Mladić, volume I, p. 471.)
In November 1992, a group of about 200 Bosniak men, women, and children were fleeing hostilities in the Kotor-Varoš area and decided to walk from Večići to Travnik, but surrendered when they were ambushed by Serb forces. They were taken to a school in Grabovica and detained in the classrooms. (para. 432. Brđanin, p. 163.), (para. 465. Krajišnik, p. 175.), (para. 916. Mladić, vol. I, p. 469.)
The women and children were later separated and put on buses, while on November 4, 1992, the men who had been captured and detained in the Grabovica school, about 150 of them, were killed. (para. 433. Brđanin, pp. 163-164.), (para. 465. Krajišnik, pp. 175-176.), (para. 892. Mladić, vol. I, p. 459.)
Approximately 120 to 130 of these men, who were later found in civilian clothes, were forced into trucks and killed in a field in Duboka and in Maljava. Approximately 25 were killed in the school sports hall. (para. 892. Mladić, vol. I, p. 459.)
The women and children detained in the Grabovica school were verbally abused by locals on their way out and forced to pass through a line of civilians who beat them. (para. 819. Brđanin, p. 266.)
In Kotor-Varoš, the Serb authorities detained civilians, mostly Croat and Bosniak, in at least 14 detention centres. These included the police building, the prison, a sawmill, the Kotor-Varoš primary school, the secondary school, the Grabovica Elementary School, Alagićev or Đevdin cafe in Vrbanjci, the Jelšingrad factory, the school in Maslovare, the old court building, Šiprage, Kozara, the health centre, and the gas station in Vrbanjci. (paras. 461-464. Krajišnik, pp. 174-175.)
Several men, women, and children of Bosniak ethnicity were detained in the school in Grabovica in July or August 1992, where they were beaten and abused with axes, sticks, and hayforks. (para. 462. Krajišnik, p. 174.)
Izudin Botić is still searching for his father Ferid, who disappeared with a group of more than 160 people at the school in Grabovica, near Kotor Varoš, where traces of blood were washed from the walls so children could continue attending classes. Today there is no sign at the old school to recall the murders and torture of civilians there.
Izudin Botić — “Grabovica” Primary School, Kotor Varoš
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Elementary School in Grabovica
Grabovica bb, 78220 Kotor Varoš