The Centre for Civic Education (CCE) reminds the public that tomorrow, 6 July, marks the 34th anniversary of the murder of three members of the Klapuh family from Foča, for which, despite a final judgment delivered almost three decades ago, almost none of the perpetrators has served a prison sentence.
When they decided to flee the war-affected territory, Hasan, his wife Ferida, and their daughter Sena Klapuh paid acquaintances, members of the “Dragan Nikolić” special unit of the Army of Republika Srpska, to transport them safely to Montenegro. It would later emerge that they had paid their murderers for that “service”. After crossing the border into Montenegro, they stopped not far from the Mratinje Dam in Plužine, where, according to the autopsy findings, Hasan was killed first, after which Ferida and Sena were shot and pushed down a cliff. Their bodies were found the following day by a road worker.
The trial that followed was one of the first proceedings for war crimes in the territory of the former Yugoslavia, and the final judgment in this case was also the first final judgment for a war crime in Montenegro. The investigation covered six individuals, while the indictment of the Senior Public Prosecutor from February 1993 included Janko Janjić, Zoran Vuković, Zoran Simović, Radomir Kovač and Vidoje Golubović, whereas Milomir Kovač, Radomir Kovač’s brother, was not included because he had committed suicide shortly after the crime was committed. In the first-instance judgment of the High Court in Podgorica, delivered two months after the indictment was filed, all the accused, except Golubović, were convicted in absentia and sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment each. Following an appeal, the proceedings were returned for a retrial and were finally concluded in 1997. The sentences remained the same, but with a different legal qualification, as the court accepted the prosecution’s position that the offence constituted a war crime against the civilian population rather than murder, as had been established in the first-instance judgment.
Vidoje Golubović was convicted of failing to report the commission of a criminal offence and sentenced to eight months’ imprisonment, which was deemed to have been served due to the time he had spent in pre-trial detention. Two of the perpetrators, Zoran Vuković and Radomir Kovač, were also convicted in 2002 for crimes committed in the Foča area in the Kunarac et al. case (IT-96-23 & 23/1), receiving sentences of 20 years’ and 12 years’ imprisonment, respectively. They served their sentences in Norway, but Vuković was granted early release in 2008, while Kovač was released in 2013. Janko Janjić was included in the same indictment, but he was never held accountable either for that crime or for the crime against the Klapuh family, as he committed suicide by detonating two hand grenades during an arrest operation, killing two SFOR members in the process. The least is known about the fate of Zoran Simović, who remained a fugitive for decades, but according to information obtained by Radio Free Europe from the Basic Court in Foča, he died in 2020. Vuković and Kovač lived freely in Foča, as the bilateral agreement between Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina does not allow for their extradition or the transfer of enforcement of a sentence imposed following a trial in absentia in Montenegro, and they can only be brought to justice through a new trial in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
At the beginning of June 2025, human remains believed to belong to members of the Klapuh family were exhumed in Nikšić, having been found near the tennis courts, where, according to available information, the victims had been buried without any marker or official record. The Government Commission on Missing Persons announced that DNA analysis identified the remains of Ferida and Sena Klapuh. As Hasan Klapuh’s remains have still not been found, the Commission will continue searching the old Muslim cemetery and expand the excavation area.
Even after 34 years, this case remains a symbol of incomplete justice – not only because, apart from one convicted individual, the sentences imposed have not been enforced, but also because the remains of all the victims have still not been recovered. However, the passage of time must not diminish the obligation of institutions to secure justice for the victims of war crimes.
The CCE calls on the competent institutions, within the scope of their legal responsibilities and on the basis of the documentation submitted, to ensure the prosecution and punishment of those perpetrators who are available to the judiciary of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to complete the search for the remains of the third member of the Klapuh family so that all the victims may finally be given a dignified burial, and to permanently and appropriately mark the site of this crime as a place of remembrance and warning. This is the minimum measure of justice owed to the innocently murdered members of the Klapuh family, their closest relatives, and a society that must not allow war crimes to remain without their full legal and moral conclusion.
As part of its edition on the process of dealing with the past in Montenegro, the CCE has published a publication bringing together the court files from the Klapuh case, providing a more detailed insight into the circumstances and course of this crime.
Maja Marinović, Programme Associate