Foča

As of 3 July 1992, about seventy civilian women were detained in two classrooms at this school. Around 13 July 1992, all the detained women were transferred to the Partizan Gymnasium. The detainees were guarded and lived in an intimidating atmosphere with the knowledge and sometimes even direct involvement of the local authorities, particularly the police. Serbian soldiers and police officers, including Foča police chief Draga Gagovic, took out detainees and raped them.

The inmates could not leave the facility because it was guarded, but the guards did not prevent the soldiers from entering. Witness FWS-95 (one of the detainees) once saw a security guard trying to prevent soldiers from entering the classrooms, but they told him that they had a document signed by Dragan Gagovic allowing them to enter the building and take women. According to what witness FWS-95 heard, the document states that soldiers need sexual intercourse to improve their fighting spirit. About two days after the prisoners were taken to the school, a group of soldiers came every night.

They would select women and take them for hours, sometimes all night. The women were beaten, humiliated, raped and sexually abused ‘in every possible way.’ The selection procedure was as follows: soldiers entered the hall, pointed to a certain woman or called her by her first name. Then they took her to another classroom, raped her, and then brought her back. The soldiers threatened to kill the women or their children if they did not agree. Women who dared to resist were beaten. 

– Witness FWS-48 was told that the soldiers were ordered to rape women.