"They are deliberately killing me," Ferid Klapuh told "Vijesti" after the International Commission's laboratory in The Hague confirmed the identities of his mother and sister, Ferida and Sena, whose remains were found in early June this year in the old cemetery below Trebjesa in Nikšić.
DNA analysis did not confirm a match with the remains, which were believed to belong to his father Hasan, which is why the Government Commission for Missing Persons announced a new inspection and expansion of the exhumation zone at the same location.
Ferid, the only surviving member of the Klapuh family from Foča, who were brutally murdered in early July 1992 in Plužine when they tried to find salvation from the war in Montenegro, has been waiting for more than 33 years to find them and bury them all together with dignity in Sarajevo.
In addition, Klapuh is also waiting for justice, that is, for Bosnia and Herzegovina to initiate proceedings against the two people convicted in Montenegro for this crime – Bosnian citizens Radomir Kovač and Zoran Vuković, who still live in Foča today.
"Vijesti" sent questions to the Government Commission for Missing Persons, the Center for Forensic Medicine of the Croatian Center for Forensic Medicine, and the Institute for Missing Persons of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but no answers or clarifications regarding the exhumation have been received.
In addition, there have been no responses from the institutions regarding the stage of the BiH Prosecutor's Office's decision on whether to finally initiate proceedings against Kovač and Vuković in that country, since last year the Ministry of Justice of Montenegro, through international legal assistance, sent them a complete case file with evidence collected during the court proceedings in the mid-90s before the Higher Court in Podgorica.
Ferid Klapuh says he is resigned to the way the exhumation was carried out this summer in Nikšić, claiming that the mistake would not have occurred if they had prepared properly and thoroughly for the procedure.
"If they had just looked at the autopsy report, which is in the court files, they would have known that the jaw was displaced by the bullet. Based on that, they could have determined the discrepancy during the exhumation, and not dug up the wrong person. Believe me, they had 1000 ways to compare," said Klapuh in a low voice, who had been hoping for months that news would arrive from The Hague that he had finally found the remains of the entire family.
"After years of torture, I just want to bury them with dignity. They told me that they will soon exhume them again in the same place. My father's remains are probably there. It used to be a cemetery. It is now abandoned, but there are still remains and bones, without any markings or markings. I just want to finish this, and it is taking too long. Since 2016, I have been fighting institutionally to find my family. This has been going on for a very long time. I am suffering torture, incompetence, incompetence, and perhaps even conscious obstruction," said Ferid Klapuh.
The son and brother of the brutally murdered family, he said, are left with another wait.
"I'll have to keep waiting," said Klapuh, who decided that he would only bury the family together when he finds the remains of his father Hasan.
Human Rights Action's legal advisor Bojana Malović told "Vijesti" that, according to information they have from the Commission for Missing Persons, the exhumation will be carried out in March/April next year, when forensic experts say the weather conditions are suitable.
"In January, representatives of the commission and forensic experts will have a meeting and agree on the details," she said.
She believes that the problem, which relates exclusively to this case, is a reflection of Montenegro's long-standing institutional unwillingness to thoroughly address all issues related to war crimes, including the search and identification of missing persons.
"The fact that the Guidelines for Tracing Missing Persons in Montenegro were adopted only in July 2025 – more than three decades after the wars – speaks volumes, which clearly shows that there was no awareness of the need for a systematic approach to this issue before. It was only with the adoption of the Guidelines that clear competencies and procedures were introduced, including who, in different situations, is responsible for ordering and conducting exhumation. It was precisely the absence of such information in the Klapuh case that led to months of "transferring" competencies between institutions on who should order the exhumation, which justifiably deepened Mr. Klapuh's dissatisfaction," Malović explained.
When asked by "Vijesti" how the remains of three women came to be exhumed, even though two female and one male were wanted, Malović could not comment, stating that only those who performed the exhumation can provide accurate information about this.
Criminals without punishment
Hasan, Ferida and their daughter Sena Klapuh from Foča attempted to escape to Montenegro from war-torn Bosnia and Herzegovina in early July 1992. In order to find safety, the family paid four members of the "Dragan Nikolić" detachment of the Army of Republika Srpska, including their neighbor Zoran Vuković, to safely transport them to Montenegro on July 6, 1992.
They crossed the border in three cars, and the family was in the vehicle with Vuković. The detachment members stopped at the bridge above the Piva canyon, next to the Mratinje dam.
During the court proceedings in Montenegro, it was determined that Hasan was killed first, then his wife Ferida, and finally their daughter Sena.
All three were pushed off a bridge into the Piva canyon, more than 100 meters deep, and two days after the brutal crime, their bodies were spotted by a road worker from Plužine.
An autopsy determined that the mother and daughter were still alive when they were pushed off the bridge.
The court documents state that after the crime, the defendants stopped at a tavern at the border crossing, and the then police officer from Šćepan Polje, as a witness in the proceedings, said that he "saw them drinking and having dinner."
In 1996, Janko Janjić, Radomir Kovač, Zoran Simović and Zoran Vuković were sentenced in Montenegro to 20 years in prison each for triple murder, qualified as a war crime against the civilian population, while their accomplice Vidoje Golubović was sentenced to eight months for failing to report the crime.
Golubović was the only one who served his sentence, and the others were tried in absentia because they were on the run.
Despite the verdict, the first in Montenegro for a war crime, justice was never served. The four convicted in absentia did not serve a single day of their sentence. Simović and Janjić have since passed away, while Kovač and Vuković still live freely in Foča.
Kovač and Vuković can only be brought to justice if they are retried in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as they cannot serve the sentence imposed in absentia in Montenegro in their home country. Furthermore, Bosnia and Herzegovina will not extradite its citizens convicted of war crimes to Podgorica.
This is standard criminal law practice that a country does not extradite its citizens to other countries for war crimes trials. On the other hand, BiH does not accept trials in absentia (as was the case in Montenegro) and consequently would not be able to execute the verdict of the court in Montenegro but to initiate proceedings in BiH (which is again controversial since it is fundamentally contrary to the principle of "ne bis in idem" or "not twice in the same case"), which actually means that persons who have already been tried for the same matter in BiH cannot be tried again for the same case.
Decision pending
Whether Kovač and Vuković will be held accountable for the murder of the Klapuh family depends on the decision of the Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which received the entire case file with evidence from Montenegro last year.
Ferid Klapuh says that he received information from the Minister of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina that the Higher Court in Podgorica had transferred the case with the documentation.
"I am not a direct participant in this procedure, but I receive the information through the Minister of Justice of BiH. According to an international agreement, there is an obligation for BiH to take over and initiate the case. I expected that. These people live in BiH," said Klapuh.
HRA Legal Advisor Bojana Malović announced that the Ministry of Justice of Montenegro submitted this case to Bosnia and Herzegovina a year ago, along with the entire evidentiary documentation on the basis of which the perpetrators were finally convicted in absentia in 1996.
"Although BiH does not recognize verdicts rendered in absentia, the prosecution, based on the evidence provided, would have to initiate proceedings against Radomir Kovač and Zoran Vuković, who are still alive. Their participation in the crime has already been proven in the Montenegrin proceedings, and the fact that they still live in Foča indisputably creates an obligation for BiH to react. Why this has not happened yet remains unknown," Malović stressed.
She also responded that there are no legal obstacles for BiH to take over and initiate the case.
"There are no legal obstacles for Bosnia and Herzegovina to take over this case. Both Vuković and Kovač are citizens of BiH. That country does not recognize the verdict from Montenegro, it cannot extradite them, and the verdict had no effect on them because they did not spend a single day in prison. Therefore, BiH has full authority to take over the case and initiate new proceedings," she stressed.
TRIAL International - Office in BiH sent "Vijesti" a legal analysis of relevant and controversial issues related to the Klapuh case, noting that as an organization they can only provide answers to questions related to the legal framework, institutional obligations and general standards for the protection of the rights of war crimes victims.
"As an organization, we express deep respect for the suffering of all victims of war crimes and their families. We consistently advocate for every victim to be treated with dignity, care and empathy, and to ensure their right to truth, justice and recognition of the suffering they have suffered. We believe that improving the position of victims, as well as building a responsible and trusting relationship between states, is inextricably linked to the ability of institutions to deal with the issues and demands of victims' families in a sensitive, responsible and humane manner, with full respect for their pain and rights," TRIAL International - Office in BiH states.
The extensive legal analysis by TRIAL international BiH states that in 2021, the Court of BiH rejected a request for international legal assistance in criminal matters in terms of recognition and execution of the verdict of the Montenegrin court for the crime committed against the Klapuh family in 1992.
The Court of BiH refused to enforce the verdict against Kovač in the Klapuh case, citing in its explanation that the defendants had already been tried in absentia, or "that this was a matter that had already been adjudicated."
TRIAL International – Office in BiH states in its analysis that the 1972 European Convention on the Transfer of Proceedings in Criminal Matters stipulates the possibility for one High Contracting Party to request that criminal proceedings be transferred to another High Contracting Party.
Article 8 of the European Convention prescribes certain conditions under which this is possible, including, among other things, if the requesting state is unable to enforce the judgment itself even if it resorts to extradition.
"The purpose of this paragraph is to prevent the perpetrator from escaping punishment for a criminal offense committed solely because the requesting state is unable to enforce the sentence imposed on its territory or to ensure that another state enforces that sentence. However, this paragraph can also serve to prevent the described impunity when the requested state, for any reason (including political reasons which, unfortunately, are often an accompanying factor when it comes to criminal offenses related to the war activities of the 90s in the territory of the SFRY), is unwilling to enforce the sentence imposed by the requesting state," writes a detailed analysis by TRIAL International - Office.
Criminals tried in The Hague
The two convicted in the Klapuh case, Radomir Kovač and Zoran, were arrested in 1999 in Bosnia and Herzegovina and extradited to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague, but for other crimes committed during the war in the territory of Foča.
Kovač was sentenced to 20 years in prison and Vuković to 12 years in prison in The Hague for crimes against humanity and violations of the laws and customs of war. Vuković was convicted, among other things, of raping a 15-year-old girl, which was the first verdict by the Hague Tribunal for rape as a crime against humanity.
At the end of November 2002, they were transferred to Norway to serve their sentences. Vuković was released in 2008, and Kovač in 2013.
The convicted Janjić was also supposed to be extradited to The Hague, but he committed suicide during his arrest in BiH.
Although the verdict for the murder of the Klapuh family became final in 1996, Montenegro only issued an international arrest warrant for Kovač and Vuković in 2015.
According to that warrant, Vuković was arrested at the end of December 2015 at the Kotroman border crossing.
He spent several months in extradition detention, and then the Belgrade Special Court for War Crimes determined in March 2016 that the conditions for extradition to Montenegro had been met.
The court's decision was overturned by the then Minister of Justice, Nikola Selaković, who did not sign the decision, so Vuković found himself at large.
Bojana Malović explains that it should be recalled that Serbia previously showed a lack of will to cooperate in this case, when it did not extradite Zoran Vuković to Montenegro despite the fact that all conditions for extradition existed.
"This fact opens up the possibility that a certain level of protection for perpetrators still exists today, including in Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, any political influence or protection must not affect the work of the Prosecutor's Office of BiH - it is obliged, based on the evidence provided, to act in accordance with the law and initiate criminal proceedings, especially taking into account the gravity of the war crime and the availability of the defendants on their territory.
That the family be buried with dignity with state honors
33 years ago, the remains of the Klapuh family were temporarily buried without any grave markers.
This, as the HRA legal advisor emphasized, is not an adequate attitude towards anyone, especially civilian victims of war crimes.
"A dignified farewell would therefore not only represent an act of respect for the victims, but also a symbolic sign of recognition of their suffering and the state's responsibility. This is a key element in the process of achieving justice and demonstrates the seriousness of the state in its attitude towards war crimes," Malović stated.
Human rights activist and advocate of memory policies Aleksandar Saša Zeković submitted an initiative to Prime Minister Milojko Spajić, supported by the HRA, for the Government to form an appropriate committee, which would organize that the remains of the Klapuh family, once fully found, be buried in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) in a dignified manner, at the expense of the state and with a send-off from Montenegro, with appropriate state honors.
"The state of Montenegro needs to take a proactive approach by monitoring, respecting and acknowledging all the circumstances surrounding this case. I also spoke with Deputy Prime Minister Momo Koprivica about the appropriate sending off of the remains of the Klapuh family. He supported the initiative to send the remains of the deceased family out of the country with dignity and with the participation of the Government," Zeković told "Vijesti".
He stated that a new exhumation could be carried out in Nikšić in the spring, because the previous grave sites of the Klapuh family members, due to the negligence of the previous authorities, were not adequately marked.
"This shows how irresponsible we have been in the past and how necessary it is for us to change that relationship," he said.
This text was created as part of a project implemented by TRIAL International in cooperation with the Human Rights Action from Montenegro.
Bonus video:
