The nation, as an ethnic group with an organised state, among its constitutive features includes sharing the same historical and cultural conditions. The culture of a community is based on a shared history, taking the shape of the order of facts that was established.
By common saying, that’s winners who write history.
Makeshift is a project on rewriting history in Bosnia and Hercegovina, focusing on mass atrocities of Bosnian War, places where they were committed, and their erased context. In most cases, places used to keep, torture, rape and murder civilians were renovated after the war, and thus restored to their former purpose of buildings of public utility. History is a collectively set narration, so it has the ability of being rewritten from scratch, to omit things that had to be forgotten. Given the fact that a vital part of events of Bosnian War of 1992-1995 is now concealed by new historical narrations to maintain the integrity of newly founded society of divided ethnical groups, it’s extremely important to analyse this conflict, the reasons behind it and the aftermath of it. A lot of them seem universal and beyond specific place and time, and thus could be easily repeated again. The entire landscape bears contamination that part of newly written history wants to erase.
In 2020 project was published as a digital piece in cooperation with Krzysztof Pijarski and Michał Szota, as a part of vnLab program.
![Bodies of those murdered during the ethnic cleansing of Visegrad were thrown into the river. River carried the bodies further downstream, and during maintenance work on nearby Perućac dam, skeletal remains of more than 300 people were found.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f82ee61a5175dd7f6ed9da23f82396ee67a919c98bc44d27c2fc69e7280c07dc/makeshift_01.jpg)
![In the basement of one of the housing estates a detention camp was organised. One of the witnesses testified that he was interrogated and asked about names of other Chetniks. When he confirmed that he knew one of the men listed, he was beaten for 12 hours. Main inspector responsible for the camp looked after the torture process, and took part.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/588d06da79fc7478606a692f7e1b681612f6b5ce096983b35f5d9352554785ae/makeshift_03.jpg)
![Built in 1981 as a part of Sarajevo’s preparation to host Winter Olympic Games in 1984, bobsleigh and luge track was located on the slopes of Trebević mountain, a popular destination for weekend trips above the city. Olympic Games were percieved as a huge success, and one of the common denominators for Yugoslav society.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/26cbc1f1de4e58d7f75596d51b0f41fea0a2680eb2c78c76dd79cac0a029d61a/makeshift_02.jpg)
![Some 6,000 to 7,000 Muslims were interned at the stadium on 10 June 1992. They were reportedly forced to serve as blood donors, and some did not survive because so much blood had been withdrawn. Reportedly, the bodies of hundreds of individuals have been burned or thrown into the Drina River.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7ebea705dfbbbbff3449652cd5d60d7437e887bba365491f8067498b874870bf/makeshift_11.jpg)
One subject described the White House as the most infamous structure at the camp. He stated that the building was where the camp authorities held those they called extremists. According to the subject, the first room to the left was the punishment room, where hardly anyone came out alive.
Reports stated that no one was killed with a gun at the White House, only by beatings and the like. According to reports, in the morning prisoners would see bodies piled up next to the white house. Subject estimated that guards killed five to 10 men per night, and up to 30 prisoners on some nights. He added that guards sang as they beat prisoners to death and sometimes sang nationalistic and religious songs.
![White House, Omarska. First room to the left.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/7240f399cd024055cf594788c6e8ec4ca80c79dae5379e07405e8e5c79d1b2cd/makeshift_05.jpg)
![School ground, Trnopolje. It was referred to as a «refugee reception centre» or an «open camp» by Serb authorities. However, according to one report, Trnopolje was actually run like a detention centre from May to August 1992. The camp was discovered by two crews of journalists on 7.08.1992, and one of photographs, depicting emaciated Fikret Alić behind barbed wire, was later printed on the cover of Time Magazine.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c342e52c9bd57311a1cd40f62db2975453dd077a68cfe251c789289d047a50c5/makeshift_06.jpg)
![One subject stated that he counted 50 prisoners killed by beating, torture or shooting. Another subject reportedly witnessed the guards at the camp shoot a man and then jump on his head. The same subject also reported prisoners being forced into genital biting. It was also reported that one prisoner earned the nickname «rubber man» because he never let himself be knocked down.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b4e90ce2371a6d77aa37d63d7fb7cc315ebcd170cade0e4a2a32e250ea414a0d/makeshift_07.jpg)
![It was reported that the men were tormented, abused and beaten for the next four days by soldiers in the camp's parking lot. Thereafter, the prisoners were put back into Room 3. The temperature outside and inside was sweltering. According to reports, the men in Room 3 had not been given water for three days, and started to lost their minds. The men reportedly were running out of air in the room, hallucinating, and taking off their clothes. As they lost control, soldiers from the outside reportedly warned: «We're going to kill you if you don't stop.» According to a subject who was in Room 2, machine guns were lined up next to the door of Room 3. Another subject reported that he was near the door in Room 1 and saw five machine gun bays, all shooting into Room 3.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e9da779e7995ce4e86e37e39985b0061a8e546ce6d5e9205bc4e6da1a4828554/makeshift_08.jpg)
![Nesting a small village by the same name, known as a partisan stronghold from II WW, Korićani cliffs rise above the canyon of Ilomska river to the altitude of 1,200 meters. Each year on 21st of August, 250 roses are thrown from Korićani cliffs into the abyss hiding Ilomska river in an act of remembrance. On this date in 1992 about 250 men taken from Trnopolje camp were executed by gunfire and thrown into the ravine.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1d1960b570c059350f5f7d294531786a2a8b74f2cab1dcc411b9f02c23a78063/makeshift_04.jpg)
![Building of former Museum of the Revolution in Jablanica was used as a detention centre. Reports estimate the number of inmates for about 800 people.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/361a7605f1b74f7bfa2d6c82cb4f9a4f0ffca3f5d1173c25060c403dc991c209/makeshift_12.jpg)
![The victim was blindfolded and beaten both with truncheons and what he believes were bags of sand. In another account, the reporting inmate described one room in the cellar without windows and which was completely dark. The witness noted that there was a candle but not enough air to sustain the flame. It was reportedly also difficult to breathe.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/32aca688ac2df00f0208a114b5f011f0237bfa1c7f15ec320fcde7a6e57ec480/makeshift_13.jpg)
![In September 1993, the camp commander reported 1300 inmates including two women who refused to leave. As a revenge for failures on the front, the guards sometimes stopped the distribution of food and water. It was reported that HVO forces gave approximately 200 male inmates four hours to decide whether they would leave BiH for a third country. They were then given an hour and a half to go to their homes to gather their families and their belongings. The HVO police then took these prisoners and their families to the Croatian border where they were further escorted to Gasinci. Several of these prisoners were interviewed, they were in bad physical and mental health. They stated that during their first two days of internment they were not given anything to eat.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d4f624f74c11b3b5be32efcb6448b1f3d8459d19c655386008a8ee3767f5ed14/makeshift_14.jpg)
![As there were no other rooms available in the building, women were occasionally raped in the gym in front of all the detainees including children, or outside the building on the meadow. On several occasions, several women were taken out and driven in a car to other locations, kept several days and nights at one place and raped every night by a different group of soldiers.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/da3991c7a558b3cf3d36ff057e84cbd1150607727612850af9835bf6ce2a808a/makeshift_15.jpg)
![One of the women describes her arrest, after which she was kept for six months and raped. Camp was organised in a private home of an owner who worked in Germany, Nusret Karaman. Among the women held in Karaman’s house there were minors as young as 15 years of age. Two of interviewed women testified that they were able to see their home from the camp. According to another source, by September the only Muslims left in Miljevina were girls kept in this camp.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1a320c69043132a513f94b82570d65a7b3e982e39aaad3257050700a7730d7a0/makeshift_16.jpg)
One of the prosecuted stated that he visited the site in Vogošća Motel at least once a week on the suggestion or orders of his commanders or his platoon leaders. He stated that he was told it was important for his morale to rape Muslim women. Prosecuted confessed to raping eleven women on this site, and killing them at Zuc mountain afterwards.
Prosecuted also stated that he was present when French and Canadian UNPROFOR soldiers came to take women away in UN APCs, and that UN soldiers raped women and returned them to the restaurant. Prosecuted also added that once he saw General McKenzie, the commander of UNPROFOR in Sarajevo, with four girls. He said he recognised the general from television.
![Sonja’s Kon-Tiki, Vogošća. The motel housed women, while an attached bunker housed men. According to one source, the motel held 50 to 60 Bosnian Muslim girls.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9c483eaa13e4cd9fe3f97d39d873b34e72473fb9f483ea27e815fd081935b033/makeshift_18.jpg)
![ICTY indictments for crimes against humanity lists the Podlugovi Railway Station with description “detainees suffered from the lack of water. On one occasion gas was thrown into the cell.” Independent source claims that the gas throwing incident took lives of 20 people.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a66de366a178cd64d9a9cd60bc7ecc2bf07c1b8c7b1c4e13065824978c362880/26.jpg)
![Murder and torture were a daily occurrence. Many prisoners were killed by being shot in the back of the head. Knives were reported to be used to cut into the skin of the internees all the way to the bone and others had their fingers cut off. Many men were allegedly castrated. Such killings were usually carried out near floor drains which emptied into the Sava river. Internees were often told to sing and those that did not sing loud enough were shot point blank.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/59d016c42f0666990e6af4e51bfef85bbdee10e031b8935b97617e96d64b2e53/22.jpg)
![Allegedly, 47 prisoners were transferred by two trucks, one civilian and one military, to the JNA casern in Brcko. The casern was still a JNA installation. Some soldiers wore a star on their uniforms, while others had a star with the Serbian tri-colour in the middle. The detention facility took up half the casern. The prisoners were reportedly interrogated and beaten. Interrogators included the camp commander and the commander of the Bosanski Samac fourth detachment, who traveled to Brcko on at least two occasions for the purpose of interrogating prisoners.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6121c5a5e5259d28e5de6d342267d2769b34b771323c62a9b08246fc8fd774a4/24.jpg)
![Area residents, including women and children, were taken by truck to the school gymnasium. The camp consisted of three buildings, the third building was the Memorial building nearby. Detainees in the smaller school building were reportedly beaten, tortured and some were killed. For the first three days, the detainees were not provided with food. After the fourth day at the camp, one loaf of bread per day was distributed for every 12 people.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/382e53ec54b09879a4a1536d2429b39a7fd41604a826e0dfdc947e0c23ffcb06/27.jpg)
![Vilina Vlas I. From hotel's website: Rehabilitation Center “Vilina Vlas” has 66 single and double rooms and apartments with a total capacity of 134 beds. Here they come, both sick and healthy, to improve and regain health, and to relax and vacate. The entire environment of the hotel is crammed with dense pinewood, which is a source of life energy, calms the soul and body, and the cave just adds to this complete experience.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4fb193a76859dfd01101c7ce3bfa2513dbccf885ce90509696c57a42dba43e81/vilina.jpg)
Apparently, women detained here were picked up by police officers, members of the White Eagles and Arkan’s and Seselj’s men. Many of them were not yet 14 years old. According to this witness, the women detained at the hotel had sufficient food and drink because they were the selected women meant to later give birth to Cetnik babies.
Vilina Vlas was one of the main detention facilities in Visegrad. It was located in a hotel/spa about seven kilometres south-east of Visegrad proper, on the way to Gorazde. This camp was established with the coming of the Uzice Corps in the end of April. It held women for the purposes of rape, serving as a camp brothel. Of them, five committed suicide by jumping form a balcony at the hotel, six others escaped and the rest were killed after multiple rapes.
![Vilina Vlas, room 308. Of more than 200 women kept in the camp, almost all of them were killed, exiled, became insane or took their own lives by jumping from the balcony. Only a handful of the women prisoners survived – fewer than ten, according to the Association of Women Victims of War.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a1d4e9c8bacfdbfb81c34bbe26ec0ec0da5fd045aa5587296b3a3017e93b3f7d/makeshift_21.jpg)
![Viktor Bubanj Army Barracks and former prison, now General Court of BiH. The population was estimated at over 200. Some of the women were allegedly wives of former or current JNA members. One report alleged that four captured soldiers were brought to this camp in September of 1992 and executed in front of other detainees. One part of the prison was allegedly in better condition for visits by journalists and the ICRC. Prisoners were beaten, and denied medical assistance, and women prisoners were raped.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2431957f79c296f3048ea6ec1083e4d3ed36883a23d46a9c2ad66db1a627bcc6/makeshift_22.jpg)
![Three hundred twenty prisoners were held at Iskra Bugojno stadium. During this time 19 prisoners allegedly died or were killed at the camp. One hundred fifty prisoners were reportedly released before August due to a shortage of food.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f1ba1432d88a761641fdfdeb44896987132f960cf08c19c63133ac36961161f2/29.jpg)
![Between 200 to 412 Muslim civilians were detained in a building/bar in Vila. The detainees were interrogated and beaten. Approximately 50 detainees were removed from the camp to be used as a living shield by soldiers. Twenty-three of the detainees were killed.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c600e3820a3f08530863e7bc9d7c001b4672ee117eff899aa1780be875bc6b93/makeshift_23.jpg)
![He made her kiss the cross he wore around his neck three times and cross herself. He then told her that she had changed religion and that she was now a Serb. After this time, the three other men left the room. She had to perform fellatio on the perpetrator while he held a knife to her throat. He ejaculated inside her. Then, the second man came in, and she was forced to do the same thing to him, then the third, and the fourth.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0176403becb039d09330d55bbdadbf50a8d350239d59642ec00ef80106dc9e9f/firestation.jpg)
![The report corroborates the existence of a camp in Hasan Veletovic School. In an interview, one of the detained women states that she was raped numerous times in the presence of her parents.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/04aee2091673f513a7fc6ce24e2045ca72c7257816681a9f533124ae73003560/makeshift_24.jpg)
![Later in the evening, the group of victims was transferred to the nearby house, where they were locked into a ground-floor room. The evidence shows that the carpet of the room had been prepared with an accelerant. After a while, a lighted, explosive device was placed in the room which ignited an intense fire when it exploded. As the victims tried to escape the flames through the two windows of the room, they were shot at by the armed men outside the house. Other explosive devices were also thrown into the room. 59 people were burned alive.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3d83f954789bb831056e345a0002e6f5b698cfc1be6c352a8d55e82636ac1c5d/makeshift_25.jpg)
![The Bosnian Muslim men, women and children who were in Srebrenica after the beginning of the VRS attack fled to UN compound in former battery factory in Potocari, located within the "safe area" of Srebrenica. Several thousand women, children and some mostly elderly men fled to the UN compound in Potocari, where they sought the protection of the Dutch battalion. The Bosnian Muslim civilians remained in and around Potocari from 11 July until 13 July 1995, during which time they were terrorised by members of the VRS. Thereafter, they were separated – women and children were transported by buses and trucks under the control of the VRS to areas outside the enclave. 8373 men were later executed in various locations.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/573d9d2efcfb429dbbf4e70c86c610e890be7d773f15b7c0bdec52e6c2fdab15/makeshift_27.jpg)
![The men gathered on the soccer ground at Nova Kasaba were forced to hand over their personal belongings. They too received a personal visit from Ratko Mladić during the afternoon of 13 July; on this occasion, he announced that the Bosnian authorities in Tuzla did not want the men and that they were therefore to be taken to other locations. The men in Nova Kasaba were loaded onto buses and trucks and were taken to Bratunac or the other locations. A mass grave next to the field was located via the sattelite photographs taken during Srebrenica Genocide.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/713dd29151158b0af441713c9180bbc315ec1cd29b99ea312c4ab0d3bcfbd04b/makeshift_28.jpg)
![Between 1500 and 2000 men were executed at Petkovci Dam during systematic process of genocide on civilian population of Srebrenica Enclave. Some bodies were buried in a mass grave there, and some of them had been later reburied in secondary locations.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/445b5a9bd5cc9791ff35f574b23b7a64d7bf800c932bb5d04df6751e55c43761/makeshift_29.jpg)
![Souvenir from Višegrad. A wooden knife with the city name on it, sold by a street vendor next to the location where multiple civilians were executed by having their throats slit.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e9c8855f5dfb51f18a7358c20d6fbad8b22d67d89486655e76675456c2f82c15/makeshift_26.jpg)
![Titular bridge on the Drina from Ivo Andric novel, Old Bridge in Visegrad, pictured during muncipal water jumping contest. Old Bridge was used to execute civilians in the presence of other city inhabitants – people were killed by having their throats slit, or thrown to the water and being shot at.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9d35cc03154f076e08cd7bad14e6b2e48dc1f0ff4bedfed8c6d15ab37e552317/makeshift_30.jpg)
Exhibition views:
![Places of public utility, IFF, Warszawa PL, 17.05.2019-23.06.2019, in cooperation with Martyna Wyrzykowska and Łukasz Rusznica. Documentation: Aga Bilska.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cfc0d6fb3de6a674733a9363115ac9a301bc286499592cac0344b6036d9a4994/iff_doku_1.jpg)
![Places of public utility, IFF, Warszawa PL, 17.05.2019-23.06.2019, in cooperation with Martyna Wyrzykowska and Łukasz Rusznica. Documentation: Aga Bilska.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/90fe5beea68d88628d20cd9b8f4cc97e623f8a08a26a50e2fd1e7277821e8419/iff_doku_2.jpg)
![Places of public utility, IFF, Warszawa PL, 17.05.2019-23.06.2019, in cooperation with Martyna Wyrzykowska and Łukasz Rusznica. Documentation: Aga Bilska.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/633af0955965de8634aecd2b5f98269f34f0c2ef28c313f1ff76f9e3edd9423f/iff_doku_6.jpg)
![Places of public utility, IFF, Warszawa PL, 17.05.2019-23.06.2019, in cooperation with Martyna Wyrzykowska and Łukasz Rusznica. Documentation: Aga Bilska.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d7731f89096a872986d04bef9d8c387530b976031d6439fe53f79f473069f695/iff_doku_3.jpg)
![Places of public utility, IFF, Warszawa PL, 17.05.2019-23.06.2019, in cooperation with Martyna Wyrzykowska and Łukasz Rusznica. Documentation: Aga Bilska.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f98ff3dcda35e1908665e1e1824cd3dbe883dd73a691ea00b3433dc1f09bee1d/iff_doku_4.jpg)
![Places of public utility, IFF, Warszawa PL, 17.05.2019-23.06.2019, in cooperation with Martyna Wyrzykowska and Łukasz Rusznica. Documentation: Aga Bilska.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ab795806e44835915a8fc600091742681f350f9fd76fba961f8405390a4cd37e/iff_doku_5.jpg)
![Places of public utility, IFF, Warszawa PL, 17.05.2019-23.06.2019, in cooperation with Martyna Wyrzykowska and Łukasz Rusznica. Documentation: Aga Bilska.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/667d0fd357e55c967835d16a6b22936d429fb6951f226232be658c239168afa1/iff_doku_8.jpg)
![Places of public utility, IFF, Warszawa PL, 17.05.2019-23.06.2019, in cooperation with Martyna Wyrzykowska and Łukasz Rusznica. Documentation: Aga Bilska.](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/98378b6ffc6d3962bb76766d733032321d0c81caf18576c44b3d2a0948bef903/iff_doku_10.jpg)
![Water Memory, MpM14 Gallery, Wroclaw, PL, 25.05.2017-7.07.2017, curator: Łukasz Rusznica. Documentation: Ala Kielan](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/da1c7aa9fd0e92a7943bebd82ddc04f162e2d1926700c7785aa4a39c327840a0/makeshift-strona-doku-0.jpg)
![Water Memory, MpM14 Gallery, Wroclaw, PL, 25.05.2017-7.07.2017, curator: Łukasz Rusznica. Documentation: Ala Kielan](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f151f8f9050cc49fa0644d76974f685f7ca5ade34bf1f0bc6e3ce6080e128a11/makeshift-strona-doku-1.jpg)
![Water Memory, MpM14 Gallery, Wroclaw, PL, 25.05.2017-7.07.2017, curator: Łukasz Rusznica. Documentation: Ala Kielan](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2e6ddbf5dfe32c5de976c96e5171d02ce72814ff04b397fbc06c4372d4b2c9b8/makeshift-strona-doku-2.jpg)
![Water Memory, MpM14 Gallery, Wroclaw, PL, 25.05.2017-7.07.2017, curator: Łukasz Rusznica. Documentation: Ala Kielan](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/957df1bd4dbd94a6885e77cfd918da82e4088df1673bf8b411b83c079e53524a/makeshift-strona-doku-1-2.jpg)
![Water Memory, MpM14 Gallery, Wroclaw, PL, 25.05.2017-7.07.2017, curator: Łukasz Rusznica. Documentation: Ala Kielan](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2a97a5d2fd1b1bac3883cfbab4e21d81a9dcf935390796f5895d998cf3204847/makeshift-strona-doku-4-5.jpg)