Zenica / III Korpus A RBiH

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1993

The face of trauma Vitez, Central Bosnia
This man was living in a small Muslim enclave next to the British base in Vitez. He was a refugee from someplace nearby and I believe he had stopped speaking.

Shattered and shredded Stari Vitez
When a truck loaded with 200 kilos of Vitezite blows up in front of your house, this is what it looks like.

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1993

Vegetable camoflage Brdo, near Vitez
The Croatian soldier who owned this house built defenses against invasion, and planted tomato plants around the house for camoflage. It was effective. You could pop out of the cellar and grab a nice tomato, if one was ripe. This house was seriously exposed, somewhat in front of the Croatian lines.

Frontline haircut
An HVO soldier in Gornji Vakuf gets a haircut. If I'm not mistaken, the barber is also a doctor.

Booze and cigarettes
These two guys in Busovaca had a jumpin business selling booze and cigarettes. During wartime you can't go wrong with the basic vices. I wish I'd made note of the prices of the cigarettes. At the time a carton of Marlboros was about 175 DM in Sarajevo

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Ljeto 1993

Coffee in Stari Vitez
Stari Vitez
When I'd visit Old Vitez I'd stop in at this unfinished house and get some great coffee. Recently I've learned that the guy on the left is Mikki, and he survived the war. He contacted me after seeing his picture in this gallery. I do not know the fate of the woman, who was also extremely nice. Old Vitez was under Muslim control and almost completely surrounded by hostile Croats. This house is across the street from the one which got shredded by the truck bomb.

Bosnia soldier in Vitez
Vitez, Bosnia
I encountered this guy in Mahalo, the Muslim pocket in Stari Vitez.

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Juli 1993

"Ustashi u Njemackoj, Kommunisti na vlasti, i pravi Hrvati su na prvoj liniji."
Brdo
Citizen soldiers put their time in up the mountain. Brdo, near Nova Bila.

A shepherd's crook and a machine gun Central Bosnia
This young Bosnian soldier was looking after his sheep while doing his time. The very peculiar Chinese machine gun was defending a section of the road to Travnik.

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Juli 1993

Checkpoint above Vitez
Near Vitez
This large collection of mature guys was manning the checkpoint on the road between Vitez and Zenica. It was actually a hot spot, with MOS facing off against HVO close by. Compare the look of these guys, who undoubtedly had done their time in the JNA, with the kids in the "raw recruits" photo.

On the position
Near Travnik, Bosnia
This guy was watching a section of wild road between Travnik and Zenica.

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Juni 1993

Raw recruits Central Bosnia
I've always wondered how the young soldiers who didn't have the Jugoslav military training did in the fighting. These guys hadn't seen a rifle yet, and I hope their first time holding one wasn't also their last.
Juli 1993

Tito's hunting lodge near Bugojno
near Bugojno
Tito had a number of hunting lodges. I don't recall how I heard about the party at this one, but I arrived late and left early. I asked these guys who burned the place down and they said "the Ustashi." The place was well-looted and across the parking lot a guy wearing a bear skin, one of Tito's trophies, was doing a pretty good gypsy bear dance. The wine cellar was still well stocked. One guy told me there had been a nice collection of guns, including some valuable German weapons from WW2. I think the rifle the guy on the right is holding is from Tito's collection.

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Juli 1993

Mountain road patrol Near Travnik, Bosnia
The Brits decided to run a Warrior tank up this mountain road near Travnik and Luc Delahaye and I drove along behind them. These Bosnian Army soldiers were keeping an eye on the road. There was a group of "Afghani," foreign mujahadeen, living in a nearby town and I think the Brits were poking around to see what they could learn about the foreigners. We tried to enter the town and were turned back.
Ljeto 1993

Bosnian refugee Travnik Gymnasium
I photographed this girl at the Gymnasium refugee center in Travnik. Most of the people living there had been cleansed from Doboj.

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1993

The grenade Gornji Vakuf
This Croat soldier was alone in the room, except that he had two photographers with him, and the Bosnian Army was in the next room. There was a small hole punched in one wall he could look through, or get shot through, if he felt like he needed to take a peek. Gornji Vakuf.

AK47 and RPG-7
These lightweight and cheap weapons are effective. It really bugs me that the US spends so much on arms when we're going up against the local dudes armed with the cheapest possible weapons....which happen to be pretty good. Near Vukovar I met an old chetnik who told me the best combat weapon ever was the Thompson sub-machine gun....."If you have the ammo. Otherwise, the best is the Russian-made AK47." These guys are HVO fighters in downtown Gornji Vakuf.

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HVO fighters, Gornji Vakuf
I use the term "fighter" a lot because a lot of these men were not in any formal military organization. These young Croatians were in downtown Gornji Vakuf, where Croats and the Bosnians loyal to the government in Sarajevo struggled for control. The Brits had a base on the edge of town and that made the situation even more complicated. If you are a student of military science interested in the impact of terrain on military action, this is the war for you.
Sept 1992

HVO's Dario Kordic
Travnik, Bosnia
Doing a 25 year sentence in The Hague for war crimes.

Beware of ex-commies who wear rosaries
Travnik, Bosnia
I was always tempted to ask the guys who wore their rosaries like this some very basic questions about the Catholic faith. Like who comprises the Holy Trinity. I shot this picture when a Finnish journalist and myself were on our way into Jajce and we stopped to talk to Kordic.

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1993

General Briquemont
Vitez, Bosnia

When General Briquemont arrived in central Bosnia as the new UN commander, he parroted the UN line that "there was enough guilt to go around" and that all three sides were equally to blame. After his six month tour was up he was having a beer with some British officers on the base in Vitez and I overheard him say "the first thing to do around here is kick the living shit out of the fucking Serbs."
avg 1993

Shooting back Brdo, above Vitez
Marinko's house had some other people living in it....which he didn't appreciate. So he'd sneak up the hill to take a peak at what was going on. This time I went with him and a target of opportunity appeared

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Juli 1993

200 kilos of Vitezite
Vitez, Bosnia
Vitezite is a powerful plastic explosive manufactured for the Yugoslav Army at Vitez. This neighborhood was seriously damaged when local Croats sent a tanker truck with 200 kilos of the explosive down the road and it detonated close by. Five people were killed, including two friends of mine.
April 1993

Col. Tihomir Blaskic
Vitez, Bosnia
Apparently did his time at the Hague.

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April 1993

General Mehmet Alagich
Travnik, Bosnia
Commander of the Travnik-based Treci Korpus, or Third Corps
Juni 1993

Humanitarian aid
near Zenica, Bosnia
These klix were refugees at a camp near Zenica. Charitable organizations had sent them clothes, and there was a huge box of dresses like this, which these two klix found very amusing. They kept changing into different frilly dresses and presenting themselves to me to be photographed. You could say the dresses weren't an appropriate form of aid to refugees, but the kids were bored stiff and the dresses gave them a lift. I saw boxes of medical supplies in Sarajevo with the WW2 swastika and eagle symbol, a gift from the krauts. Hey, bandages last!

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Juli 1993

Lunch on the front line
Brdo, above Vitez
Lunch was cooked in a house down the hill and carried up to the front line positions. These guys had hot soup and freshly baked bread.

Everybody does their time
Brdo, above Vitez
As far as I could tell, nobody weasled out of putting in their time on the front line. The rotation was really well organized.

High stakes poker
Brdo, above Vitez
War is sort of like prison, so it's no surprise that cigarettes are money. Croats on the Brdo front line pass the time playing cards.

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Juli 1993

Foreign Legion with Croatian refugees
Kakanj, Central Bosnia
The 7th Brigade drove Croats out of Kakanj in July of '93. They found refuge at the electric plant not far away and the French Foreign Legion was sent to supervise. The legionaires were very protective of the refugees and threw out any journalists they didn't think were being respectful.

Heading up
While the Armija attacks all along the line at Brdo, above Vitez, these two soldiers pause on their way up. Tony Suau and I went with them until we met a wounded soldier coming down and stopped to help.

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Avg 1993

The family war
Brdo, above Vitez
These guys are probably brothers, cousins, and uncles. They are off to fight their former neighbors. The guy in the black was a member of the Jokers, which had been a HOS unit and which refused to join HVO.

vitez025.JPG

Milan on the front line
All Croatian men in the Lasva Valley had to do their time on the front line. My friend Milan was at his position just below Brdo when I took this photo.

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1993

On the mountain Above Vitez
If I remember right, this soldier had been delivering lunch to the forward positions on the mountain above Brdo. He was resting and I sat down to talk.


Lunch on the meadow Vitez, Bosnia
I enjoyed a great lunch with these three men, all from the Vitez area.
Avgust 1993

The work of a farmer never ceases Near Vitez, Bosnia
Even during wartime a farmer, or more accurately, a "seljak," has to get the job done. These men from Vitez took time out from war to work in the hay meadows in the hills above town. I recall wondering if they'd be the ones to gather hay here next year. The hay was mostly for dairy cattle. There were a few odd horses and some goats as well. Vitez had a modern dairy farm with very nice looking Holstein cattle. When the war came the cattle were turned loose. I saw some which had been killed by shellfire, but most were grabbed by opportunistic local people. I met one woman who appeared to be about 80 leading one of the Holsteins and I asked her how much she thought the cow was worth. She eyed the cow for a moment then said "about 9000 Deutschemarks." That worked out to $6000, exactly what I'd guessed the cow would be worth in Oregon.

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1993

Romanian AK Brdo, near Vitez
Romanian AK47s were the most common on the Croatian side. The Serbian Kragujevac version was better quality and highly prized.

Nicotine rush near Nova Bila, Bosnia
Soldiers need cigarettes to keep them from going nuts. These Croatian militiamen on the front line in Brdo were glad to see a journalist walking up the path because they know that journalists carry the coveted Marlboros. Their mood went from tense and glum to upbeat and positive in the time it took to light up
1993

Hit by a sea mine Gornji Vakuf, central Bosnia
At the British briefing for the press in Vitez an officer joked that his men had seen an HVO truck with a huge sea mine on it. What would a sea mine be doing in Bosnia? A few days later this Muslim neighborhood near Gornji Vakuf was devastated by a huge explosion....walking around shooting pictures I met a man who could tell the tale. After supper one evening he heard a bump against the wall of his house. He went outside and was stunned to see a huge sea mine against the wall. The man was a veteran of the Jugoslav Navy, odd for a Bosnian, and he had experience with mines. He said he recited the Naval stock number of the mine to himself as he contemplated his next move. He went up and got his family and told them to quickly get away, which they did. Then he warned his neighbors. When the mine went off about ten minutes later, his house was "shredded." The whole neighborhood was wrecked, but there were no casualties. The water system quit working and these women had just been to a spring for water. They had to run through an area covered by snipers, but were safe here where I shot their picture.

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Fall 1992

One for the road The wild road, central Bosnia
Being a truck driver in Bosnia didn't pay very well and the risks were high. Still, there were always plenty of guys to do the driving. The man on the right is drinking water from a wine bottle. Note the bullet impacts on the windshield.

Okt. 1992

Mladen Holman
Holman was the top guy at HOS in Zenica. The conflict between the Bosnian Army and the Croats created problems for HOS in the Lasva Valley. Holman was told to put his units under control of the Army, and he refused. So they put him in jail. In Vitez, HOS remained independent of HVO, although a number of individuals joined HVO. It is my suspicion that the HOS units based in Vitez, including the notorious Jokers, continued to take orders from two individuals in Zenica.

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sm-na brdu 2.jpg
1993

Nova Bila, Bosnia
Earlier I reported that this soldier in Nova Bila was killed when the position at Brdo was over-run.

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Ljeto 1993

the path to the fight Zabilje, Bosnia
Run up this path to the war. A .50 caliber Browning covers the path and when you run up it you get shot at. But the bullets come from Zenica, and Zenica is famous for what? Stainless steel! So the stainless steel bullets cleaned out the barrel and the gun was wildly inaccurate. I never heard of anybody getting hit. But it was a real rush to take on those 200 meters knowing that those heavy, shiny bullets were going to be flying around. These Croatian soldiers are local guys. The one in the black uniform was a member of the infamous Jokers.

In Gornji Vakuf
A Croatian fighter in Gornji Vakuf during the sukob in 1993

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fighting in town Gornji Vakuf, central Bosnia
In Gornji Vakuf the Croats and the Muslims were at each other's throats, which was pretty pointless in the overall picture. This guy, who was in HOS, was in one room of this building and the Muslims were in the next room. I think he invited Jon Jones and myself up so when we left the Muslims in the next room would think he had left and they'd drop their guard. There was a small hole punched in the wall big enough to shoot our push a grenade thru. The guys in the other room were undoubtedly men he had grown up with and knew well.


RPG-7
Gornji Vakuf
The Croats and the Bosnians in Gornji Vakuf were fighting for control of the downtown area. When this guy took a shot at his Muslim neighbors with an RPG-7 it occurred to me that it was like suburban teenages in the US shooting water balloons at each other with slingshots.

Armija Bistrica, Gornji Vakuf
Hollywood is promoting a certain kind of image for a fighting man, but in my experience, this is what dangerous soldiers look like. The hillbilly in the football boots and weird hat is the one you don't want to mess with. These guys knew their stuff. Bistrica, near Gornji Vakuf, Bosnia....Aug. 5, 2006: Looking at this photo makes me think of the mess the US is in in Iraq. Once again the US military establishment has dismissed the opposition as amatuerish and unorganized, and once again we have failed to fulfill our objectives. A professional army should stick to fighting other professional armies and stay away from the locals. It's tough to beat a man on his home turf....April 17, 2007.....and one more thing. One more time we're fighting an enemy whose primary weapons are the AK-47 and the RPG-7. Incredibly cheap, allegedly obsolete. Is the US taxpayer getting taken for a ride?

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A load of hay Nova Bila, Bosnia
In the middle of war, life goes on. This load of hay was headed to a Croat neighborhood in Stara Bila.

unknown
Bosnia
Croatian soldier killed near Stara Bila in fighting against the 16th Krajisnici. Late summer, '93. Nepoznat means "unknown."

Breakfast at Milan's Nova Bila, Bosnia
Breakfast in Bosnia was first of all massive amounts of homemade plum brandy. A very pleasant way to start the day, though not a great idea when driving down the wrong road can get you killed. There was also cheese burek, sausage, pickles, and freshly baked bread. Throw in the sound of gunfire, some wild rumors, two or three Marlboros, and great gulps of strong, sweet Turkish coffee and you have breakfast at Milan's.

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1993

HVO command, Brdo, near Vitez
Brdo
This was the Croat HVO command post at Brdo, a small village on the mountain above Vitez. Jugoslavija before the war had a real "peoples army," and everybody had to do their time. There was also a significant awareness of military issues that was part of the local culture, as there is pretty much a war for each generation. The result was that when the civil war started, there were capable people who knew what to do everyplace.
1992

Disturbed soldier
Travnik
The soldier on the left was in some sort of psychotic withdrawal. He was still with his unit and could walk around, but he never spoke and couldn't take care of himself. His buddy was telling him that it was OK and they'd look after him.

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1992

Wounded man from Maglaj, Zenica hospital
Zenica
I sat on the front steps of the Franciscan monastery in Jajce with Reijo, the Finnish writer I was working with, and we could hear Luna rockets flying overhead on their way to someplace. It was more of a sensation of something large and fast going over. A few days later we were in Zenica and a large number of people wounded in Maglaj were brought into the hospital. This man had a piece of metal in his head.
1993

Shelter at the power plant near Kakanj, Bosnia
Croats driven out of the Kakanj area by the seventh brigade and the 16th Krajisnici were savvy enough to read the situation in the Lasva Valley. A large group headed for the Kakanj electrical generating facility and begged the UN, or more accurately, the French Foreign Legion, for protection. The Legion was assigned to protect the power plant from those who would have otherwise wrecked it. They let the refugees in and made them as comfortable as possible. This was against UN policy, but no UN bureaucrat had the guts to protest. There were these huge rooms with pipes and generators with people sleeping all over the floor. If the Legionaires thought the media was a little too aggressive they would ask us to "be respectful." This war would have been over in two months if the conduct of it had been handed over to the British Army and the French Foreign Legion. With Otto von Hapsburg in charge

Croatian refugees near Kakanj, Bosnia
This man and his daughters were run out of their home near Kakanj. They found safety at the local electricity generating plant, which was being protected by the French Foreign Legion. The Legion made the large group of refugees as comfortable as possible. The Kakanj people were now safe from the Muslim extemists, and as long as the Foreign Legion could keep them, also safe from the Croatian extremists running the Lasva Valley.

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1993

The Patriotic League Vitez, Bosnia
The office of the Patriotic League, a society of Bosnian Muslims, was wrecked when the big bomb blew up the Mahalo neighborhood. Before there was trouble in Vitez I interviewed two men in this office, both leaders in the movement. I remember them as being very calm and refined, and committed to Bosnian unity.