Meho (last name unknown)

When the war in Bosnia commenced in the spring of 1992, Mehoﾒs home village in the north was attacked by the Serbs and occupied. His instinct of course was to do whatever he could to help and in May he and other international volunteers narrowly escaped a chetnik ambush whilst transporting weapons across the border from Croatia. For several years it was assumed all had perished.

In fact, the volunteers narrowly escaped on the back of a tractor, making it back across the border to safety but Meho was not so lucky. During the action he was forced to go to ground and whilst hiding in an occupied village was betrayed by its inhabitants to the leader of a gang of local chetnik militia. Five days later he was sighted by other prisoners (who were subsequently exchanged with captured Serbs), head shaven, arms bound, badly beaten and in pain, trying to kill himself by running head first into a wall. The next occasion he was sighted was even more unpleasant. He was not seen again until two weeks later; crucified and beheaded naked in his native village square, adjacent to a fountain; the village where he grew up and went to school, the village where his childhood friends lived, as a warning by the Serbs to those who remained. Allegedly, this brutal execution was carried out by one of Mehoﾒs boyhood acquaintances. Other witnesses spoke of him having had his testicles hacked off and sewn or stuffed into his mouth. Five Serb prisoners were subsequently offered in exchange for Mehoﾒs body but curiously this offer was refused, lending weight to the allegations made by the other, returned prisoners.

Meho will never, ever be forgotten by those who knew him, especially by those International Volunteers who consider themselves privileged to have served with him and called him their friend.