# Vilina Vlas

Vilina Vlas is a spa, hotel, and former concentration camp in eastern Republika Srpska. The spa is named after the plant of the same name that grows on and near the spa.

## History

The hot spring and spa of the Vilina Vlas site were known of before the construction of Višegrad's bridge, but were rediscovered when work began on the bridge. The hot spring was first noticed by Ottoman workers extracting stone for the construction of the bridge. In 1575, Sokollu Mehmed Pasha ordered the construction of two Turkish baths, "Kadino Kupatilo" and "Mehmed-Pasha's Kupatilo," causing the bridge's workers to inadvertedly become its first regular visitors and the first "tourists" to use the healing properties of the hot spring.
To this day, "Mehmed-Pasha's Bath" remains intact in largely the same condition as its construction. After World War 2, the weapon factory in Višegrad, "Vistad," built a recreation center for its workers. In 1979, the construction of a then-modern hotel named "Villa Vlas" began, and was completed in 1982. The hotel is still operating today. It is located five kilometers from Višegrad, surrounded by coniferous forests, and has 70 rooms, including single and double rooms and apartments, totaling 160 beds. The hotel offers two restaurants with 370 seats, an open and closed hall with around one hundred seats for seminars, meeting rooms, an aperitif bar, a shop, and a hair salon. Luxuriously equipped bungalows behind the hotel are also available for accommodation.

## The camp

In 1992 the concentration camp at the Vilina Vlas hotel was one of the Višegrad area's main detention facilities. It was established by the Uzice Corps at the end of April 1992 and played a significant role in the ethnic cleansing of the area's non-Serb population.
Milan Lukić, leader of a local group of paramilitaries referred to variously as the White Eagles, the Avengers or the Wolves, established his headquarters at the Vilina Vlas Hotel, one of various locations where local Bosniaks were detained. The group, with ties to the local police and Serb military units, played a prominent role in the ethnic cleansing of Višegrad. Many rapes in the Višegrad area were allegedly perpetrated in an apparently systematic fashion. Reports to the United Nations Commission of Experts to the Security Council state that victims were rounded up and transported to places like Vilina Vlas and the Hotel Višegrad apparently for the purpose of being detained and raped.
One report to the Bassiouni Commission estimated that 200 women, primarily Bosniak, were detained at Vilina Vlas and sexually assaulted. The hotel was known as a place where only young, beautiful women were detained and in testimony given to the Bassiouni Commission it is claimed that women brought to this camp had been chosen to bear "Chetnik" children and were "selected" carefully. During the Sjeverin massacre, 16 Bosniaks were abducted by Milan Lukić while travelling on a bus from Serbia to Bosnia and were taken to Vilina Vlas, where they were tortured and murdered.
The camp was eventually closed once its existence became known outside Bosnia.

## Trials

Milan Lukić was found guilty of having executed detainees kept at the camp. He was not charged with rape despite them being well documented. The President of the Association of Women Victims of War, Bakira Hasečić, has severely criticised the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at The Hague for failing to include rape among the charges against Milan Lukić when he was brought to trial. One woman survivor reported Lukić raping her several times while she was a prisoner at the hotel.
Oliver Krsmanović was charged with the rape of female Bosniak detainees at Vilina Vlas as well as for the massacre of 70 Bosniaks in the village of Bikavac.

## Art and culture

A stay at Vilina Vlas during a visit to Višegrad inspired the Australian performance artist Kym Vercoe's work "seven kilometres north-east: A performance about geography, tourism and atrocity". In 2013 a film by Jasmila Žbanić and Kym Vercoe For Those Who Can Tell No Tales was released.