Višegrad (Cyrillic: Вишеград) is a town and municipality in the eastern part of Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is on the river Drina, located on the road from Goražde and Ustiprača towards Užice in Serbia.
Višegrad on map BiH Population 21,199
Population
According to the 1910 census, the plurality in the Višegrad municipality were Orthodox Christians (48.62%).
In the census of 1991, the municipality of Višegrad had 21,199 residents, including:
The town of Višegrad itself had 11,668 inhabitants, including:
- 64% Muslims by nationality
- 29% Serbs
- 3% Yugoslavs
- 5% others
- ^ Chuck Sudetic, Blood and Vengence
- ^ Chuck Sudetic, Blood and Vengence
- ^ Love thy neighbour, Peter Mass
- ^ Chuck Sudetic, Blood and Vengence
- ^ Chuck Sudetic, Blood and Vengence
History
In 1992, Višegrad was the scene of some of the initial fighting and worst atrocities of the Bosnian War. The Bosnian Muslim population of the town was subsequently expelled and an estimated 3,000 of them were murdered during this process of ethnic cleansing by men under the command of warlord Milan Lukić, their bodies thrown into the Drina from the bridge. Many others were burned to death and a notorious rape camp was estabilished in Vilina Vlas.
An account of the massacre is depicted in the journalistic comic Safe Area Goražde by Joe Sacco.
The statue of Ivo Andrić, Nobel prize winning author through whose Bridge on the Drina the town is most widely known, was destroyed in 1992 by Murat Šabanović, a member of a Bosnian Muslim militia, with a sledgehammer. The Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) attacked Višegrad on the 6 April 1992, the day Bosnia declared independence. They entered Višegrad on 15 April. Together with JNA came paramilitary units which expelled, murdered and raped Bosnian Muslims. At the end of July 1992 Višegrad did not have a single Bosnian Muslim left. During the summer of 1992, the old brigde was one of the main places where Bosnian Muslims were murdered. They were murdered and then thrown of the brigde into the river Drina.
Bosnian Muslims refugees from Višegrad formed the 1st Višegrad Brigade (Prva Višegradska brigada). It was under the command of Ahmet Sejdić and it was very sucessful in protecting Bosnian Muslim refugees in the hills over Višegrad and briging them to safe territory. Until June 1993 they controlled the left side of the river Drina in Višegrad.
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Višegrad 
