Rašćani, Bosnia and Herzegovina


Rašćani is a village in the municipality of Tomislavgrad, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Name

It is likely that the village received the name from its first settlers, Serbs, also called Rašani.

Geography

The village is located near Tomislavgrad.

History

The village was inhabited exclusively by ethnic Serbs. The Orthodox village church was founded in 1891. In the early 1930s, many of the young craftmen left the village for Austria. During World War II, the Ustashe carried out atrocities in the village.
With the outbreak of the Bosnian War, the village was blockaded, and subsequently Serbs were looted and murdered. The Serbs included refugees from Croatia. The village was transformed into a prisoner camp by Croat forces. The only Serb village in Duvno, from the beginning of April 1992 to 29 June 1993, more than 300 Serbs were victims of daily torture and threats, including 40 children younger than 12 years. In 1992, around 1,000 Serbs held hostage in the village were unable to receive food and other necessities. In January 1993, this number was at 840. The Croat authorities did not permit humanitarian aid to reach the Serbs. The village church was burnt and destroyed in 1992, being the first religious building destroyed in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the war. The municipality of Tomislavgrad is the only municipality in which not a single Serb refugee has returned.

Culture

In 1991, the census recorded 103 people, of whom 102 were Serbs and one Yugoslav. However, the Serb population left the village following the beginning of the Bosnian War in 1992. The village was later settled by the Croat refugees from Bugojno. The first post war census, conducted in 2013, recorded 41 people living in Rašćani, all of whom were Croats.

Anthropology

Families:
Many families left during the Bosnian War for Aranđelovac, in Serbia.