Derventa prison camp

The Derventa prison camp was a prison camp in Bosnia and Herzegovina operated by the Croatian war party, which was subordinate to the Hrvatsko vijeće obrane (HVO) during the Bosnian War , and where Serb civilians were held. It was located in Derventa , a town on the border with Croatia, and was in operation between April and June 1992. The main camp was located in a building of the former Yugoslav People's Army in the center of Derventa, today's cultural center. The number of internees and the death toll is still unclear.

history

At the beginning of the Bosnian War , Croatian and Muslim paramilitaries and the Hrvatsko vijeće obrane (HVO) invaded the immediate settlements from Bosanski Brod to Derventa near the border with Croatia in April 1992 and perpetrated ethnic cleansing and war crimes against the Serbian civilian population. Numerous people were taken to prison camps in and around Derventa. Most of the civilians were deported to the Derventa camp from the suburban settlement of Čardak , which is inhabited by Serbs . Almost all of the residents of Čardak were brought to the camps on April 26, 1992, on the Serbian Orthodox Easter festival , the rest were murdered while their houses were set on fire. A total of 41 Serbs were murdered from the settlement during this period, 36 of them during the attack and 5 in the camps, including old people, women and children. This incident is now considered the Čardak massacre . Today a memorial in Čardak , erected on July 7, 2012, commemorates the crime committed at a place where a mass grave with 19 bodies was previously discovered.

The camp was established on April 12, 1992 in a building belonging to the former Yugoslav People's Army in the center of the city, now the cultural center, where around 200 people were initially interned. Murders occurred there while other prisoners were tortured there, including being beaten to unconsciousness or parts of the body being doused with gasoline and set on fire. Other prisoners were taken to the two nearby camps Poljari and Rabić , where similar incidents occurred. Today there is a monument in front of the building.

Above all, Azra Bašić , known as "Azra with the two knives", became notorious for her crimes in the Derventa camp. In 2011, after a long manhunt in the USA, she was arrested and charged with a war crime . According to the US court files, she is said to have committed grave atrocities and brutally murdered at least one man. In addition, the Croatian and former member of the HVO Ivica Vrdoljak has been sentenced to five years in prison for the crimes committed in and around Derventa and in connection with the camps, while others are still on trial.