Camp Heliodrom

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Coordinates: 43 ° 20 ′ 46 ″  N , 17 ° 48 ′ 52 ″  E

Map: Bosnia and Herzegovina
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Camp Heliodrom​
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Bosnia and Herzegovina

The camp Heliodrom ( Bosnian / Croatian / Serbian  Logor Heliodrom / Логор Хелиодром ) was an internment camp operated during the Bosnian War in Mostar-Rodoč . It served the Croatian Defense Council (HVO) from September 1992 to April 1994 to intern mainly Bosniaks and Serbs .

history

The camp was located in a former military facility of the Yugoslav People's Army and consisted of a sports hall and a three-story central prison building. It was overcrowded, the medical and sanitary facilities and ventilation were inadequate, and the summer heat was suffocating. The inmates received insufficient water and food and often slept on concrete floors with no bedding or blankets.

The number of prisoners was around 1,800 in May 1993 and through June. The number was highest between July and December 1993, when the HVO held about 6,000 Bosniaks in prison. After that, the average number of prisoners was significantly reduced.

The HVO criteria for the release of prisoners were marrying a Croat or having a visa and a letter of guarantee that he would leave Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bosniak men continued to be held in the Heliodrom camp without the authorities making any effort to distinguish military prisoners from civilian prisoners and to ensure the release of civilian prisoners.

After CNN reported on the camps in Bosnia and Herzegovina , the Dretelj and Gabela camps were closed on September 24, 1993 . By the end of the year, all Croatian camps were closed except for the Heliodrom camp, where the inmates remained until the Washington Agreement establishing the Bosnian-Croatian Federation in Bosnia and Herzegovina was signed in the spring of 1994.

War crimes

The soldiers regularly mistreated the prisoners, some prisoners were brought to Mostar for forced labor, for example to dig trenches or to build military fortresses, but also to collect the bodies of dead HVO soldiers. They tolerated the mistreatment of Bosniaks both in Heliodrom itself and wherever prisoners for forced labor or other purposes were under Croatian power. There was regular cruel treatment and great suffering, and the guards routinely beat inmates, often unconscious and seriously injured. Bosnian prisoners lived in constant fear of physical and psychological abuse. They were often humiliated in various ways. B. forced to sing nationalist Croatian songs. On July 5, 1993, soldiers fired indiscriminately at the building where the detainees were being held. It is not known whether there were injuries or deaths. In some cases, guards withheld food and water for inmates in retaliation for military setbacks.

In the Jadranko Prlić case , the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) found that several dozen prisoners were killed or wounded in forced labor as a result of military confrontation while at work.

At least three Bosnian inmates were also found injured and four killed while they were used as human shields in combat.

The indictment alleges that at least fifty-four Bosniak detainees were killed and at least 178 were wounded in forced labor or as human shields.

Jadranko Prlić , Bruno Stojić , Slobodan Praljak , Milivoj Petković , Valentin Ćorić , and Berislav Pušić were charged at the ICTY of being part of a joint criminal enterprise from November 1991 to April 1994 to ethnically cleanse non-Croatians from Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as that them when members of the HVO set up and operated a network of prison camps, including the Heliodrom camp and the Dretelj camp , to arrest, arrest and intern thousands of Bosniaks . The Bosniaks in the camps were malnourished and subjected to physical and psychological abuse, including beatings and sexual assault.

All six defendants were found guilty by the ICTY and sentenced to several years ' imprisonment; the ICTY Appeals Chamber confirmed the convictions on November 29, 2017.

The charges were:

  • nine cases of serious violations of the Geneva Conventions (willful killing; inhuman treatment (sexual assault); illegal deportation of civilians; illegal rendition of civilians; illegal detention of civilians; inhuman treatment (conditions of detention); general inhuman treatment; willful destruction of property the was not justified by military necessity; willful appropriation of property that was not justified by military necessity.)
  • nine cases of violations of the laws or customs of war (cruel treatment (conditions of detention), illegal work, willful destruction of cities or villages that was not justified by military necessity, destruction or willful damage to institutions of religion or education, looting of public or private property, unlawful attack on civilians, unlawful causing terrorism against civilians, cruel treatment)
  • eight cases of crimes against humanity (persecution on political, racial and religious grounds; murder; rape; deportation; inhuman acts (forced relocation); imprisonment; inhuman acts (conditions of detention)).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Prosecutor v. Jadranko Prlić, Bruno Stojić, Slobodan Praljak, Milivoj Petković, Valentin Ćorić, Berislav Pušić - Judgment - Volume 1 of 6 . International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. May 29, 2013.
  2. ^ Prosecutor v. Jadranko Prlić, Bruno Stojić, Slobodan Praljak, Milivoj Petković, Valentin Ćorić, Berislav Pušić - Judgment - Volume 2 of 6 . International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. May 29, 2013.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g The International Criminal Tribunal For The Former Yugoslavia Indictment against Jadranko Prlic, Bruno Stojic, Slobodan Praljak, Milivoj Petkovic, Valentin Coric, And Berislav Pusic . Archived from the original on February 12, 2005. Retrieved January 7, 2013.
  4. ^ Prosecutor v. Jadranko Prlić, Bruno Stojić, Slobodan Praljak, Milivoj Petković, Valentin Ćorić, Berislav Pušić - Judgment - Volume 1 of 6 . International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. May 29, 2013.
  5. ↑ Nacional: Retrieved April 8, 2020 .
  6. ^ Prosecutor v. Jadranko Prlić, Bruno Stojić, Slobodan Praljak, Milivoj Petković, Valentin Ćorić, Berislav Pušić - Judgment - Volume 2 of 6 . International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. May 29, 2013.
  7. ^ Prosecutor v. Jadranko Prlić, Bruno Stojić, Slobodan Praljak, Milivoj Petković, Valentin Ćorić, Berislav Pušić - Judgment - Volume 2 of 6 . International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. May 29, 2013.
  8. ^ Prosecutor v. Jadranko Prlić, Bruno Stojić, Slobodan Praljak, Milivoj Petković, Valentin Ćorić, Berislav Pušić - Judgment - Volume 2 of 6 . International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. Pp. 449-450. May 29, 2013.
  9. ^ The International Criminal Tribunal For The Former Yugoslavia Indictment against Mladen Naletilic and Vinko MARTINOVIC . Archived from the original on March 10, 2007. Retrieved June 26, 2006.
  10. ↑ Caroline Tosh: Prlic Trial Shown Images of War . In: TRI , IWPR , February 23, 2007. Archived from the original on March 22, 2013. Retrieved March 22, 2013.