Storage silos
Coordinates: 43 ° 48 ′ 0 ″ N , 18 ° 6 ′ 0 ″ E
The Silos camp was an internment camp operated during the Bosnian War in Tarčin near Hadžići . From 1992 to 1996 it served the Armija Republike Bosne i Hercegovine to intern mainly Bosnian Serbs and Bosnian Croats .
The camp was located in the village of Tarčin near the town of Hadžići. The up to 600 inmates were tortured both physically and mentally , insufficiently fed and detained in unsanitary conditions. It had a full capacity of 600 prisoners, 24 prisoners died or were killed while the camp was operating.
In September 1992, a prisoner exchange was prepared in which the prisoners held in silos would be released in exchange for the liberation of the Bosnian Muslims imprisoned by the Bosnian Serbs. The negotiations ultimately failed and the exchange never took place. After the Red Cross visited silos in November 1992, conditions improved somewhat. After the Dayton Accords were signed in December 1995 , which ended the war, up to 100 prisoners remained in silos. At the urging of US President Bill Clinton , the camp was closed in January 1996, two months after the Dayton Agreement was signed. In November 2011, Bosnian police arrested eight Bosnian Muslim officers and former camp guards who were charged with alleged abuse in the camp. In 2018, all eight were convicted, but the following year their convictions were overturned on appeal and retrial ordered.
history
Tarčin was a predominantly Muslim community. During the Bosnian War, the area of great strategic importance as it connected the besieged city with the remaining area controlled by the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH). Fearing a riot, the local authorities arrested all fighting-age Bosnian Serb men and locked them in a large windowless grain silo in Tarčin.
There were eleven departments in the silo, each department being separated by walls. The space between the compartments was monitored by camp guards who only addressed each other by their last names. The first prisoners were taken to the silos in mid-May 1992. According to survivors, the inmates were between 14 and 80 years old. Those arrested included Slavko Jovičić , a future member of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and at least two Bosnian Serbs who had fought with the ARBiH .
The inmates saw no daylight for months, some starved because of the poor food situation. The camp had no sanitation or running water and was surrounded by barbed wire. Inmates slept on the concrete floors. Some inmates died from various illnesses. Many became sick when the silo floor was covered with human excrement ; others were killed by gunfire and artillery while working on the front lines on the orders of their captors. The camp was able to hold 600 inmates at full capacity.
In September 1992, an attempt was made to exchange prisoners with 454 Bosnian Muslim and 463 Bosnian Serb prisoners. It was envisaged that the Army of the Republika Srpska (VRS) would release Bosnian Muslim inmates from a prison in the village of Kula near Sokolac, and that the ARBiH would release the inmates detained in silos. The negotiations eventually collapsed and the exchange never took place. After the Red Cross visited silos in November 1992, conditions improved somewhat. Between April 15 and 17, 1993, the ARBiH wrested the town of Konjic from the Croatian Defense Council and took more than 1,000 Bosnian-Croatian prisoners, some of whom were held in silos. On June 13, 1993, several Bosnian-Croatian men from Tarčin were arrested by the ARBiH and detained in silos.
More than 100 inmates were held captive after the Dayton Accords were signed in December 1995, which ended the Bosnian War. After the camp was dissolved, the Bosnian Serbs released many of the hostages they had taken to ensure the safety of the silo inmates. In the course of its existence, 24 inmates died or were killed in silos.
consequences
On November 22, 2011, the Bosnian police arrested Fadil and Halid Čović, Mustafa Đelilović, Bećir Hujić, Nermin Kalember, Nezir Kazić, Šerif Mešanović and Mirsad Šabić on suspicion of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Silos camp and two other locations in the Tarčin municipality. During the war, Đelilović was mayor of Tarčin municipality, president of the municipality assembly and president of the municipality's crisis committee. Fadil Čović was the municipality's police chief. Kazić was the commander of the 9th Mountain Brigade of the ARBiH. Hujić was the commander of the silo storage facility and Halid Čović, Mešanović were his deputies. Kalember and Šabić had worked as security guards in silos
On February 21, 2012, seven of the eight defendants pleaded not guilty on all counts. Kazić said that after consulting his lawyer, he did not understand the charges. On March 1, he also pleaded not guilty.
On July 5, 2018, a first-instance verdict found all eight defendants guilty of illegally detaining civilians and detaining them in intolerable living conditions. The eight were acquitted of crimes against prisoners of war after the court found that all detainees were civilians. The process had taken more than six years. Đelilović and Kazić were sentenced to ten years in prison. Fadil Čović and Hujić were sentenced to eight years in prison. Šabić and Halid Čović were sentenced to six years in prison. Mešanović and Kalember were both sentenced to five years in prison. Đelilović and Halid Čović's lawyers appealed the judgment. On July 15, 2019, the Appeals Chamber of the Bosnian State Court overturned the convictions and ordered a retrial. The retrial began on September 17, 2019.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Burg & Shoup 1999, p. 179
- ↑ a b United Nations: Final Report of the Commission of Experts . 1994 ( phdn.org ).
- ^ A b Daniel McLaughlin: A land divided . Ed .: The Irish Times. July 9, 2011 ( irishtimes.com ).
- ^ John Pomfret : Civilian Exchange Fails, Prisoners Returned to Jail . September 10, 1992. Retrieved March 19, 2020.
- ↑ Bosnian Army 'Forced Prisoners to Dig Frontline Trenches' . September 13, 2013. Accessed September 13, 2020.
- ↑ Eight Tarcin Crimes Suspects Arrested . November 22, 2011. Accessed March 19, 2020.
- ↑ Not Guilty Pleas in Silo's War Camp Case . February 21, 2012. Retrieved March 19, 2020.
- ↑ Nezir Kazic Pleads Guilty not . March 1, 2020. Accessed March 19, 2020.
- ↑ Albina Sorguc: Eight Bosniaks Jailed for Sixty Years for Prison Camp Abuses . July 5, 2018. Accessed March 19, 2020.
- ↑ Emina Dizdarevic: Bosniaks' Convictions for Detention Camp Abuse quashed . July 15, 2019. Retrieved March 19, 2020.
- ↑ Haris Rovcanin: Bosnia Retries Eight for Wartime Jail Camp Abuses . September 13, 2019. Retrieved March 19, 2020.