Lalovic and Skiljevic: Unimaginable Suffering

Prosecution witness Avdo Pizovic spoke about events in Kula detention camp, near Sarajevo, where he was detained. He said he “used to see indictees Lalovic and Skiljevic there”.

“Lalovic was detention camp warden and Skiljevic was his deputy. I heard them addressing each other in that way,” the witness said, adding that he “somehow felt safe” in Kula when Lalovic was there.

The indictment charges Radoje Lalovic and Soniboj Skiljevic with participation in crimes committed in “Butmir” Penal and Correctional Facility in Kula in the course of 1992. The Prosecution contends that the first indictee was the detention camp warden and the second indictee was his deputy. The indictment alleges that men, women and children were held in inhumane conditions in Kula.

Pizovic told the Court that he was arrested in Hadzici on May 17, 1992. After that he was detained in various buildings for a few days prior to being taken to the military barracks in Lukavica, together with 280 other detainees. He said he “experienced unimaginable suffering” while in Lukavica.

“They beat us and mistreated us. They singled out 48 prisoners, reading their names aloud from some list. They took them to another hut. Later on I saw walls covered with blood, sticks and so on,” the witness recalled.

He further alleged that he was among 50 prisoners who were transferred from the barracks in Lukavica to Kula on July 26 or 27, 1992. He was “detained in room number 5”.

“There were eight beds in room 5. Four of us slept on one bed or between them. There was no heating. Hygiene conditions were poor. I did not have a singe bath in seven months,” Pizovic said, adding that guard Nedjo Pandurevic once hit him because he was not capable of performing hard labour.

According to this witness, 35-year old detainee Izet Ramic died in Kula, “most probably due to food poisoning”. Pizovic said that, in the beginning they ate “bad food, which was two or three days old”. Later the food “got better”; they received a quarter of a bread loaf and “some cream”.

The second witness, Munib Isic, a former detainee in Kula, told the Court that he used to see Lalovic, “who was the warden”, and Skiljevic, his deputy.

Isic said that the hygiene conditions and food “were bad” in Kula, adding that he was taken to other locations to perform “forced labour”. He said he was wounded while performing forced labour on October 6, 1992. He received medical assistance in Kasindol Hospital.

The witness said he left Kula in early February 1993.

The trial is due to continue on April 1, 2009.