Lalovic and Skiljevic: Notice board

Prosecution witness Hasan Sunj, a former detainee in Kula detention camp, said he had seen a noticeboard where there was a note saying that indictee Radoje Lalovic was manager of the prison. Sunj said he saw the second indictee, Soniboj Skiljevic, in Kula but did not have any contact with him.

“I cannot remember how Skiljevic was dressed when I saw him, but I remember how he looked,” Sunj, who was detained in Kula for more than two months, said.

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina charges Lalovic and Skiljevic with participation in crimes committed in “Butmir” Penal and Correctional facility in Kula in the course of 1992. The first indictee was allegedly manager of the Facility, while the second indictee was his deputy. The indictment alleges that men, women and children were kept in inhumane conditions in Kula.

Hasan Sunj told the Court that he was captured on June 13, 1992, after having joined a group of residents of Binjezevo village, Hadzici Municipality, who tried to leave their houses. He was first taken to the Sports Center in Hadzici and then to the military barracks in Lukavica. “On June 24 or 25,” 1992 he was detained in Kula.

“There were 26 of us in one room. I do not know how big the room was, but there was not enough space. They gave us some sponges to sleep on,” Sunj said, adding that they were allowed to go to the toilet “briefly in the morning”. If there was a need, they would knock on the door during the day and the guards would come and take them out to the toilet.

Detainees received two meals per day, which consisted of “tea, beans and a slice of bread for lunch”. Sunj said he lost ten kilograms during his detention.

“I do not know who guarded us while we were in Kula. I know that Vukasin Przulj, who was dressed in military not civilian clothes, used to take me to locations where I performed forced labour. We performed the labour after they had read our names from some lists,” the witness said, adding that he left Kula in an exchange of prisoners on September 8, 1992.

The second Prosecution witness, Musan Sunj, was taken to Kula together with Hasan.

He said the indictee was manager of Kula facility and Lalovic was his deputy. He added that they were guarded by pre-war employees of the Correctional Facility in Kula, which was a semi-open prison before the war.

Musan Sunj said he was among 100 or 120 people who were detained in one room, adding that they slept on a tiled floor.

“Following Radovan Karadzic’s visit, old and sick people were released from Kula. After that they singled out about 50 of us and detained us in a separate room,” the witness said.

Karadzic is on trial at the the Hague Tribunal for crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the course of 1992 he visited the Kula detention camp, accompanied by TV crews.

The witness said that a veterinarian used to give “pills for stomachache or headache” to detainees, and that no medical doctors came to visit them. Musan Sunj left Kula on February 9, 1993.

The trial is due to continue on April 2.