Lalovic and Skiljevic: Exceptional Conditions in Kula

Vojislav Vojkovic, a State Prosecution witness, claimed that the detainees held in the “Butmir” facility in Kula Prison near Sarajevo were guarded by employees supervised by the indictees, Radoje Lalovic and Soniboj Skiljevic.

Vojkovic explained that he was a member of the police station in Kula, from April “until the end of June or the beginning of July of 1992.”

“The employees addressed Skiljevic as the manager. I think he was a manager at the Ekonomija. I met Lalovic somewhat later, in May 1992. He was also a manager in the penal and correctional facility Kula (KPD). I do not know who appointed him to that function,” Vojkovic said.

The State Prosecution charges Lalovic and Skiljevic with crimes committed in KPD Kula. According to the indictment, detainees in Kula were kept in inhumane conditions and were exposed to abuse and were taken to perform forced labour. The indictment states that Lalovic was the manager of the facility and Skiljevic was his deputy.

“The civilians were brought to Kula at the end of May, 1992 and were placed in the last complex. They ate in a hall that could take some 50 people. I think that they had the same food as we did, breakfast, dinner and supper. The food was prepared at the same place,” the witness said, adding that they had “tea, margarine, eggs, moussaka for dinner and a light soup for supper.”

He stressed that on one occasion when there were no detainees he entered other rooms where other detainees were housed, and he determined that they had “extraordinary conditions. Painted rooms, beds, sanitation…”.

Vojkovic said that the detainees were taken to work only to Ekonomija, where they had been taken by the guards of KPD Kula.

The second Prosecution witness, Edina Ceribasic-Begovac, was taken to Kula along with her husband and two children; her daughter was two years old at the time and her son was five.

“Taken to Kula on July 24, 1992, the men were separated from the women and children and were placed on the second floor. The children were crying because they were hungry. After that screaming and yelling, we began banging on the door, asking them to give us food. In the evening they brought us bread, a little milk, and some small marmalade packs like the type offered in hotels,” Cerebasic-Begovac said.

The witness said that she and her children stayed for two days in Kula, and her husband was held for approximately another 20 days. During her stay in Kula she did not hear of Lalovic or Skiljevic.

The trial is due to continue on April 23rd.