Djelilovic et al: Starved and in bad shape

Kovacevic said that upon arriving to the camp he was taken to be interrogated by his old school friend Salko Gosta, who took his statement. The witness said he signed the statement, took off his watch, necklace, shoelaces and ring, and the guard took him to his cell. While they were going to the cell, the witness said the guard hit him with a rifle.

The witness said he was soon transferred to another cell, where he wound his neighbours and relatives “in bad shape”.

“They were starved, lost their weight by half, dirty and bearded. There were two buckets in which they emptied themselves. When we were going to the outdoor toilet, at the time usually once a week, most of the guards threw rocks or opened fire at us,” said Kovacevic.

The witness said he knew two camp prisoners who did not survive the incarceration.

“Petko Krstic was my first cousin, he was with me in the cell. He was lying half-dead. His last words were: ‘Give me some bread!” He could not stand starvation and that is what he died of. Vaso Sarenac, an older man, probably died of dehydration.”

The witness described the conditions in the camp as bad, adding that prisoners were getting a slice of bread and sometimes soup until mid-August. It went on like that till the Red Cross representatives arrived in November 1992, when the conditions improved. The witness said he heard a prisoner was beaten 20 times, but did not see it.

Kovacevic said that the warden of Silos was Becir Hujic. “Beatings occurred at evening hours. Hujic went on his regular rounds, but whether he knew about the beating I don’t know,” said the witness.

For crimes committed in the Silos camp, the Krupa barracks and May 9 primary school the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina charged Mustafa Djelilovic, Fadil Covic, Nezir Kazic, Becir Hujic, Halid Covic, Serif Mesanovic and Nermin Kalember.

According to the indictment, Becir Hujic and Halid Covic were warden and deputy warden of the Silos camp, while Nermin Kalember was a guard in the facility.

Before he was brought to the camp with his brother-in-law Vinko Lale, the witness said he lived in the village of Do near Tarcin. Until mid-May, 1992, the witness said he went regularly to work, but then he was told that the work would cease until further notice. At the time, the witness said, he was seeing armed men in Tarcin, and claimed people talked they were going to be attacked, which was why he felt unsafe.

Kovacevic said he asked for a rifle from Lazar Krstic and got two instead. He believed he was arrested because he had a rifle without a permit, just like his brother-in-law. However, he said his father was locked up in the camp too although he did not have a weapon at all.

According to the witness, around 20 men of fighting age from his village were arrested, most of whom had weapons.

The defence of defendant Djelilovic presented to the witness a series of documents, among them the verdict issued by the District Military Court of Sarajevo from 1994, as well as an indictment, which were not handed over to the witness because, it was explained, he was already exchanged.

The defence also presented a subsequent decision on the verdict’s amnesty.

“I do not recognise this verdict. Where was I in 1992 and 1993? I’m seeing this for the first time in my life,” said the witness.

The indictment against the witness related to the illegal possession of weapons.

The witness explained that he was released from the camp in December 1992 and that he was in house arrest until October 1993, when he was exchanged. After that, he said, he was mobilised by the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS). The witness said he was driven from the camp to his house by warden Hujic, after he “smiled and said we were free”.

The defence of defendant Halid Covic presented two documents from August and September 1992 according to which warden Hujic asked the commander of the municipal headquarters, among others, to respect the requested amount of bread and give prisoners more blankets.

The witness said that guard Kalember once helped him and some prisoners.

The trial will resume next Thursday, September 6, when new witness for the prosecution would be examined.