Ex-Prisoners Recall Horrors of Bosnia’s Bunker Camp

Suljo Duric and Fadil Medic were both brought from the village of Svrake to the Bunker camp in the Sarajevo suburb of Vogosca in early May 1992.

Both prosecution witnesses told the Sarajevo court on Wednesday that the conditions in the Bunker camp were inhuman, that there was no regular or sufficient food and no toilet.

“Guards separated meat from the food with their hands, gave it to the dog and gave us the rest,” recalled Duric.

“There were times when there were 100 of us in the camp, but we got only two or three bottles of water,” the witness said.

They were taken from the Bunker to do hard labour, and Medic said he would never forget how they were forced to move an unexploded bomb from the road to a house.

“You expected to be blown into 1,000 pieces at any moment,” said Duric.

He said he was beaten until he passed out on several occasions, while other prisoners were also assaulted.

Defendant Branko Vlaco came to the Bunker camp every other day, he testified.

“He cursed our ‘Alija’ [wartime Bosnian president Alija Izetbegovic]. He was the one who sent us to do hard labour,” said Duric.

The prosecution accuses Vlaco, as the warden of the Bunker, Planjina Kuca, Sonja and Naka’s Garage detention camps in Vogosca, with establishing a system to abuse imprisoned civilians.

According to the indictment, prisoners were murdered, tortured and abused, forced to do hard labour and used as human shields, when many of them were killed. Dozens of them are still considered missing. Vlaco is also believed to have raped one woman.

Witness Duric was ultimately released as part of a prisoner exchange, while Medic bartered his mother-in-law’s house for his freedom.

Vlaco’s trial will resume on Friday.