Witness Asks about Reasons for Detention

At the trial for crimes in the Hadzici area, a State Prosecution witness says that she does not know why she was detained in “Silos” for about three months.

“I would be sad to die without finding out why I was detained,” said witness Luca Mrnjavac, who used to live in Tarcin prior to being detained, along with her family, in “Silos”.
 
The witness said that she and her husband were taken to “Silos” after members of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ABiH, had surrounded her house and told her: “We have killed you son. You are going to jail”. As she said, the soldiers found weapons and a few bombs in her house. She was examined about it in “Silos”. 
 
The witness said that, at the beginning of the war her two sons joined the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, and fought against Serb soldiers together with members of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
 
She was not able to specify when she was taken to detention with her husband, but she remembered that it happened during summertime, when conflicts in Kresevo were ongoing. The conflicts between ABiH and HVO in Kresevo happened in 1993.
 
The witness said that the living conditions in “Silos” were bad, adding that she did not change her clothes or took a bath for three months. Mrnjavac said that she was detained in a cell with a few other women, but she praised the guard, who guarded them.
 
“Izo Gagula guarded our cell. I would like to thank him. He was very nice,” said Mrnjavac, who also spoke about two bad guards in “Silos” during her testimony.
 
Mrnjavac said that she was thankful to the Manager of “Silos” too. “I know the Manager, but I do not know his name. He deserves honour. He was nice. He saved my photo album, while I was in ‘Silos’,” the witness explained.
 
She said that she once asked Refo Tufo why she was captured. He told her that it was for the sake of her security, but she did not accept the explanation.
 
The indictment charges Mustafa Djelilovic, Fadil Covic, Mirsad Sabic, Nezir Kazic, Becir Hujic, Halid Covic, Serif Mesanovic and Nermin Kalember with crimes against civilians and prisoners of war in “Silos” detention camps and other buildings in Hadzici municipality.
 
Second witness Pero Petrovic, former HVO soldier, was brought to “Silos” in mid-June 1993. As he said, during the search of his house, they found a rifle and two or three bombs. He said that, after a certain period of time he was transferred to “Krupa”. While he was held in “Krupa”, he was taken to other locations in order to perform labour.
 
“We used to dig channels, trenches, dugouts. We carried logs in order to build dugouts,” the witness said, adding that the men, who guarded them, treated them in a correct manner.
 
The witness mentioned that he stayed in “Krupa” for about a month and that he went back to “Silos” from which he was released at the beginning of September 1993. He said that the conditions in “Krupa” were better than in “Silos”, but he remembered two “troublesome”, as he called them, guards, who are indicted in this case.