Bosnia Ex-Prisoners Relive Memories at Brcko Jail Camp

The three wartime detainees, Janko Samoukovic, Amir Omerspahic and Stanislav Krezic, spoke on Thursday in Brcko about the torture they survived in various detention camps in Bosnia and Herzegovina at an event called ‘My Story’, part of a nationwide series of exhibitions, film screenings and debates entitled ‘Peace Building Week’.

Samoukovic, who was locked up in the Silos detention camp in Tarcin during the war, said that people who suffered could empathise with each other, whatever their ethnic background.

“We, the detainees, see that we can understand each other very well and that we survived similar or the same things in those detention camps,” Samoukovic explained.

“Our wish is to show that the three of us belong to different peoples and that we are friends. Our wish is not to exaggerate or diminish anybody’s suffering, but to say that war is really not a good thing and that, essentially, it causes misery and harm to everybody,” he said.

Omerspahic, who was held in the Sljivovica camp in Serbia after the fall of Zepa in Bosnia in July 1995, said that he wanted to help younger generations understand what war was really like.  

“I was 17 when the war began. I still suffer from the severe consequences of what I had to go through,” he explained.

“We rely on the younger people to make positive changes in this country. This is the only goal. This is what motivates me and helps me. I am not a person who can hate anybody. I can just condemn bad people irrespective of their ethnic affiliation,” he said.

Krezic, who was detained during the war in a primary school near his hometown Mostar, pointed out that it was important for former prisoners to speak publicly about peace and reconciliation.

“Most of the people present were in detention camps. We can feel the support they offer us, so we can endure implementing this project and tell young people that detention camps and war do not bring anything good,” Krezic said.