Bosnian Security Chief ‘Told Not to Probe Hadzici Jails’

Alibabic, the former chief of Bosnia’s state security service and the Sarajevo Security Services Centre during wartime, told the court in the Bosnian capital on Thursday that he first received information about the detention of Serb civilians at the Silos camp in Hadzici in the summer of 1992, and sent an inspector to find out more.

“He just went there and I remember that he told me that a large group [of people] were detained, that they were living in inhumane conditions, but he could not further verify what he knew, because guards did not allow him to go in,” said Alibabic, who was testifying for the prosecution.

Alibabic said that he informed his superior about what he had learned, but was told that he shouldn’t “interfere in those matters, because it is a military and political issue”.

He said that his boss told him that the detentions of the Serbs in Hadzici were a ploy to put pressure on Bosnia’s Serb Democratic Party “to release detained Bosniaks that the Serbs were holding in the centre of Hadzici”.

The prosecution charges Becir Hujic, Halid Covic, Mustafa Djelilovic, Fadil Covic, Mirsad Sabic, Nezir Kazic, Serif Mesanovic and Nermin Kalember with crimes against Serb and Croat prisoners at the Silos detention camp, the Krupa barracks and the 9th of May school in Hadzici.

According to the indictment, Hujic was the warden of the Silos camp, as was Halid Covic at a later date. Mesanovic was one of the deputy wardens at the detention centre and also camp warden in the Krupa military barracks, Kalember was a guard, while the others worked for the civilian, military or police authorities.

Alibabic told the court that he had information that prisoners were forced to dig trenches and that he once attended a meeting with a Serb delegation that wanted to talk about the issue, but the people with whom he went to the meeting told him not to speak about it.

“I was told that I do not know enough about this issue and that the problem must be presented to the [Bosniak authorities’ security] coordination team,” he said.

The trial continues on March 27.