Bad Conditions in Silos Camp
Witness Vojo Mrkaja said in a statement from 2007 that he lived in the village Smucka in the municipality of Hadzici until June 19, 1992, when he was arrested along with several other Serb locals and taken to the Silos camp.
“They brought us in front of Silos, they searched us and put us in a cell. We spent the night there. I was not beaten, but I was terrified because I was there,” said the statement of Mrkaja, who died in 2010.
Prosecutor Zorica Djurjevic read out the part of the statement, where the witness described the bad conditions in Silos.
“The food was bad. Once they put something sour in our food and we got diarrhea… We slept on the floor with no blankets,” said Mrkaja, who left this building in February 1993.
Mustafa Djelilovic, Fadil Covic, Mirsad Sabic, Nezir Kazic, Becir Hujic, Halid Covic, Serif Mesanovic and Nermin Kalember are on trial for crimes against Serb and Croat prisoners at the Silos 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.
The Prosecutor read out the statement of witness Milorad Kovacevic, who died last year. In a statement he gave in 2011 Kovacevic said that he was arrested and detained in the Silos camp in 1992 and that the conditions in the camp were very bad. He said that he was not beaten, but that he heard screams from other cells.
“Soldiers once came to Silos while I was imprisoned. They walked around us, cursing us,” the witness said in a statement.
Defence attorneys said that they would ask the witnesses about the arming of the Serb population from the villages Do and Smucka at the beginning of the war.
The Prosecution said that it will soon begin presenting the material evidence.
The trial continues on October 6.
