Former UN Observer Was Satisfied with Conditions at Silos Prison

Testifying at the trial of eight former Bosniak wartime officials, a former UN observer said he didn’t observe that prisoners held in the Silos detention facility in Hadzici were mistreated, beaten, or killed.

Former military observer Owen O’Sullivan, who served the UN Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina, told the court that he travelled through the municipality of Hadzici in 1993. He said during his time in Hadzici, he met a group of women who told him they were searching for their detained family members, who were being kept at the Silos detention facility. According to O’Sullivan, the group of women said he wouldn’t be allowed to pass until their family members had been released.

“I told them I would personally visit the facility. They said the detainees were tortured, beaten, and some were even killed. I visited the facility on the following day. It was the Silos prison. I arrived there without prior notice. I requested to meet the commander. I told him what I had heard. He denied it,” O’Sullivan said.

He said he was allowed to visit prisoners who were held in prison cells. O’Sullivan said he told the prisoners that their relatives and friends blocked the road and had told him what was happening to them.

“They were surprised to hear that. Looking at them, one couldn’t see that they’d been mistreated or beaten. They weren’t well-fed. They were given one meal per day. They were allowed to go outside for only one hour…They got the same stuff the local population got. The condition of the prisoners reflected the situation of the entire population. There was no big difference,” O’Sullivan said.

O’Sullivan testified in defense of Mustafa Djelilovic, who has been charged along with Fadil Covic, Mirsad Sabic, Nezir Kazic, Becir Hujic, Halid Covic, Serif Mesanovic and Nermin Kalember with the unlawful detention, inhumane treatment, and physical and mental abuse of prisoners. They’ve also been accused of ordering prisoners to perform forced labour.

According to the charges, at the time Djelilovic was the president of the municipal assembly, crisis committee and wartime presidency of the municipality of Hadzici, while the other defendants worked for the military, police and detention camps. Kalember was a guard in Silos.

O’Sullivan said following his visit to the Silos detention facility, he informed the group of women of what he had seen. He said they were satisfied with his report. Later on a woman told him that her detained husband’s health was poor and that he wasn’t being given medical assistance. O’Sullivan said he went to Silos again to investigate.

“I visited that man. He told me he was well and wrote her a note. On the following day I returned to the checkpoint in Hadzici, but I couldn’t find her. I heard that she worked at the post office, so I took the message to her,” he said.

O’Sullivan said he believed someone gave the women incorrect information.

O’Sullivan said the situation in Hadzici was difficult, because it was surrounded at the time. There wasn’t enough food and medical supplies to go around, but he didn’t see Serbs in the area being persecuted or tortured. When asked about the conditions in the Silos prison, he said it wasn’t bad.

“It was certainly not a five star hotel, but it wasn’t a wretched place either. I thought it was in line with the situation in the area,” he said.

The trial will continue on May 7.