Silos: Bosnian Serbs ‘Abused and Killed’ at Prison Camp

Testifying for the prosecution, Slavoljub Krivic said that on June 10, 1992, he was taken to the Silos camp and imprisoned.

“This is where I met more Serbs. The cell was all bloody from the beatings,” said Krivic.

The prisoners could not complain about the conditions in the camp or they would be beaten, the witness said, although he said that no one “laid a hand” on him.

Detainees’ rations were a bowl of “water and a little cabbage, four or five spoons per person and a piece of bread”, Krvic said.

“They increased our rations when a prisoner died of starvation,” he added.

The Bosnian prosecution charges Becir Hujic, Halid Covic, Mustafa Djelilovic, Fadil Covic, Mirsad Sabic, Nezir Kazic, Serif Mesanovic and Nermin Kalember with crimes committed in the Silos camp, the Krupa barracks and the 9th of May primary school.

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 in the Silos and also camp warden in the Krupa barracks warehouse, while the others were members of the civilian, military or police authorities.

Krvic said he was once saved from a beating by Hujic’s intervention.

He was later moved to Krupa and then to the Hrasnica neighbourhood, where he was ordered to do hard labour including the digging of tunnels and trenches.

He said that some prisoners were killed, wounded and abused while working.

“Three people were murdered in April 1993. I did not witness the murder, but the reason was the escape of four prisoners. They forced us to climb the truck and kneel. They relieved themselves on us and made us sing,” said the witness.

After that, Krvic was again kept in the Silos camp, where he often saw Mesanovic. He said that once, “while intoxicated”, Mesanovic beat up two prisoners.

Krivic left the camp in 1996.