Sarajevo Camp Warden ‘Beat Up Bosniak Prisoners’

Prosecution witness Enver Durmo told the court in Sarajevo on Wednesday that he was imprisoned in the Planjina Kuca camp in Vogosca in mid-August 1992.

“We learned from other prisoners that the camp’s warden was Branko Vlaco. Soon afterwards I saw him. He sent us to do hard labour and to be [used as] human shields,” said Durmo.

He said that doing hard labour, at Zuc Mountain, was difficult for him because he was exhausted and hungry. Once in the camp, he asked for an additional piece of bread and the warden beat him up.

“Suddenly Branko Vlaco turned up. He hit me and took me out into the corridor, where he beat me with his fists and kicked me with his legs,” recalled Durmo.

He said that after that Vlaco put him into solitary confinement for three days without food or water, but one of the guards gave him lunch.

According to the prosecution, Vlaco was warden of the Bunker, Planjina Kuca, Sonja and Nakina Garaza detention camps in Vogosca, where he established a system to abuse imprisoned civilians.

Prisoners were murdered, tortured and abused, forced to do hard labour and used as human shields. Many of them were killed and dozens are considered missing. Vlaco is also accusing of raping one woman.

A second former prisoner who testified on Wednesday, Bego Selimovic, said he was taken from Planjina Kuca to be a human shield six times.

He spent nine months in detention camps and saw Branko Vlaco hit prisoners on several occasions.

“Once he hit [a prisoner known as] Pinjo from Sarajevo, who was sick, with his fist in the stomach. Pinjo stood up and asked him where he exercised, after which Vlaco blushed,” said Selimovic.

Selimovic said that soldiers often came to Planjina Kuca to beat up prisoners and that he was also attacked once in the camp’s basement.

Those who were beaten were told they are paying for dead Serb soldiers.

The trial will resume on July 17.