Former Prisoners Describe Fear, Hunger and Violence in Rabic Detention Camp
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Nezirovic, a former member of the Croatian Defense Council (HVO), has been charged with participating in the torture and inhumane treatment of detained Serb civilians in the Rabic and Silos Polje detention camps in the municipality of Derventa as well as a detention camp in the village of Tulek in the municipality of Bosanski Brod in 1992.
Mirko Markovic, a former prisoner in the Rabic detention camp, was the first witness to testify at today’s hearing.
“When Almaz entered the hangar where we were detained, people started shaking. They wet themselves from fear. Why? Because we were beaten almost every day,” Markovic said.
Markovic said he and his father were apprehended in his house and were taken to the military center in Derventa in May 1992. After that he was transferred to a military hangar within the Rabic detention camp.
“About 120 of us stayed in that hangar, which was located below ground. A lot of dark, of lot of cold. We defecated into some hole. We slept on a wet floor. We rarely ate. We used to get food every four days. I don’t remember if we were ever given water at all,” Markovic said.
He said he hadn’t known Nezirovic before the war, but learned his name from other prisoners during his detention.
“Once he beat me severely. He asked me to put three fingers on a table, the three fingers I use to make the sign of the cross when praying, and he hit them with a baton,” Nezirovic said. He then identified the defendant in the courtroom.
Zoran Stanic, also a former prisoner in the Rabic detention camp hangar, testified at today’s hearing as well. Stanic said detainees in the camp were beaten every day by Nezirovic as well as others.
“I was beaten by Almaz for more than a month. He kicked and punched me. He beat me up more than ten times,” Stanic said.
Stanic said he was exchanged in June 1992, and weighed less than 50 kilograms upon his release.
“When I was released, I pinched my nose, because I honestly couldn’t believe I was alive,” Stanic said.
During cross-examination Stanic said he runs into former Rabic detainees in Derventa, but they don’t socialize with each other or discuss their experiences in the detention camp.
The trial will continue on February 25.
