TOMORROW MARKS THREE DECADES SINCE THE CLOSURE OF INFAMOUS PRISON CAMP FOR SERBS

SARAJEVO, JANUARY 26 /SRNA/ - Tomorrow marks 30 years since the closure of the infamous Silos prison camp, one of the three largest camps on the territory of today’s Federation of BiH, and also one of 126 detention facilities for Serbs in the area of wartime Sarajevo.

The notorious Silos camp, run by the so-called Army of BiH, was opened on May 11, 1992, in a facility that had previously been used to store wheat. It was closed on St. Sava's Day – January 27, 1996, two months after the Dayton Peace Agreement was initialed and beyond the deadline for the dissolution of camps in BiH. More than 600 civilians endured the most horrific torture in the Silos camp, including psychological and physical abuse, beatings, and starvation. Twenty-four detainees did not survive. Blood stood as a silent witness to the suffering of the prisoners in those concrete dungeons. Based on testimonies, it was established that Serb detainees were subjected to 167 forms of torture, and the prisoners testified that the then leadership of the so-called Republic of BiH /RBiH/ was aware of what was happening in the camp. Women were not spared from torture either, including one who was in her sixth month of pregnancy. The camp mainly held civilians from the areas of Tarčin, Pazarići, and surrounding settlements, men aged between 14 and 85, as well as 11 women, one of whom was in her sixth month of pregnancy, and 11 reserve soldiers captured on the front line in Hadžići. The youngest detainee was fourteen-year-old Leo Kapetanović, while the oldest was eighty-five-year-old Vaso Šarenac, who died in the Silos, where the temperature inside was always 10 degrees lower than outside. According to the testimonies of former detainees, the Silos camp was deliberately established. It began in early May 1992, when Muslims started emptying the agricultural silo in the center of Tarčin and distributed the wheat to their compatriots. Earlier testimonies from Serb detainees confirm that the “Silos” camp, which the Muslim authorities established on May 11, 1992, in the facility that had stored wheat before the war, contained all the elements of the notorious Auschwitz camp from World War II. The detainees learned about the closure of the Silos camp from representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross. They left the camp on January 26, 1996, while the last 42 detainees were released the following day, finally bringing the doors of this dungeon to a close. On November 24, 2011, police arrested several members of the so-called Army of BiH suspected of participating in crimes and the persecution of Serb civilians in the Hadžići municipality of Sarajevo. The trial of eight members of the so-called Army of BiH, accused of illegal arrests, torture, killings, and inhumane treatment of Serb civilians at the Silos camp, began before the Court of BiH in Sarajevo on April 19, 2012. Mustafa Đelilović, Fadil Čović, Mirsad Šabić, Nezir Kazić, Bećir Hujić, Halid Čović, Šerif Mešanović, and Nermin Kalember were indicted on these charges. The trial attracted significant attention, not only from the families of the victims and survivors, but also from the media in BiH and the wider region. In July 2021, the Court of BiH issued a second-instance verdict, sentencing six individuals to a total of 42 years in prison for crimes committed against civilians. Nezir Kazić, former commander of the 9th Mountain Brigade of the so-called Army of BiH, was sentenced to 10 years; former head of the Public Security Station in Hadžići, Fadil Čović, and former commander of the Silos camp in Tarčin /until August 1994/, Bećir Hujić, were each sentenced to eight years. Mirsad Šabić, commander of the Police Station in Pazarić, received a six-year sentence, and former Silos camp commander /from August 1994/ Halid Čović, and former camp guard, Nermin Kalember, were each sentenced to five years in prison. The six were convicted of illegal detention and inhumane treatment of Serb and Croat civilians held in the Silos camp, the Krupa barracks in Zovik, and the 9th of May Elementary School in Pazarić, as well as denying the detainees the right to a trial and sending civilians to forced labor.