The Čelebići prison camp was a prison camp run by Croat and Bosnian Muslim forces in Čelebići, a village in the central Bosnian municipality of Konjic, during the Bosnian War.
The camp was used to detain Serb prisoners of war rounded up by Bosniak and Bosnian Croat forces around Konjic in May 1992. Prisoners at the camp were subjected to killings, torture, sexual assaults, beatings and otherwise cruel and inhuman treatment.
Approximately 300-400 men and some women were taken to the former JNA (Jugoslovenska Narodna Armija, Yugoslav National Army) military base in the town of Celebici, where the Muslim and Croat forces set up the Celebici camp. According to human rights investigators, the prisoners were fed rarely, on bread and water. They rarely bathed, slept on concrete floors without blankets, and many were forced to defecate on the floor. Serbian survivors said Muslim soldiers entered the base at night and beat prisoners with clubs, rifle butts, wooden planks, shovels and pieces of cable. Investigators say that in May and August, about 30 prisoners died from "bestial" beatings and a few others were shot or stabbed to death by Muslim troops. Several of these victims were elderly.Nedeljko Draganić was 19 years old in 1992, and in his last grade of high school when the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina came to his village. Of Serb ethnicity, he was living in Cerići, a mostly Serb village near Konjic in central Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In his testimony, Mr. Draganić said that Croat forces (HVO) and the Muslim Territorial Defence shelled his village on either 19 or 20 May 1992. During the attack, Mr. Draganić, his brother, mother and father took shelter in a streambed where they spent the night. The village surrendered the next day.
Mr. Draganić, who was not a member of the village's armed defence, was captured on 23 May 1992 together with his brother. The Croatian HVO and the Muslim Territorial Defence rounded up the men from the village and took them to the Čelebići prison camp, which was a large complex of buildings and hangars with a railway line running through it. Initially they were told that they would be going for an informative interview and that they would be home by that evening. Mr. Draganić was held in the camp for three months.
“I was never told personally what was the reason for my capture,” said Mr. Draganić, “but [camp commander Hazim] Delic … on one occasion … told us that we are detained because we were Serbs,” said Mr. Draganić.
When they entered the Čelebići prison camp, Mr. Draganić and the other men were lined up against a wall and searched. They were told to take out their shoelaces and hand over their personal IDs. They did not take any valuables from Mr. Draganić because he did not have any.
Mr. Draganić spent the next three nights together with about 16 or 17 people in a tunnel that was one and a half metres wide, two metres high, about twenty metres long, and had no light. He was eventually transferred to a large metal building, 30 metres long and 13 metres wide, which is fully enclosed and has doors down one side, called Hangar 6. He was held there together with some 250 people.
The detainees slept on the concrete floor, with their heads on each other’s legs. When it was hot outside, it was also hot inside the hangar, and when it rained, the people on one side of the building could not sleep at all because everything got wet. They had to ask the guards who were posted outside the building to be allowed to use the toilet facilities, which consisted of a hole with a plank across it.
Mr. Draganić said that for food they received a slice of bread and sometimes three to four spoonfuls each of vegetable stew. They all ate from the same bowl and used the same five spoons. Some days, and for as many as three to four days, they did not get any food. Mr. Draganić said that the situation improved in August 1992, when Zdravko Mucić, the camp commander, allowed the detainees’ families to bring food to the camp.
Mr. Draganić described for the court a number of occasions when he was beaten and abused during the three months that he was at the camp. The guard who mistreated him the most, said Mr. Draganić, was camp guard Esad Landžo, also known by the nickname “Zenga,” which is derived from the acronym for a Croatian military unit called the Croatian National Guard—ZNG. Mr. Draganić knew Landžo, who is about a year younger than him, from before the war because they went to the same high school, and he saw him in the hallways, as well as in the cafes about town.
Mr. Draganić said that Esad Landžo beat him almost every day, usually using a baseball bat. But there were also a number of occasions when Landžo was among those who severely mistreated him.
Mr. Draganić told the court that the first time he was mistreated, Esad Landžo and three others called him out of Hangar 6, took him to another hangar and tied his hands to a beam above his head. All four of them beat him with planks and rifle butts and kicked him until he lost consciousness. While beating him, they asked him where his rifle was. Mr. Draganić kept repeating that he did not have one. After what Mr. Draganić said must have been an hour, they took him back to Hangar 6.
Mr. Draganić stated that on another occasion, Esad Landžo and another person took him out at night and beat him on the lawn in front of a hangar. Mr. Draganić fainted two or three times in the course of this beating before Landžo grabbed him by the hair and dragged him back to Hangar 6.
At the end of June or beginning of July, on yet another occasion of abuse that Mr. Draganić related to the court, Esad Landžo took him to another hangar and told him to sit against the wall with his legs close together. Then Landžo spilled what Mr. Draganić said was either alcohol or petrol over him. After his lighter did not work, Landžo used a match to set Mr. Draganić’s legs on fire. “[H]e did not allow me to put the fire out until it was put out by itself,” said Mr. Draganić. “[M]y trousers were completely burnt out and both my legs had burnt.” Along with the men, some women were also taken to the camp where they were repeatedly mistreated and raped.
On 20 May 1992, Grozdana Ćećez was digging in her garden when she saw a number of cars, including two police cars, passing by a Serbian cemetery. Mrs. Ćećez woke her husband up, and he fled behind the house. Her son also fled. Mrs. Ćećez said that she stayed behind because she did not expect anything bad to happen. When she saw people coming out of a car wearing camouflage uniforms, she too fled to the nearby woods.
For the next seven days, Grozdana Ćećez would hide in a cave and in her brother-in-law's cellar. As she fled from place to place, she saw many Serb houses on fire, including her own. On 27 May 1992, Mrs. Ćećez was captured and taken to the Čelebići prison camp.
When she first arrived at the camp, Mrs. Ćećez was taken to a very small room where she saw a man with a crutch, who had one of his legs bandaged. The man, who Mrs. Ćećez identified as ICTY accused Hazim Delić, the camp's deputy commander, asked about the whereabouts of her husband, Lazar. When she said that she did not know, Delić began slapping her. He and two others led Mrs. Ćećez to another room where there were a number of beds. Hazim Delić told her to take her clothes off.
Mrs. Ćećez said she did not understand what he wanted, and thought that Hazim Delić was going to beat her. He took off some of her clothes, turned her on her chest and raped her, with the two other men present. “I didn’t realise that this would be happening to me, this at the end of the 20th century, that someone would allow themselves to do this.” Then Delić took the rest of her clothes off, turned her on her back and raped her again.
“He trampled on my pride,” said Mrs. Ćećez, “and I will never be able to be the woman that I was.” While Mrs. Ćećez was crying and saying to herself “My G-d, what have I come to live through,” Hazim Delić said to her that she would not be there if it had not been for her husband, Lazar.
About an hour after Hazim Delić raped her and left the room, ICTY convict Zdravko Mucić who was the commander of the Čelebići camp, and Rale Mušinović, whose cousin was her husband’s former commander in the police, came to see her in the room. Mucić asked where her husband was and asked whether anyone had touched her. Mrs. Ćećez did not dare tell the truth because Hazim Delić had told her not to tell anybody. But Mrs. Ćećez said that they could see that she had been raped. She said that if Mušinović noticed that she did not have a ring on her finger (she had given it to her daughter), then he would surely have noticed a big trace of sperm left on the bed.
On her third night in the Čelebići camp, Mrs. Ćećez was moved to another building. At around 11pm, a young man came in and told her to take her clothes off. He was in a uniform, and had a knife and rifle next to him. She tried to talk to him saying, “What do you want? I am an old woman.” He told her to just take her clothes off, and then he raped her. Later another young man came in and Mrs. Ćećez started to cry. He told her to undress and then he too raped her.
That same night a third young man came in. Mrs. Ćećez asked whether she knew him from somewhere. “You may have gone to summer camp with my son,” she said. They talked for a while, and then he raped her. After he was done, he said, “Do you see how a Turkish schmuck can deleted?” Before leaving, he told her not to tell anyone. Then a fourth man came in and raped her, but because by then the candle had gone out, she could not see him.
Mrs. Ćećez could not understand what all these young men were doing, because she was old enough to have been their mother. She also said it was difficult for her because, as she said, “I was a woman who only lived for one man and I was his all my life, and I think that I was just getting separated from my body at this time.” She wondered how she could go back to her husband and children. The next day she spoke with Rale Mušinović and begged: “Rale, kill me. Do not let me stay here alone.” She told him what had happened and cried a lot. He said that it would not happen again. He was wrong.
Mrs. Ćećez remained in that building for the rest of her time in the Čelebići camp, sleeping in a room with five to seven other women. They had no place to wash, and no hot water. They had a blue plastic jug that they would wash their underwear in and in which they urinated at night, as they did not dare go out. Throughout the three and a half months she was there, they were given two bars of soap and one and a half cups of detergent to share amongst five to seven of them. However, Mrs. Ćećez said that food was what they lacked the most. For 42 days, they were only given a piece of bread. Then they were given soup and some beans that had not been boiled properly. Later the camp authorities allowed food to be brought in, but her sister who brought it did not always succeed in getting it to her. Mrs. Ćećez lost 34 kilos, and felt very sick. A list of some victims:
Scepo Gotovac, aged between 60 and 70, who was subjected to extensive beatings by Hazim Delic and Esad Landzo, among others, and who had an SDA badge nailed to his forehead. Mr. Gotovac died as a result of the injuries he sustained.
Simo Jovanovic, who was severely beaten over an extended period of time, sometime in July 1992, by a group including Hazim Delic and Esad Landzo. Mr. Jovanovic died as a result of his injuries, having been denied medical treatment.
Bosko Samoukovic, who was struck repeatedly with a wooden plank by Esad Landzo sometime in July 1992. The blows rendered him unconscious and he died as a result of his injuries.
Slavko Susic, who was subjected to repeated and severe beatings sometime in July or August 1992, by a group including Hazim Delic and Esad Landzo, who beat him with objects, including a bat and a piece of cable. They also tortured him using objects including pliers, lit fuses and nails. After several days, Mr. Susic died as a result of the injuries he sustained.
Momir Kuljanin, who was severely and repeatedly beaten over a period beginning around 25 May 1992 until the beginning of September 1992, by Hazim Delic and Esad Landzo, among others. He was kicked to unconsciousness, had a cross burned on his hand, was hit with shovels, was suffocated and had an unknown corrosive powder applied to his body.
Spasoje Miljevic, who was mistreated by Hazim Delic and Esad Landzo, among others, on numerous occasions beginning around 15 June 1992 continuing until August 1992. The mistreatment included placing a mask over Mr. Miljevic’s face so he could not breathe, placing a heated knife against parts of his body, carving a Fleur de Lis on his palm, forcing him to eat grass and subjecting him to severe beatings using fists, feet, a metal chain and a wooden implement.
Mirko Babic, who was mistreated by Hazim Delic and Esad Landzo, among others, on several occasions sometime around the middle of July 1992. On one occasion, both accused allegedly placed a mask over Mr. Babic’s head and beat him with blunt objects until he lost consciousness. On another occasion, Esad Landzo burned Mr. Babic’s leg.
Mirko Dordic, who was mistreated by Esad Landzo from sometime around the beginning of June 1992 until the end of August 1992. The incidents of mistreatment included beating Mr. Dordic with a baseball bat, forcing him to do push-ups while being beaten and placing hot metal pincers on his tongue and in his ear.
The subjection of the detainees at the Celebici camp between May and October 1992, to an atmosphere of terror created by the killing and abuse of other detainees and to inhumane living conditions through deprivation of adequate food, water, medical care as well as sleeping and toilet facilities, which conditions caused the detainees to suffer severe psychological and physical trauma. Some other prison/concentration camps for Serbs during the Bosnian War:
The Silo Camp in Tarcin.: Tarcin is in the municipality of Hadzici, suburb of Sarajevo. Before the war, the city had an elementary shcool, city hall, post office and an ore factory. In the vicinity of Tarcin was the recreation center for tuberculosis patients. At the beginning of 1992 the Muslim authorities formed their reserve militia and assumed full power in the area of Tarcin and Pazaric, an adjoining town. At the outbreak of the civil war, in April 1992 the Muslims forces launched their first military actions. At this time any movement of the civilian population was prohibited and the Muslims established a camp in a wheat silo in Tarcin and a camp in Krupa-Pazarici. They took in the male civilian population, the youngest being 17 years of age and the oldest 70 plus. Until late June 1992 approximately 800 men and several women were held captive in these two camps.
Prisoners in the camp were forced to do hard labor. Guards themselves beat the prisoners daily and organized mass beatings forcing prisoners to beat fellow prisoners. As an example, on June 4, 1992 camp warden Becir Hujic ordered guards to open the prison cells and while armed soldiers were posted outside the prison cells, 15-20 men and one woman Jasmina entered the cells and proceeded to beat the prisoners with metal and wooden sticks and fists. The beatings lasted from noon to 2 p.m. Afterwards, many prisoners lost consciousness and were left lying on the concrete floor in pools of their own blood. After a while, the prison warden ordered prisoners to hand over all valuables they still possessed, gold watches etc. which were collected by masked soldiers. The soldiers stayed at the silo through June where they tortured prisoners daily led by thier commander "Zuko" . The imprisoned Serbs lived in the silo camp in Tarcin in the worst conditions never having been officially charged or sentenced. The Muslim authorities released the last of the remaining prisoners in January 1996, only because the US Government finally applied pressure for them to do so.
Musala Camp in Konjic. Konjic is located in the Central valley of Neretva River on the road to Hercegovina and the Adriatic Coast. Before the war Konjic was the cultural center of North Hercegovina. Tourism was developed, as Konjic has two lakes in the vicinity as well as the Ljuta River. There was a furniture factory in Konjic. Every year a competition of metal workers of Yugoslavia was held in Konjic. According to the 1991 census for the population of Konjic, Serbs made up 18.54 % but formed the majority in the following adjoining villages: Bjelovcina, Place, Borci, Bradina, Cerici, Cicovo, Dolovi, Donje Selo, Dubrevice, Jezero, Pula, Sitnik and Zagorica. In other neighboring settlements Serbs were in the minority.
Even though the sparse Serbian population did not present a threat to the majority Muslim and Croat population in the Konjic municipality, the Muslim and Croat authorities began to carry out total ethnic cleansing of the Serbian population from their districts starting at the very beginning of the war. Starting April 18, the survival of the Serbian population was threatened with the arrival of Croatian forces from Split to Konjic. By April 20, 1992 the Serb population was fleeing en masse to neighboring villages. For days the Serbs tried unsuccessfully to negotiate with the Muslim/Croat coalition who demanded their expulsion. Those who refused to leave paid with their lives. By May 15, 1992 mass military attacks were mounted on the undefended villages where Serbs had fled. May 15th the village of Blace was attacked and almost the total Serbian population murdered. On May 21st the villages of Bjelovcina, Cerici and Donje Selo were attacked. Donje Selo was later turned into a camp for women and children. During the initial period the women were kept in a shool house where they were tortured, raped and beaten daily. All female captives, including women in their seventies were included in this treatment.
During the second half of May 1992 the sports hall, Musala, in Konjic was transformed into a prison camp in which many Serbs from the Konjic municipality were imprisoned. The first prisoners in Musala, as far as it can be established, were Serbs arrested in Donje Selo. They were taken to the camp on May 22, 1992. Before the existence of this camp was revealed to the International Committee for the Red Cross, the Croatian and Muslim captors murdered camp inmates in the most horrifying manner. They murdered 13 people on June 15, 1992 in a part of the camp they blasted with artillery shells from an immediate vicinity.
The systematic rape of the imprisoned Serbian women in Musala was carried out before they were deported to a village prison camp of Donji Selo.
The Musala camp in Konjic was operated until October 6, 1994 when the last Serb prisoners were released after spending over two years there never having received any charges or sentences and without knowing why they had been imprisoned.
What do these monsters get? ICTY Trial and Judgement for the Celebici Prison Camp (no trial or charges for other camps):
* Zdravko Mucic (an ethnic Croat), commander of the prison camp: found guilty of torture and given 9 years.
* Hazim Delic (Bosniak), deputy commander: found guily of murder and torture (sexual violence) and given 18 years
* Esad Landzo (Bosniak), guard: found guilty of murder and given 15 years.
In the case of Zejnil Delalic, it was found that he did not have enough command and control over the prison camp and the guards who worked there to entail criminal responsibility for their actions.
Izetbegovic's involvement?
The acquittal of the accused Zejnel Delalic by Hague International Tribunal for War Crimes directly closes the way for further investigation into the responsibility of the top Muslim officials and Alija Izetbegovic for crimes committed over Serbs in Celebici camp during 1992.
During the court proceedings Tribunal prosecution submitted a documentation (some 20 pages) finding that "Zejnel Delalic had direct control over the Celebici camp commander and was responsible for everything that went on in that camp," but this was obviously not enough for court council to find Delalic guilty as charged
Evidence for Delalic's responsibility is primarily contained in his personal documentation that was found in his Vienna firm office during the arrest. In it Delalic writes about the events he participated in during the spring of 1992 in Konjic County.
In this extensive documentation submitted by the prosecution as the evidence for Delalic's responsibility it is stated that he was named coordinator of the Konjic defence forces on May 18, 1992, that he was appointed a commander of the Tactic Unit One of Bosnian forces for the area of Jablanica, Dreznica, Konjic, Prozor, Pazaric, Hadzici and Igman on July 11 the same year, evidenced by a written order as well by Delalic's confession before the Tribunal. Delalic, who was a businessman in Austria for a number of years came to Konjic by the beginning of May 1992, and immediately proved to be a "person that could contribute considerably to the defence of Konjic" as defence witnesses Bosnian forces generals Divjak, Kebric, Hadzihuseinovic, Ruvic and Dzambasovic said.
In documents that were confiscated in Delalic's firm in Vienna it is noted in his handwriting:
"After I abandoned my business in Austria I was in war 24 hours a day. Except for the mission in Zagreb that lasted five days, I spent all the time in the area of Konjic, Igman, Pazaric, Prozor, Gornji Vakuf". Prosecution also went to prove that Delalic, although officially not a member of the so-called Konjic War Council whose sessions he just attended, was responsible for everything that was happening in Celebici.
General Divjak testified before the Tribunal than on one occasion he visited Celebici as the member of Bosnian forces headquarters and that he "understood Celebici were under Delalic's control".
Delalic confessed in court that he personally suggested Zdravko Mucic be appointed the commander of Celebici camp.
Prosecution also submitted the written confession of Delalic himself that was confiscated in "Vienna documentation" about his first action upon his arrival to Konjic - the seize of Yugoslav Army facilities in the city on April 19, 1992.
In that document, a kind of a journal, Delalic states he attended the meeting of the Ministry of War were it was decided to seize the Yugoslav Army facilities in Celelbici on April 19, 1992.
Delalic confirmed this before the Tribunal saying he was the leader of the group of 25 volunteers. Weapons they took from these facilities was taken to Delalic's house and his sister's house and later distributed, confessed Delalic.
As the evidence of Delalic's responsibility for the crimes, prosecution submitted a video-tape that shows Delalic personally giving orders to shoot during the attack of Muslim forces on Serbian villages Bradina and Donje Selo, on the same day - April 19, 1992.
Because of all those "merits", Izetbegovic signs a decree promoting Delalic to colonel of Bosnia and Herzegovina forces in June 1992. In the documentation of the Yugoslav government Committee for gathering information about the crimes against humanity and international law there is a series of testimonies of surviving camp prisoners who claim Delalic was "Alija's man of confidence".
In all those testimonies that were submitted to the Tribunal, Delalic is always mentioned as the man who was giving orders and whose commands were unconditionally carried out by Hazim Delic, deputy superintendent of Celebici camp and the notorious guard Esad Landzo. A number of camp prisoners, whose testimonies are kept in Yugoslav government Committee, claim that Izetbegovic visited Celebici in August and October.
One prisoners states that he heard a commotion one day and as he peeked through the key hole he saw tree luxurious cars and Izetbegovic, Mucic and Delalic getting out of them.
Another witness, who wasn't a camp prisoner, says in his statement that he saw Izetbegovic from a window when he came to Celabice as he was leaving the car wearing a leather jacket and a green beret.The testimony of Slavko Jovicic, a.k.a. Slavuj, leaves no room for doubt that Alija Izetbegovic knew about the camps in which mostly Serb civilians were detained, tortured and killed; it also shows that Izetbegovic used to visit those camps; Slavko Jovicic spent 1334 days, between 5/26/92 and 1/19/96 in the Tarcin camp. He was a police inspector, and before his arrest, the chief of security for the Serb parliamentarians and ministers in the then multiethnic parliament and government of Bosnia-Hercegovina.
"I saw Alija Izetbegovic on several occasions during my incarceration in the Tarcin camp. His first visit was in April, 1994. He left Sarajevo through the tunnel, and then, he was taken in a car to the helidrom in Tarcin; the helidrom had been built by us, camp inmates. From there he flew in a helicopter to Split.
"During Izetbegovic's visits to Tarcin, we were removed to a safe distance from him. But, even from 30 to 50 meters away from him, which was the distance between the silo in which we were incarcerated and the helidrom and the camp headquarters building, we were able to recognize him. I always found it easy to recognize him, since I had known both him and his escorts personally. Izetbegovic knew about me, he even knew my nickname, Slavuj.""... Alija Izetbegovic was a frequent visitor in Konjic. The commotion in the police security affected my place of work every time Alija came to Konjic. Even I, although a Serb, knew that Alija Izetbegovic was visiting Zajnel Delalic's headquarters located in a house below the hotel. In 1992 and 1993, Alija Izetbegovic was coming to Konjic almost every 10 days. He was there two days after the fall of the village of Bradina; I heard that he had ordered to burn down all Serb houses which hadn't been burned during the capture of this village... B.S., a Muslim, said in front of me that he had heard Alija Izetbegovic say that he had visited camps for Serbs in Celebici and Konjic and that he [Izetbegovic] personally ordered the camp staff to show no mercy toward Serbs. Guards from those two camps were frequent visitors in the building in which I worked and they mentioned Alija's name in their conversations a lot." The story of this Serb woman, who is a possible witness for the Hague tribunal, is confirmed by the Croatian intelligence, whose informations will be sent to the Hague; by chance or design the incriminating report also fell into Serb hands (we translated the report from the Croatian newspeak). Unexpected Croatian help and assistance is not that hard to understand if one knows that the Croats have stopped competing with the Muslims over who should get more credit for the decline of Serb population in the Konjic municipality from 18 percent to 0.5 percent.[/b]Neutral/Western/U.S. links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%8Celebi%C4%87i_prison_camphttp://www.un.org/icty/pressreal/p364-e.htmhttp://www.enotes.com/genocide-encyclopedia/celebicihttp://www.hrw.org/legacy/backgrounder/eca/kos0510.htmSerbian links:
http://www.serbianna.com/columns/savich/047.shtml
Topic: The Čelebići prison camp (Read 4287 times)