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Lalovic and Skiljevic: Tasty Food in Kula

19 November 2009  A former cook in the Kula Penal and Correctional Facility says that detainees had the same food as the military and police, adding that "there was enough food and it was not bad".

Voja Janjetovic, who testified as a joint Defence witness, said that she was a cook in the Kula Penal and Correctional Facility, in which non-Serb civilians were detained, as of July 1992.

Janjetovic said it was not true that detainees "sometimes found a pig's ear in their meals", because the cooks did not prepare pork, but chicken and beef. In addition, Janjetovic said that she "made cakes" for holidays.

"Meals were prepared in two huge pots in an improvised kitchen. There was a menu, so people knew what we were preparing. There were three meals and a snack, which consisted of canned meat or something like that. We would cut each loaf of bread into four pieces and give those to people. Detainees used to eat in a separate dining room, but they received the same food as others, because we were not in a position to make different type of food," Janjetovic said.

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina charges Radoje Lalovic and Soniboj Skiljevic with events in Kula, where non-Serb men, women and children were detained. The indictment alleges that the detainees were "held in inhumane conditions" and taken to other locations, where they performed forced labour.

The Prosecution considers that Lalovic was the Kula Manager until the end of 1992, while Skiljevic was his Deputy. From the end of December 1992 to the end of 1995 Skiljevic performed the function of Manager.

The second Defence witness Slobodan Trifkovic worked as technical manager in Kula as of July 5, 1992. He said he made heating stoves, which were installed in all premises in Kula.

"Nobody had to be cold, despite the fact we did not have electricity. We used to warm water on those stoves, which detainees then used to wash themselves and bathe," Trifkovic said.

The third Defence witness, Vule Govedarica, worked as a policeman and a guard in Kula. He said that, "in most cases", the non-Serb detainees were brought by soldiers, adding that sometimes they were brought by policemen. He said it was the police who were in charge of security services in the Facility until the establishment of the prison in Kula. After that the guards took over.

Govedarica said that, as a policeman, "he might have written down the names of detainees from Kasindolska Street", but he said he was not present when those people were taken away. He told the Court that people "said" that soldiers took them away for an exchange.

The remains of 37 detainees from Kasindolska Street were found in a mass grave on Mount Romanija in 2007.

"We kept records of the whereabouts of all detainees at every moment. Those who would take them to other locations to perform some work wrote down their names. Later on we would check whether all of them were returned to the Facility. Those reports were handed over to the Manager every morning," the witness said, adding that the indictees were the Kula Managers during the course of the war.

The trial is due to continue on December 16.