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Lalovic and Skiljevic: Detainees Treated in Professional Manner

Lalovic i Skiljevic

04 February 2010  Three former guards at the Kula Penal and Correctional Facility say that non-Serb detainees were "treated in a professional manner" and that nobody was mistreated or beaten.

"Thanks to indictees Radoje Lalovic and Soniboj Skiljevic and the rest of us who worked in Kula, many people should be happy for having been there, because we treated them in a professional manner," said Nedjo Pandurevic, testifying for the Defence of indictee Skiljevic.

Pandurevic said that the Kula Facility was established in late July or early August 1992, adding that indictee Lalovic was appointed as Manager but that he "did not have a deputy". The witness said that, at the end of the year, Skiljevic was appointed as Manager, while his Deputy was Djordje Faladzic.

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina charges Lalovic and Skiljevic with events in Kula, in which non-Serb men, women and children were detained. The indictment alleges that detainees were held in inhumane conditions and taken to other locations to perform forced labour and some of them were killed at those locations.  

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina contends that Lalovic was the Facility Manager and Skiljevic was his Deputy until the end of 1992. At the end of that year Skiljevic allegedly took over the function of Manager, which he performed until the end of 1995.  

"Soldiers used to bring non-Serb prisoners-of-war to Kula and handed them over to the police forces, to which I belonged, until the end of July 1992. Following the establishment of the Facility, I became a guard. At that time we took over and registered all detainees," Pandurevic said.

The witness said that with the establishment of the Facility and the arrival of Lalovic health and hygiene conditions improved as well as meals.  

"Prior to Lalovic's arrival, prisoners used to eat in the same rooms in which they lived. A dining room was set up after his arrival. They could heat water and bathe," Pandurevic said.

Nedjeljko Ljuboja, another guard who testified for Skiljevic's Defence, said that detainees had "solid living conditions", and that there were beds and mattresses in the rooms and a "sufficient quantity of blankets".  

"The rooms in which they stayed were heated with stoves, which we brought in because there was no electricity. The guards' rooms were heated in the same way. They were allowed to use washstands whenever they wanted," Ljuboja said, adding that prisoners received the same type of food as the Facility staff.  

The witness said that non-Serb detainees performed labour, such as cutting firewood, harvesting, and unloading concentrated products, or they were taken by soldiers to "workplaces where some of them were wounded".  

"If someone was injured, he was taken to the hospital to get medical assistance. If a prisoner did not come back from the workplace, we took note and informed our immediate supervisor," Ljuboja said, adding that he did not know whether anyone was mistreated or beaten in Kula.  

Zeljko Mrdic, a former guard at the Facility, said that each time prisoners were taken away it had to be registered in the duty officer's book. The witness said that detainees could "send messages to their families via the Red Cross".  

Mladen Prstojevic, who worked in the Facility as a cook, was examined as a witness at this hearing. He said that detainees received three meals per day, adding that there was "sufficient food almost all the time".  

"The food quality depended on the cooks who prepared it. In most cases we prepared potato, peas, stew, green beans and so on. We could not give them large pieces of meat, but we cut the meat into small pieces. Someone would get two or three pieces or even more, depending on how it was distributed,"
Prstojevic said.

The trial is due to continue on February 11.