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Lalovic and Skiljevic: Trying to Protect Detainees

Lalovic i Skiljevic

11 February 2010  Djordje Faladzic, former Deputy Manager of Kula Penal and Correctional Facility, says he does not know of "one single case" of mistreatment of prisoners-of-war by the Facility staff.

"Skiljevic and me personally tried to protect detainees. (...) Some people wanted to mistreat detainees, out of insubordination, but I am positive that no staff members were able to do this or were allowed to do it," Faladzic said testifying for the Defence of indictee Soniboj Skiljevic. He added that hygiene conditions in the Facility were good and detainees received three meals per day.  

Faladzic said that detainees went outside the Kula Facility complex to perform labour when needed, but that this was done "only if security officer Marko Lugonja and the Corps Command signed a decision".

"Skiljevic and me could not decide who would be taken out to perform labour. We could not prohibit them from taking prisoners out to perform labour," he said.

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina considers Radoje Lalovic and Soniboj Skiljevic responsible for crimes committed in the Butmir Facility in Kula, near Sarajevo, where 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. It is further alleged that some of them were killed while performing labour.  

The indictment alleges 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.

Testifying for the Defence of Skiljevic, Mile Sladoje, former Commander of the First Battalion from Nedzarici, said that he engaged two groups consisting of five or six prisoners to work on "maintenance and repair of sniper protection barriers" in Nedzarici settlement in Sarajevo during July and August 1993.  

"I made sure the detainees were treated in a humane way. They had their own room and beds. They ate the same food as soldiers. Everything was normal, except for the fact that they were detainees," Sladoje said.

Neven Lale, who appeared as the third witness of the second indictee's Defence, personally took detainees from Kula Facility to Dobrinja, where they installed communications lines on the front lines.  

"The detainees used to work until 2.30. I then took them back to the Facility. We performed the work for about ten days. Nobody was wounded or killed during the mentioned period of time. (...) The detainees used to stay in the same conditions and ate the same type of food as me," Lale said.

Vid Marcetic, another witness for Skiljevic's Defence, told a similar story. As a coordinator of the Kasindol barracks and hospital gasification project, he took detainees from Kula to work locations on several occasions during 1993. He said he performed the same labour as the detainees, adding that this "was not hard labour".  

"When I came to pick up detainees for the third time, they took me to Mr. Skiljevic's office. He told me to make sure nobody was mistreated, adding that they had to be given food and all the other things we received," Marcetic said.

The next hearing, at which the Defence of the second indictee will continue examining witnesses, is due to take place on Wednesday, February 24.