Ex-Prisoners Mark 30 Years Since Closure of Bosnia’s Silos Camp

A commemoration was held at the site of the Silos detention camp in Tarcin, where Serbs and Croats were imprisoned, beaten, and abused during the war.

Former inmates at the Silos camp. Photo: BIRN.

Former detainees on Tuesday marked the 30th anniversary of the closing of the notorious Silos detention camp at a commemoration at the site of the wartime camp in Tarcin, a village west of the capital Sarajevo.

Around 500 Serb civilians were detained at the Silos camp at various times, some of them for as many as 1,334 days. Around 90 Croat detainees were also held at the camp.

Prisoners were held in inhumane and often overcrowded concrete cells, and were beaten and abused. They were also made to do forced labour on the front lines, where they were also mistreated.

Former detainee Savo Mrkajic was held at Silos for three years, three months and three days before managing to escape. He recalls being hungry and being subjected to harassment and humiliation – as well as witnessing a mass beating of prisoners.

“I was not beaten that day, but it was far worse to watch the others being beaten – the blood splattering on the walls. It was horrifying. That is what has stayed with me ever since, the reason I wake up at night. It is something that can never be erased,” Mrkajic said.

Mrkajic is one of the former detainees who spoke to BIRN Bosnia and Herzegovina for a special webpage to mark the 30th anniversary, which features testimonies about prisoners’ wartime suffering in the camp.

The camp, based around a former agricultural silo, was only closed on January 27, 1996, two months after the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement that ended the Bosnian war.

In 2021, the Bosnian state court convicted six defendants – camp guards, policemen and a Bosnian Army officer – of committing crimes against Serb and Croat civilians at Silos, sentencing them to a total of 42 years in prison.

Copyright BIRN 2015