Dretelj Camp

Dretelj is a place north of the urban area of Čapljina, upstream on the right bank of the Neretva River. At the entrance to the settlement there was a complex of former JNA military warehouses, located approximately 1,400 metres as the crow flies from the centre of Čapljina. The complex was situated in a valley between two elevations and consisted of several buildings within an enclosed area: administrative buildings, workshops, garages, and warehouses for storing fuel and lubricants.

Establishment of the camp for Serbs

After the takeover of Čapljina in April 1992, the complex was occupied by Croat-Muslim forces. During the summer of 1992, it was used by members of the HOS and the so-called Army of RBiH under the name “Bruno Bušić” barracks. The complex was enclosed with barbed wire and, according to witness statements, partly with minefields to prevent the escape of detainees. In this area, from the beginning of May until September 1992, a camp for Serbs from Herzegovina operated. From April 1993 to April 1994, the same complex was used as a Croat camp for Muslims. In the context of the suffering of Serbs from Mostar, Čapljina and Stolac, the 1992 camp represents a distinct thematic and organisational unit, often referred to in the literature as “Dretelj 1”.

Conditions in the Camp

The camp had all the characteristics of an organised system for the detention of civilians. Civilians of Serbian nationality were unlawfully held there, subjected to daily intensive psychological and physical abuse, inhumane and unhygienic living conditions, minimal amounts of food and water, as well as forced labour both inside and outside the complex. Prisoners were housed in concrete hangars with small windows and metal doors, without basic living conditions. Witnesses describe summer temperatures inside the hangars reaching up to 40 degrees Celsius, sleeping on concrete or improvised beds, and having to relieve themselves in containers because leaving at night was not permitted.

Arrival / Transport of Prisoners

A large number of detainees were brought from Mostar via the HOS centre located in the former military clinic. During their arrest and transport they were subjected to organised looting and mistreatment. Upon arrival at the camp, the prisoners were lined up, interrogated, and exposed to threats, insults and intimidation. In the statements of survivors, references to the NDH and Ustaša ideology are frequently mentioned, as well as belittling of the exhumation and burial of victims of the Genocide against Serbs in the NDH during the Second World War — especially in connection with the exhumation and burial of victims in Prebilovci.

Abuses / Torture

In the camp, systematic physical torture and humiliation of detainees was carried out. Witnesses described severe beatings, torture with sticks, rifle butts and other objects, carving the letter “U” into bodies, forcing prisoners to sing Ustaša songs, licking shoes and floors, consuming grass, cigarette butts, urine, motor oil and other substances, as well as various forms of sexual abuse. Mass rapes of women, including elderly women and minors, as well as the sexual abuse of men, forcing them to perform sexual acts on each other, and other forms of humiliation were particularly well documented.

Sexual Abuse

A particularly severe dimension of the crimes was the abuse and humiliation of women detained in the camp, including physical and psychological violence, as well as the mass rape of female prisoners. Testimonies of survivors indicate that women were subjected to systematic terror, threats and various forms of abuse, which left permanent consequences on their physical and mental health. In this context, the case of Dr. Olga Draško is well known — her suffering remains one of the symbols of the agony of Serbian civilians and camp inmates. Her fate testifies to the brutality to which Serbian women were exposed in the camps during the war.

Fear and Uncertainty

Testimonies show that fear was constantly present among the prisoners. Looking the guards in the eyes was forbidden, and the detainees lived in permanent uncertainty because of daily beatings, threats of execution, and being taken away for forced labour. Many survivors described Dretelj as the hardest camp they had passed through.

There was also an infirmary in the complex where a doctor worked, whom the prisoners identified as Hranilović from Zagreb and whom they nicknamed “Dr. Mengele” among themselves. Witnesses accused him of inhumane treatment of detainees and denial of medical assistance. The best-known case concerns Saša Stolić, a prisoner whom the criminals called “Tenkista” (“The Tankman”). According to the testimonies of multiple witnesses, his appendix was surgically removed without anaesthesia. Visits to the doctor were accompanied by daily and brutal beatings.

Murders

During the existence of the Dretelj camp, murders of detainees were also committed. The best-known case is the murder of Božo Balaban from Mostar, a retired flight instructor, who died in the camp on August 2, 1992, after severe beatings. Witnesses described how Balaban was tortured for hours, beaten with sticks, rifle butts and other objects, then returned to the hangar where he died. His remains were identified only in 2010. Other victims of Dretelj mentioned include Jovo Pejanović (former commander of the Mostar SUP), Nenad Marković, Đuro Škoro, Evgenije Samardžić and other detainees who disappeared or were killed after being tortured.

A particularly harrowing testimony about the crimes in Dretelj was given by Sofija Balaban (née Janjić, born 1934 in Mostar), the wife of the murdered detainee Božo Balaban. As a camp inmate, she was forced to listen to the torture and murder of her husband, carried out by HOS members led by Edib Buljubašić. According to testimonies, after the murder she was subjected to additional psychological abuse and humiliation. Her testimony is considered one of the most important sources on the system of terror, psychological violence and liquidations in the Dretelj camp. The tragedy of the Balaban family also had a historical dimension of suffering — Sofija’s father was a victim of the Genocide against Serbs in the NDH during the Second World War, and two of Božo’s brothers were also killed in that genocide.

Entire families among the prisoners

Among the victims were married couples and entire families. In the available testimonies and documentation, in addition to the Balaban married couple, the case of the Kuzman married couple is mentioned. They were killed in circumstances connected with the camp system and the wider persecution of the Serbian population. Also mentioned is the mistreatment and detention of the four-member Kružević family from Mostar. Their suffering forms part of a broader pattern of violence directed against Serbian civilians, in which the victims were often elderly people, women, and individuals who had not taken part in armed actions.

Camp Officials and Guards

In the testimonies of survivors and court documents, it is stated that control over the camp was held by the HOS, headed by Blaž Kraljević. Among the command structures and soldiers present in the camp, the following names are mentioned: Edib Buljubašić, Ivan Petrušić, Mirsad Repak, Miro Hrstić, Sejo Horozović, Šime Martinović, Ahmet Makitan, Vinko Primorac and many others. In the verdicts of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a larger number of perpetrators are mentioned, while materials from the Committee for the Collection of Data on Crimes Committed Against Humanity and International Law from Belgrade list 62 different individuals connected with the crimes in the camp.

In the summer of 1992, cooperation between the HOS and the so-called Army of RBiH in Herzegovina intensified. In Dretelj, a “reception and training centre” of the so-called Army of RBiH was also established. The cooperation was formalised by an agreement between Blaž Kraljević and Armin Pohara in August 1992. According to witness testimonies, members of the so-called Army of RBiH were present in the complex during the period of the most intense crimes against Serbian detainees. It is also stated that Blaž Kraljević, as a general, was a member of the General Staff of the so-called Army of RBiH.

After the murder of Blaž Kraljević by the HVO in Kruševo on August 9, 1992, a crisis erupted within the HOS and the position of the detainees worsened. Witnesses state that after his death, the prisoners were exposed to new waves of brutal beatings and threats of liquidation.

Exchange

Most of the detainees left the camp during August 1992. One group was transferred towards Buna and Mostar, then to the Ćelovina prison and exchanged near Stolac on August 18, 1992. Another group was handed over to the HVO and transferred to the Grabovina, Ljubuški and Rodoč camps. The last four Serbian women were released from the complex on September 21, 1992, which is considered the end of the operation of the Serb camp in Dretelj.

Based on lists and statements of surviving witnesses, at one point there were up to 200 prisoners in the male hangar and up to 80 women in the female hangar. The majority of detainees were from the areas of Mostar and Čapljina, as well as from other places in Herzegovina.

Court Proceedings

No proceedings have been conducted before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina for the crimes committed against Serbs in the city of Mostar. Before the Court of BiH, proceedings were conducted against five individuals for the crime against humanity — joint criminal enterprise — involving the holding of civilians in inhumane and unhygienic conditions and subjecting them daily to various forms of physical, psychological and sexual abuse in Mostar and the Dretelj camp (Čapljina municipality) in 1992. For these crimes, the following were finally convicted: Ivan Zelenika (6 years in prison) Edib Buljubašić (6 years) Ivan Medić (7 years) Marina Grubišić-Fejzić (5 years) Srećko Herceg was acquitted. Additionally, before the Court of BiH, proceedings were conducted against four individuals for war crimes against the civilian population (rape, infliction of great pain and suffering) in the Dretelj camp (Čapljina municipality) in 1992. For these crimes, Ivan Medić (6 years in prison) and Tonćo Rajič (2 years) were finally convicted, while Miroslav Hrstić and Miljenko Nogolica remain unavailable to the judicial authorities of BiH. All those convicted have already served their prison sentences and have been released.

Trials Abroad

Two individual verdicts for the Dretelj camp were handed down abroad. For war crimes against Serbs in the Dretelj camp, in the first war crimes trial in Norway since the Second World War, Mirsad Repak, a former member of the HOS, was sentenced in Oslo in March 2010 to five years in prison. For war crimes — or more precisely for beating, humiliation and sexual abuse of Serbian prisoners between May and August 1992 in the Dretelj camp — Ahmet Makitan, known as Maks, was convicted. He was mentioned by a large number of former camp inmates in their statements for the brutality of the torture he inflicted. The court in Stockholm, Sweden, sentenced him — as a Swedish citizen and former member of the HOS — to five years in prison. The verdict states that he was also responsible for the murder of two detainees.

Symbol of Human Brutality

It is evident that the overall scope of the verdicts related to Dretelj does not correspond to the scale and extent of the abuse and murders of Serbian camp inmates that took place in this camp. The Dretelj camp has remained remembered as one of the largest and most severe sites of suffering for Serbs in the Croat-Muslim camp system in Herzegovina during the 1992 war in BiH.