Silos Camp in Tarčin

The "Silos" Camp was located in the local community of Tarčin, in the Hadžići municipality, about 25 kilometers south of Sarajevo. At the beginning of the armed conflicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina in April 1992, the Serbian population in this area was placed under increased control by Muslim police and paramilitary structures. Roadblocks were set up, communications were cut off, and isolation was imposed, along with severe restrictions on the movement of Serbs — Serbs were completely banned from moving or leaving the area.

Establishment of the Camp

The silo facility, originally built for storing grain for state reserves, was converted into a camp for Serbs in May 1992. Its establishment began on 12 May with the capture of soldiers from the Krupa barracks near Zovik, who were among the first prisoners held in this facility. Seven of them were imprisoned in the Silos, while 10 soldiers on regular military service were detained in the Forestry building. On 16 May, soldiers from the Žunovica barracks were brought to the camp. Around 20 May, mass “interrogations” and imprisonment of Serbs in Silos began. Following the crimes in Bradina on 25 May 1992 in the Konjic municipality, which borders Hadžići, attacks on Serbian villages in the surrounding area started. These attacks, in addition to looting, destruction of villages, and killings, served to fill Silos with Serbian prisoners.

Sarajevo Auschwitz for Serbs

Camp survivor Đorđo Šuvajlo, whose family home was located in the immediate vicinity of the camp and who was brought in as a civilian, published a harrowing testimony in 2013 titled “Sarajevo Auschwitz — 1335 Days in the Tarčin Camp ‘Silos’”, with a reissue in 2018. Describing the beginning of his imprisonment, among other things, he wrote:

“Where is Radovan Karadžić and Biljana Plavšić now? There will be no more Serbs in BiH,” the prison guards howled. The camp commander, Bećir Hujić, was a pre-war active policeman in the Sarajevo investigative prison. He personally read out the list of names and assigned prisoners to cells. “Take Đoka to cell two,” I heard the commander’s voice. I walked with heavy steps, listening to my guard. Will they beat me on the way to cell No. 21? I hoped for a quick release and exchange. I had no idea what awaited me. Those were my first steps into captivity that would last 1335 DAYS — days spent in the concentration camps of Tarčin, Krupa, and Hrasnica..

Šuvajlo detailed numerous crimes against Serbian prisoners, describing starvation, beatings, murders, the moving of prisoners and hiding them in other facilities and camps, forced labor, and their use on the front lines, as well as deep personal dramas and the struggle for survival of the prisoners and other Serbs in the area. His text, marked by strong emotion but also precise facts, is a testimony to the operation of a system directed against a man and his identity.

Functioning of the Camp

The Silos Camp, under the control of the so-called Army of the Republic of BiH, operated from mid-May 1992 until 27 January 1996. The camp was under the direct command of the 9th Mountain Brigade of the so-called Army of BiH, later the 109th Mountain Brigade, which from 1995 was part of the 14th Division of the so-called Army of BiH. The commands of these units were located near the camp, so officers from the command and the police station frequently entered Silos.

Approximately 700–750 Serbs passed through the camp. Among the detainees were men of various age groups — the youngest prisoner, Leo Kapetanović, was 14 years old, while the oldest, Vaso Šarenac (born 1908), was over 80 years old and in very poor psychophysical condition. Eleven Serbian women were also imprisoned in the camp, including one pregnant woman.

Conditions in the Camp

According to numerous statements from survivors, the prisoners were subjected to systematic physical and psychological abuse. Frequent beatings, humiliations and mistreatment, forced physical exertion and exhausting labor at various locations — from the front lines to economic facilities (from late 1992 onward) — were reported, along with forced mutual beatings, threats, and daily psychological pressure and uncertainty about their lives. Hunger stood out as one of the most severe forms of torture, leading to exhaustion and drastic weight loss among the detainees. Food was minimal and insufficient for survival, and of highly questionable quality.

Đorđo Šuvajlo:

“However, they did not stop in their efforts to devise the most monstrous ways to torture us. Seeing that we were dying, the leadership of the Muslim municipality of Hadžići decided to introduce one more meal on St. Thomas’s Day in 1992. The meal consisted of one cup of unboiled powdered milk, insufficiently mixed in cold water, so that in addition to milky water we also got some lumps of powder. This main meal served as both lunch and dinner.”

Living conditions in the camp were extremely harsh. In cells of 40–50 m², an average of 35–40 prisoners were housed. Due to lack of space, detainees lay on bare concrete, often in minimal clothing, without the possibility of normal movement and with insufficient daylight. Temperatures in the rooms were often at the limit of endurance both in summer and winter. Hygienic conditions were extremely poor. Prisoners went for months without the possibility of washing or maintaining personal hygiene.

Victims

“Beatings, humiliations, and hunger claimed the first victim on 14 October 1992. Petko Krstić died at the age of 27. Witnesses claim his last words were — give me bread! (…) At night, screams and cries of prisoners were often heard outside the walls of Silos. Beatings were frequent. Prisoners were forced to beat each other with wooden planks, pickaxe handles, and shovels. They were beaten with rifle butts, pieces of cable, batons, stomped on, slashed with knives… They were also exhausted by hunger and thirst. Hunger was the worst and most difficult torture. Because of the small amount of food, everyone halved their body weight. Most could not walk and fell into comas from exhaustion. Many contracted pneumonia. (…) Prisoners were taken to the front lines and used as human shields; some managed to escape, others were executed (…)”

In total, 28 prisoners were killed, died from torture, or succumbed to the consequences of the camp, and many remained with permanent health damage and survived traumas.

Присилни рад и однос власти према Србима

Đorđo Šuvajlo: I spent about nine months doing forced labor. I dug kilometers of military trenches and experienced the worst things I could never have imagined happening to me. People were killed beside me, and as long as I live I will carry the images of dying prisoners and their death cries.

The prisoners built a heliport right next to the camp gate with their labor. Helicopters frequently landed there, including those for Alija Izetbegović and the highest officials of his presidency.

Đorđo Šuvajlo: Đorđo Šuvajlo: I dug his tunnel at Butmir, widened and paved trenches with concrete slabs from Donji Kotorac to Butmir. Prisoners from the Hrasnica camp built him a bridge over the Željeznica River in Sokolovići Colony. And here I am at the end building him a heliport where helicopters would land to take him to the Split airport. From Split airport he would go to conferences and beg Western leaders in London, Brussels, Geneva, and who knows where else for help. I witnessed sudden orders when all prisoners had to return to their cells because President Alija Izetbegović was about to take off or land at the heliport..

Attempts to Hide the Truth

The Muslim authorities, as with all camps where Serbs were held from 1992–1996 in BiH, tried to hide the Silos camp from representatives of the ICRC and other international organizations that visited the area during the war. On 26 November 1992, the International Red Cross, led by the Swiss Mark de Perrot, entered the camp. He then said that he had visited a hundred camps but had never seen anything like this. On that occasion, he stated that in order to get permission to visit Silos, he had to go personally to Alija Izetbegović in Sarajevo. Muslim authorities moved prisoners to different locations to hide them from international representatives and the public. Prisoners were also forced to give false statements for wartime media propaganda.

Symbolically — the End on 27 January

The Silos Camp was closed only after the end of the war and the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement. It was closed, meaning the last prisoners were exchanged, on 27 January 1996 — on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz — which is also a symbolic date. Survivors who testified stated that this camp will be remembered for its brutality, for tortures that the human mind can hardly comprehend, for the crimes committed, and as one of the darkest and most shameful places in the history of this region.

During the war, a large number of camps and detention sites for Serbs were registered in Sarajevo under Muslim control. The Independent International Commission documented at least 211 such sites. Multiple individual and mass graves were also recorded, the most well-known of which is located at the Kazani site.