NUŽDIĆ: HUMANITY DIED EVERY DAY IN SILOS CAMP

BANJA LUKA, JANUARY 20 /SRNA/ - Acting Director of the Republika Srpska Center for Research of War, War Crimes and the Search for Missing Persons Viktor Nuždić said that the notorious camp for Serbs, Silos in Tarčin near Sarajevo, was a place where humanity died every day and pain became a way of life.

"Torture was even a single day spent in this notorious camp. It is difficult, almost impossible, to imagine the suffering, hunger, fear and humiliation endured by detainees in that dungeon for a full 1,300 days simply because they were Serbs," Nuždić told SRNA.

He stressed that daily torture, systematic starvation, brutal beatings, psychological abuse and forced labor were part of everyday life in Silos.

Nuždić said that around 600 Serbs passed through this camp, many of whom did not survive the harsh conditions and inhuman abuse. Those who left alive were left with permanent scars on their bodies and souls, and many of them later died.

He recalled that the Hague Tribunal never seriously addressed camps for Serbs, although, according to data from the Republika Srpska Center, there were more than 200 such camps in the Sarajevo area alone, including Silos - one of the darkest symbols of the suffering of the Serbian people.

Nuždić pointed out that Silos was established in May 1992 and continued to exist for more than two months after the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement, noting that many detainees had previously passed through the entire system of Sarajevo camps, carrying suffering from one dungeon to another.

"Although the Court of BiH dealt with crimes committed against Serbs in the Silos camp, the final outcome is devastating - only seven people were convicted and given shamefully lenient sentences. Therefore, it is our obligation not to forget," Nuždić said.

He added that during this year the Republika Srpska Center will consolidate all data on Sarajevo camps and present to the public the most comprehensive, substantiated and documented findings, because truth is a debt to the victims and an obligation to the future.

On Tuesday, January 27, the 30th anniversary of the closure of the notorious Silos camp for Serbs in Tarčin, in the municipality of Hadžići, will be marked. During the war, around 600 Serbian civilians were detained there, 24 of whom died as a result of beatings, torture and starvation.