Three prisoners from the former ”Manjaca” camp recall the period of their lives when, 30 years ago, after several months of detention and mistreatment, in January 1993, they were finally free.
After leaving the ”Manjaca” camp a month earlier under the escort of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), where they were detained for months in inhumane conditions, without food and water, beaten and abused, in January 1993 Mehmed Begic, Nurhudin Burnic, and Sadmir Alibegovic stayed in Karlovac in Croatia. This January, they recall the most terrible period of their lives.
Mehmed Begic’s apartment, which was located in Kljuc, according to his memory, was ”invaded” by six armed men at the end of May 1992, they took him to the police building in this city, where he was beaten, and then, together with the other detainees, he was first transferred to the Banja Luka ”Small camp”, and then to Stara Gradiska. He was previously subjected to torture in all facilities, and on June 11th, 1992, he was transferred from Stara Gradiska to Manjaca with a group of detainees.
According to Begic, upon arrival, the inmates went through a barrage of beatings, followed by six months of mistreatment, which was reflected in beatings, name-calling, searches, and planted objects, up to the denial of food and water.
Beatings as a welcome to the camp
In June 1992, former policeman Sadmir Alibegovic was arrested and imprisoned in detention facilities in Lusci-Palanka, and then in the Concrete Plant in Sanski Most, where name-calling and beatings were a daily occurrence, and after a few days, he was called and transported with the others to Manjaca by truck.
”We see a classic camp, like in fascist movies, with barbed wire fenced around, minefields in front of that barbed wire on the inside of the camp, dogs, guards deployed, and observation posts that were built and placed at the corners of the camp,” says Alibegovic.
He remembers that immediately after his arrival, the camp guards started abusing the newly arrived inmates, after which they were brought inside, that is, the barn, and the blankets they had brought with them and which were spread on the concrete were taken from them.
Lack of food and water
Former inmates say that, apart from the lack of water, the food in ”Manjaca” was more than scarce, although the situation only partially improved after the first visit of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Merhamet from Banja Luka.
In August 1992, Nurhudin Burnic was transferred from the ”Krings” camp in Sanski Most to ”Manjaca” and recalls that, upon arriving at the stable, the inmates looked unreal to him because of their weight.
”I managed to transfer biscuits from ”Krings”. There is a fence in the middle where the cattle are tied and we slept there, both on the left and the right side. I leaned on the fence. I wanted to treat them, and I take the biscuit, open it, and say: ”Here guys, take it.” When they looked at… the hands from above, there was not a single crumb left. They laugh, and they say: ”Are you normal?” I told them to take one piece each, to treat themselves nicely. They say: ”We haven’t seen a grain of sugar for two months, let alone something sweet,” Burnic said, Detektor reports.
E.Dz.
