The Gabela camp or Gabela prison was a
prison camp run by the
Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia and
Croatian Defence Council in
Gabela. The camp was located several kilometres south of
Čapljina. Its prisoners were
Bosniaks
The Bosniaks ( bs, Bošnjaci, Cyrillic: Бошњаци, ; , ) are a South Slavic ethnic group native to the Southeast European historical region of Bosnia, which is today part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who share a common Bosnian ancestry ...
and
Serbs.
The camp
The camp consisted of detention facilities and a munitions warehouse. "Outside observers were not allowed to visit Gabela until August 1993. At this time the ICRC registered 1,100 inmates."
The camp facilities were ammunition depots belonging to the former
Yugoslav Army, consisting of four hangars marked 0, 1, 2, and 3, and three solitary confinement cells. The hangar size was 200 square metres, and up to 500 persons were held inside each. The detainees were exhausted by starvation and thirst, and were tortured. Ten litres of water were provided per 500 persons per day, so many drank urine to quench their thirst. The detainees had to perform their bodily functions in the hangars. They were forced to sing Croatian nationalist songs and to listen to lectures on how correct Croatian policies were.
Upon entering the camp, detainees were exposed to special forms of torture. They were ordered to lie on their stomachs, and they would then be brutally beaten on their backs and heads. Some had their fingers broken by clamps. In early October, the camp warden, Boško Previšić, killed Mustafa Obradović in front of hangar No. 1, in the presence of a large number of detainees, after discovering a piece of bread concealed on him. Boško was seen talking to warcriminal mercenary and murderer
Jackie Arklöv
Jackie Banny Arklöv (born 6 June 1973) is a Swedish convicted criminal. Arklöv is an ex- neo-Nazi and Yugoslav Wars mercenary and war criminal, who, with two other neo-Nazis, murdered two police officers after a bank robbery in 1999.
Early li ...
in the camp, before and after Arklöv had tortured prisoners.
[Magnus Sandelin: "Den svarte nazisten". Bokförlaget forum, 2011. .]
Trials
The former manager of the Gabela camp Boško Previšić has not been prosecuted and remains a fugitive. His deputy Nikola Andrun was sentenced to 13 years in prison for the crimes against civilians in Gabela by the State Court in Sarajevo.
Former mercenary, Neo-Nazi, convicted bankrobber
Jackie Arklöv
Jackie Banny Arklöv (born 6 June 1973) is a Swedish convicted criminal. Arklöv is an ex- neo-Nazi and Yugoslav Wars mercenary and war criminal, who, with two other neo-Nazis, murdered two police officers after a bank robbery in 1999.
Early li ...
was stationed at the camp as a guard and was convicted by
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
court for brutal tortures of inmates there.
See also
*
Čelebići prison camp
*
Dretelj camp
*
Heliodrom camp
*
Keraterm camp
*
Manjača camp
*
Omarska camp
*
Musala camp
The Musala camp was a prison camp in Konjic, Bosnia and Herzegovina operated by the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH) that was used to detain Bosnian Serbs and Bosnian Croats.
History
The Serb prisoners were initially capt ...
*
Trnopolje camp
*
Uzamnica camp
*
Vilina Vlas
*
Vojno camp
Notes
References
;ICTY
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;News
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;Other
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{{Bosnian War
Vanjski linkovi
Čapljina portal umrli
1992 establishments in Bosnia and Herzegovina
1994 disestablishments in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Croatian war crimes in the Bosnian War
Croatian concentration camps in the Yugoslav Wars
Čapljina
Bosnian War internment camps