The Musala camp was a prison camp in

Konjic Konjic ( sr-Cyrl, Коњиц) is a city and municipality located in Herzegovina-Neretva Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is located in northern Herzegovina, around southwest of Sarajevo. ...

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

operated by the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH) that was used to detain

Bosnian Serbs The Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sr-Cyrl, Срби у Босни и Херцеговини, Srbi u Bosni i Hercegovini) are one of the three constitutive nations (state-forming nations) of the country, predominantly residing in the politi ...

and

Bosnian Croats The Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina (), often referred to as Bosnian Croats () or Herzegovinian Croats () are the third most populous ethnic group in the country after Bosniaks and Serbs, and are one of the constitutive nations of Bosnia and ...

History

The Serb prisoners were initially captured during joint military operations conducted by joint Croatian Defence Council (HVO) and Bosnian Territorial Defence Forces (TO) in villages surrounding the municipality of

in May 1992. While many of the men were taken to the

Čelebići camp The Čelebići camp was a prison camp run by joint Bosniak and Bosnian Croat forces during the Bosnian War where Serb prisoners were detained and subjected to murder, beatings, torture, sexual assaults and otherwise cruel and inhumane treatment. ...

, some were transported to the Musala sports hall in Konjic. The sports hall was converted into a detention facility. With the Croat-Bosniak War, the camp would also be used for the detainment of Croats by the ARBiH. According to witnesses, on 15 June 1992, detainees were ordered to take their seats in the camp gym during a shelling of the camp by the ARBiH, thus preventing them to take cover while the camp guards went to take cover in a safer place. As a result, 13 Serb prisoners were killed while dozens of others were severely or lightly wounded. In July 2013, Ibro Macić, a former ARBiH member, was charged with inhumane treatment and mistreatment of prisoners at the camp from April to October 1993. According to the indictment, Macić, along with some other Bosnian Army servicemen, ordered sexual assaults on four prisoners. They were beaten, sexually abused and had their genitals burned. In 2015, Macić was sentenced to ten years in prison after being found guilty of participating in the mistreatment and physical, mental, and sexual abuse of several Serb and Croat prisoners. Macić was also found guilty for the massacre of four elderly Serb women in the village of Blaca. In 2016, former military policeman Edhem Žilić was charged with war crimes against civilians in the Konjic area, including the beating and abuse of Croat and Serb detainees at the camp. Žilić, who was the acting manager of the facility, was convicted in November 2017 and sentenced to nine years; his sentence was reduced following an appeal to six years in May 2018.

References

{{Bosnian War, state=collapsed 1992 establishments in Bosnia and Herzegovina 1994 disestablishments in Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosniak war crimes in the Bosnian War Bosnian War prisoner-of-war camps Buildings and structures in Konjic