In April 2023, the senior research associate of our Institute, dr. sc. Zilha Mastalić Košuta, and her reaction was published in the newspaper Oslobođenje After the news about the construction of the HVO museum: Historical and judicial facts about the Heliodrom camp.
This time the Institute reacts after the last statements of Dragan Čović, who sees nothing controversial in the construction of this museum. Čović minimizes the importance of that location for the victims, and this is especially shameful in light of the fact that he himself, as stated, was a "user of the Heliodrom camp."
As a reminder, the HVO museum is planned in the building where the command of the Heliodrom camp was stationed, along with a museum display consisting of military and cultural-historical collections. It is completely obvious that the construction of the HVO museum at this location is an act of revisionism and the alteration and falsification of established historical and judicial facts. It is inadmissible and inappropriate that a museum is already being built at the place where the war crime was committed and judged by the International War Crimes Tribunal, the army of the HVO and HV of the Republic of Croatia, which participated in organizing and committing crimes against the civilian population, and that in the place where from the second half of 1992 until the middle of 1994, it was the Heliodrom concentration camp. On the other hand, we believe that this is a provocation towards all the victims who went through wartime torture camps in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995.
As it was announced in the previous reaction, on May 9, 1993, as part of the HVO attack on Mostar, members of the HVO carried out mass arrests of the civilian population from the part of the city on the right bank of the Neretva River in Mostar, where, in addition to the resident population, refugees were also accommodated, mostly from the area of Podveležje and Nevesinje. The civilians were taken to the Heliodrom camp. In the HVO reports, it was stated that in the second half of 1992, civilians of Bosniak and Serb nationality were imprisoned in Heliodrom, who were taken to forced labor for the needs of the HVO. The founding decision of September 3, 1992, signed by Bruno Stojić, Minister of Defense of the HVO, soon after, on September 22, established the Central Military Prison for the area of the Croatian Community of Herceg-Bosna as part of the Heliodrom barracks.
According to the data of the Commission for Social Protection and Humanitarian Aid, 6,000 Bosniaks were arrested and detained until June 30, 1993 alone. Among them were several hundred Serbs and members of the VRS, as well as "disloyal Croats". Inmates from other HVO camps were also brought to the same camp. Given that the number of inmates was increasing every day, it is difficult to determine the final number.
In the HVO camps, crimes were committed against the inmates. They were used for forced labor, for demining minefields, as human shields during attacks by members of the HVO on the combat positions of the ARBiH, the extraction of injured or dead members during their offensives, the construction of houses and the cleaning of Croat houses, for digging trenches and trenches, digging graves and many other forced labors. They were taken mainly to Buna, Bakina Luka, Raštane, Soviče, Risovac and other places in western Herzegovina. The most difficult places to work were "Sector Vinko Martinović Štela", from the Health Center to HIT, "sector Benito Sesar" from Šemovac to the Health Center and work in Šantićeva Street. Going to the area of Bijelo Polje was especially critical for the life of the prisoners, where every time one of the prisoners was killed during the works. It also happened that camp inmates would escape, after which other camp inmates would be mistreated.
According to the reports of the Military Police Administration, inmates were still in Heliodrom after the signing of the Washington Agreement, and according to the report of April 17, 1994, the number of inmates was 228.
The leaders of Herceg-Bosnia (Jadranko Prlić, Bruno Stojić, Slobodan Praljak, Milivoj Petković, Valentin Ćorić, Berislav Pušić, Mladen Naletilić Tuta, Vinko Martinović Štela) who knew about the camps and torture in them, were convicted before the International Court in The Hague. he did nothing to prevent it, but encouraged actions that led to crimes against humanity. Several members of the HVO who were sentenced to several years in prison for crimes against humanity in the Heliodrom camp were also convicted before domestic courts.
We consider it very important to take all actions and prevent any construction in the place where there was a concentration camp during the period of aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina, due to the fact that such construction harms all victims of aggression in the period 1992-1995, as well as all citizens. BiH, as well as good future relations between the peoples of BiH. We believe that this construction would be a mockery of all the victims who survived the crime and are still experiencing various types of torture. Such actions can be comfortably compared to the idea that the Germans want to build a Nazi museum on the site of the Auschwitz camp. Isn't that absurd?
Author: Prof. Ph.D. Rasim Muratović, Institute for Research of Crimes Against Humanity and International Law, University of Sarajevo
Source: Oslobodjenje.ba