Luka Camp in Brčko, 1992: Hangars on the Bank of the Sava

The War Comes to Brčko

The war reached Brčko on 30 April 1992. According to the portal genocid.ba, which draws on RECOM material, Serb forces, including members of the "Beli orlovi" and "Arkanovi tigrovi", destroyed on that day the two bridges over the Sava that connected Brčko with Croatia, and in early May they took control of the entire town.

The Camp in the Port Hangars

From 7 May 1992, a detention camp operated in the hangars of the Luka port in Brčko, where goods had previously been stored. Hundreds of Bosniak and Croat men were held there. According to genocid.ba, detainees were brought from the JNA barracks, from the company "Laser", from the mosque, the hospital and the police station. On arrival, according to the same source, their documents and valuables were taken from them, and they then lay on cardboard and concrete in a overcrowded hangar.

According to the portal genocid.ba, the camp was guarded and visited by members of the Public Security Station Brčko (SJB Brčko), and members of Serb paramilitary units also came there.

Two Weeks of Systematic Killing

The systematic killing in the camp lasted roughly from 7 to 21 May 1992. After that, beatings continued and killings were less frequent, until the beginning of July. According to genocid.ba, detainees were taken away in groups of four, and only one or two would return; the bodies were carted away in refrigerated trucks or thrown into the Sava.

Goran Jelisić operated in the camp, introducing himself to detainees as the "Serb Adolf". He took part in interrogations, beat detainees with truncheons and clubs, and shot victims. The ICTY established that he committed 13 murders. Among those killed were Jasminko Ćumurović, the brothers Huso and Smajil Zahirović, Naza Bukvić and Stipo Glavočević. According to genocid.ba, the Zahirović brothers were accused immediately upon arrival of being members of the "Zelene beretke". Jelisić also inflicted serious bodily injury on other detainees, among them A. D.

The portal genocid.ba also names others who were killed: according to that source, Denijal Ibrahimović and Sead Ćerimagić were killed in the administrative building of the camp, and Smajl Ribić and Đoko Stevanović on the same day as Stipo Glavočević.

Crimes against detainees were also committed by Ranko Češić, a member of the Territorial Defence of the Bosnian Serbs Grčica, who from 15 May 1992 was in the intervention platoon of the reserve police in Brčko. In the period from 11 May to 6 June 1992, he killed and abused detainees in the Luka camp.

Isak Gaši

Among the detainees was Isak Gaši, a kayaker and canoeist and a former member of the Yugoslav national team. In the camp he was forced to take part in disposing of the bodies of those killed into the Sava. He was released on 7 June 1992. He later testified before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), including in February 2004 in the proceedings against Momčilo Krajišnik.

After Jelisić

According to testimonies of former detainees, after Jelisić the camp was commanded by Kosta Simeunović; the portal genocid.ba names the same person as Konstantin Simonović, a police officer of SJB Brčko. According to the statement of Muhamed Bukvić, Simeunović beat him with a police truncheon in the camp office.

The camp operated until the beginning of July 1992. According to genocid.ba, some of the surviving detainees were transferred in July 1992 to the Batković camp, and most of them were exchanged after October 1992.

Verdicts

On 14 December 1999, the ICTY sentenced Goran Jelisić to 40 years in prison for war crimes and crimes against humanity, while he was acquitted of the charge of genocide. The Appeals Chamber upheld the sentence on 5 July 2001.

Ranko Češić was sentenced on 11 March 2004 before the ICTY to 18 years in prison, after he pleaded guilty to 12 counts of the indictment.

Monika Ilić, née Simonović, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for abuse of detainees in the Luka camp.