A Night of Pain in Omarska: The Testimony of Ante Tomić

A Miner from Ljubija

Ante Tomić is a Bosnian Croat from Ljubija in the Prijedor municipality. Before the war he worked as a miner in the Omarska mine. In the summer of 1992 he was 34 years old.

Arrest and Keraterm

In the night between 13 and 14 June 1992, two Serb soldiers, his neighbours, came to his apartment and arrested him. Together with about ten other men, Bosniaks and Croats, he was taken to the Keraterm camp.

Transfer to Omarska

On 4 July 1992, Ante Tomić, together with 115 men from Ljubija, was transferred from Keraterm to the Omarska camp, in the grounds of the mine where he had previously worked. He later stated before the ICTY that detainees in Omarska were beaten at any time of day or night and that at least ten to fifteen people died every day.

One Night in July

The exact date of the night he describes is not known; it was in July 1992. According to his testimony, 27 days had passed since his last visit to a toilet, back in Keraterm. The toilet in Omarska had no running water, so, as he writes, at night he filled a bucket with water in order to be able to flush. There were five or six other detainees in the room, who warned him to leave the bucket alone.

According to Ante Tomić's testimony, a guard whom he calls Kvočka, and whom he describes as the younger brother of the deputy camp commander, then caught him and began to strike him with a truncheon. Other guards gradually joined in, as he states: one with an electric cable, the guard Kos with an iron bar and the guard Švraka with a shovel. According to him, he had spoken with Švraka the day before – Švraka had passed on greetings from his sister, Tomić's former colleague.

In a corner of the toilet, according to his testimony, a total of eight guards beat him. The last to arrive was Prcać, whom the author describes as a shift leader; he kicked him and said: "That's enough, he's finished."

When he returned to the other detainees, a fellow detainee, Braco, offered him a jacket, and Sabki and Sulja slept on it as on a pillow.

The testimony gives only the surnames of the guards, without first names, so their exact identity remains open.

Statement before the ICTY

According to a summary of his statement before the ICTY, on one of the worst nights in Omarska he was beaten by eight men, among them the guard Kvočka, whom Tomić described as the brother of the camp commander. In the same statement he also said that in Omarska he was beaten into unconsciousness that lasted four days and that a fellow detainee found him among the dead bodies. It is not clear from the statement whether this refers to the very night described.

Trnopolje and Testimony

On 6 August 1992, Ante Tomić was transferred from Omarska to the Trnopolje camp. He survived. On 5 and 6 April 2001 he testified before the ICTY in the Sikirica, Došen and Kolundžija case, which concerned the Keraterm camp.