Anniversaries: People died from heat and hunger in the Dretelj camp

The Association of Camp Detainees in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the municipal Association of Camp Detainees Čapljina will mark tomorrow the anniversary of the closure of the infamous Dretelj camp in Čapljina, announced the Association of Camp Detainees of BiH, reports the Bosnian news agency Patria (NAP).

The Dretelj camp, according to earlier news reports, was a collection camp for Bosniaks and Serbs, located between Čapljina and Međugorje, and was run by the Croatian Republic of Herceg-Bosna from April 1993 to April 1994 during the bloodiest conflicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Before 1992, Dretelj was used as a JNA barracks and consisted of six warehouses. At the beginning of the aggression against BiH, Dretelj was captured by HOS units, who used it as their barracks and imprisoned Serbian prisoners of war there.

After the death of the HOS commander in Herzegovina, General Blaž Kraljević, the Serbian prisoners from Dretelj were handed over to the HVO. Following the dissolution of HOS in Herzegovina at the end of 1992, Dretelj was taken over by the HVO authorities.

According to the indictment of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), HVO members began holding Bosniak men in the camp from April 1993 to April 1994. The number of prisoners was highest in July 1993, when the HVO held more than 2,200 Bosniaks in detention.

In the summer of 1993, the Croatian Republic of Herceg-Bosna and the HVO carried out a mass arrest operation of Bosniak men throughout the Neretva valley, including Bosniaks who served in the HVO, and imprisoned them in the Dretelj camp. Many of the detainees were civilians.

Conditions in the camp were harsh. The HVO gave the prisoners little food and water, reports Patria. Many of the prisoners died under such conditions.

When the International Committee of the Red Cross was allowed to visit this camp in September 1993, the HVO moved some prisoners to the Silos in Čapljina to conceal signs of cruel psychological and physical treatment of the prisoners.

The Dretelj camp was closed on September 24, 1994. The Association of Camp Detainees of BiH will organize the first commemoration of the anniversary of the closure of the Dretelj camp tomorrow, writes NAP.