The Gabela camp or Gabela prison was a
prison camp run by the
Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia
The Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia ( hr, Hrvatska Republika Herceg-Bosna) was an unrecognized geopolitical entity and quasi-state in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was proclaimed on 18 November 1991 under the name Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bos ...
and
Croatian Defence Council
The Croatian Defence Council ( hr, Hrvatsko vijeće obrane or HVO) was the official military formation of the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia, an unrecognized entity that existed in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1991 and 1996. The HVO wa ...
in
Gabela. The camp was located several kilometres south of
Čapljina
Čapljina ( sr-cyrl, Чапљина, ) is a city located in Herzegovina-Neretva Canton of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is located on the border with Croatia a mere from the Adriatic Sea.
The ...
. Its prisoners were
Bosniaks
The Bosniaks ( bs, Bošnjaci, Cyrillic script, Cyrillic: Бошњаци, ; , ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to the Southeast European historical region of Bosnia (region), Bosnia, which is today part of Bosnia and Herzeg ...
and
Serbs
The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are the most numerous South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian Cultural heritage, ancestry, Culture of Serbia, culture, History of ...
.
The camp
The camp consisted of detention facilities and a munitions warehouse. "Outside observers were not allowed to visit Gabela until August 1993. At this time the ICRC registered 1,100 inmates."
The camp facilities were ammunition depots belonging to the former
Yugoslav Army
The Yugoslav People's Army (abbreviated as JNA/; Macedonian and sr-Cyrl-Latn, Југословенска народна армија, Jugoslovenska narodna armija; Croatian and bs, Jugoslavenska narodna armija; sl, Jugoslovanska ljudska ar ...
, consisting of four hangars marked 0, 1, 2, and 3, and three solitary confinement cells. The hangar size was 200 square metres, and up to 500 persons were held inside each. The detainees were exhausted by starvation and thirst, and were tortured. Ten litres of water were provided per 500 persons per day, so many drank urine to quench their thirst. The detainees had to perform their bodily functions in the hangars. They were forced to sing Croatian nationalist songs and to listen to lectures on how correct Croatian policies were.
Upon entering the camp, detainees were exposed to special forms of torture. They were ordered to lie on their stomachs, and they would then be brutally beaten on their backs and heads. Some had their fingers broken by clamps. In early October, the camp warden, Boško Previšić, killed Mustafa Obradović in front of hangar No. 1, in the presence of a large number of detainees, after discovering a piece of bread concealed on him. Boško was seen talking to warcriminal mercenary and murderer
Jackie Arklöv
Jackie Banny Arklöv (born 6 June 1973) is a Swedish convicted criminal. Arklöv is an ex-neo-Nazi and Yugoslav Wars mercenary and war criminal, who, with two other neo-Nazis, murdered two police officers after a bank robbery in 1999.
Early l ...
in the camp, before and after Arklöv had tortured prisoners.
[Magnus Sandelin: "Den svarte nazisten". Bokförlaget forum, 2011. .]
Trials
The former manager of the Gabela camp Boško Previšić has not been prosecuted and remains a fugitive. His deputy Nikola Andrun was sentenced to 13 years in prison for the crimes against civilians in Gabela by the State Court in Sarajevo.
Former mercenary, Neo-Nazi, convicted bankrobber
Jackie Arklöv
Jackie Banny Arklöv (born 6 June 1973) is a Swedish convicted criminal. Arklöv is an ex-neo-Nazi and Yugoslav Wars mercenary and war criminal, who, with two other neo-Nazis, murdered two police officers after a bank robbery in 1999.
Early l ...
was stationed at the camp as a guard and was convicted by
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
court for brutal tortures of inmates there.
See also
*
Čelebići prison camp
*
Dretelj camp
*
Heliodrom camp
The Heliodrom camp ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Logor Heliodrom, Логор Хелиодром) or Heliodrom prison was a detention camp that operated between September 1992 and April 1994. It was run by the Military Police of the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-B ...
*
Keraterm camp
The Keraterm camp was a concentration camp established by Bosnian Serb military and police authorities near the town of Prijedor in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Bosnian War. The camp was used to collect and confine between 1,000–1, ...
*
Manjača camp
Manjača was a concentration camp which was located on mount Manjača near the city of Banja Luka in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Bosnian War and the Croatian War of Independence from 1991 to 1995. The camp was founded by the Yugos ...
*
Omarska camp
The Omarska camp was a concentration camp run by Bosnian Serb forces in the mining town of Omarska, near Prijedor in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina, set up for Bosniak and Croat men and women during the Prijedor massacre. Functioning in the fir ...
*
Musala camp
*
Trnopolje camp
The Trnopolje camp was an internment camp established by Bosnian Serb military and police authorities in the village of Trnopolje near Prijedor in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina, during the first months of the Bosnian War. Also variously termed ...
*
Uzamnica camp
Uzamnica camp was an internment camp established in 1992 by JNA forces housing Bosniak civilian prisoners during the Bosnian War.
Many of the Bosniaks who were not killed in the Višegrad massacres were detained at various locations in the to ...
*
Vilina Vlas
*
Vojno camp
Vojno camp was a detention camp set up by the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) from June 1993 to March 1994, to detain tens of thousands of Bosniaks in the Mostar municipality. Bosniaks in the camp were subject to killings, mistreatment, rapes, dete ...
Notes
References
;ICTY
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;News
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;Other
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{{Bosnian War
Vanjski linkovi
Čapljina portal umrli
1992 establishments in Bosnia and Herzegovina
1994 disestablishments in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Croatian war crimes in the Bosnian War
Croatian concentration camps in the Yugoslav Wars
Čapljina
Bosnian War internment camps