Lora concentration camp

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Lora concentration camp (a.k.a. the Military Investigation Prison Lora) was a concentration camp in Split, Croatia situated in the former Yugoslav naval compound. It was active from 1992 to 1997 with mainly Serbian residents of Split and prisoners of war being imprisoned. The camp was the site of human rights abuses resulting in reports to the United Nations^[1] and the controversial trial, acquittal, retrial and conviction of prison guards.

In 1991, during the Croatian War of Independence, Yugoslav Federal JNA forces were forced to withdraw from Split and the Lora compound was occupied by Croatian forces. The naval compound was converted to a prison camp in 1992 to house both civilians and prisoners of war.^[2] The camp prisoners were subjected to a variety of beating, torture and killings. ^[2]

1 Treatment of prisoners
2 The trial
3 References
4 See also

[edit] Treatment of prisoners

Guards from the camp have been sentenced for murdering and torturing prison inmates:

beatings with fists, boots, rubber hoses, batons, baseball bats, plumbing pipes, chains, electrical conductors
torture by means of forcing of prisoners to eat live snails with the shell, to eat feathers of killed birds, orange peels, live frogs, worms
"Telephoning" – linking of certain parts of body of the prisoner: ears, sexual organs, temples, fingers of hands or toes, on the inducted electrical current from the field telephone
forcing of prisoners to lick the toilet bowl and WC floor
forcing of prisoners to masturbate
hitting of prisoners on the testicles
forcing of prisoners to drink hot, muddy water with the spit of the prison guard
placing and tying of a metal barrel on the back of the prisoner and drumming on the barrel
hanging of the prisoner so that his hands are tied with cuff-links and suspended on metal bars of the doors
forcing of prisoners to drink urine
forcing of prisoners to have a public sexual and in particular homosexual intercourse with each other
forcing of prisoner to eat half a kilogram of salt without any water
placing in the mouth of a prisoner of a pistol barrel with the threat of firing the pistol
forcing of prisoners to collect garbage in the prison camp courtyard with their mouth
"dancing kolo folk dance" – in the courtyard prisoners would form a circle, holding their hands, and the first one and the last one would be connected with electrodes on to the source of electrical current
shaving of the prisoner without any water with a knife and forcing the prisoner to eat his own beard
forcing of prisoners to tend to grass or cut grass around the prison camp circle in the part which is covered with mines

This horrible and inhumane treatment of people appeared daily there, and it was one of the most notorious places of organized torture in present day Croatia. ^[2]

[edit] The trial

In 2002, the trial of eight Croatian military officers, members of the 72nd Military Police Battalion, began with charges of the torture and murder of Serbian and Montenegrin prisoners at the camp. All eight were acquitted by Judge Lozina in November 2002 after a trial characterised by intimidation and harassment of witnesses, and alleged threats against the prosecutors. ^[3].^[4]

All eight officers where retried with a verdict handed down by the Split Cantonal Court, War Crimes Chamber on March 2, 2006. The officers were all found guilty of war crimes and sentenced to between 4 and 8 years in prison although four of them were tried in absentia. .^[5]