As a young soldier, I was called up to serve in the JNA. On April 12, 1992, I was leading the army to Čapljina, and our command was in Mostar. I was captured with 12 soldiers and two officers. First, they took us to Metković, and then in the evening, by bus, to the “Lora” military camp near Split. I spent 125 days there, where I experienced numerous beatings, torture, mistreatment, interrogations... - recalled the man from Žablja who suffered for several months Veselin Bojovic, the only Montenegrin who survived the torture.
The atrocities at the former Military Investigation Center “Lora” near Split were not survived by 14 Montenegrin reservists who were captured on the Herzegovina battlefield in the spring of 1992 during the months-long JNA aggression on Dubrovnik. Their rights during captivity were supposed to be protected by the Geneva Convention and the laws of Croatia.
It is believed that reservists from the so-called Nikšić-Šavnik group were killed in "Lora" Dusan Barovic, Luka Gazivoda, Borivoje Zirojevic, Ranko Vujovic, Dragoman Doknic, Dragan Jakovljevic, Pavle Popovic, Milos Perunovic, Ratko Simovic, Nedjeljko Jankovic, Miljan Susic, Radivoje Petkovic i Radomir Vulić, The International Red Cross found only Luka Adzic, who died a few months later in Nikšić as a result of severe abuse.
The remains of 12 members of this group were discovered years later at various locations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, near Duvno, Mostar and Trebinje, and the body of Miloš Perunović has not yet been found.
The Croatian Prosecutor's Office has been investigating the case of the deaths of Montenegrin reservists since 2007, but even after 18 years, almost nothing is known about the extent of the investigation by the Split County State Attorney's Office, which has only announced that it is conducting a criminal investigation and that the proceedings are secret.
The Special State Prosecutor's Office (SDT) did not respond to "Vijesti" whether and since when investigative procedures have been conducted in our country regarding the "Lora 3" case, and whether and when the SDT, upon request from its colleagues in Split, delivered documentation to Croatia concerning citizens of Montenegro...
At the Parliamentary Committee in February 2023, when an initiative was submitted for the Supreme State Prosecutor's Office to revise the Agreement between the Prosecutor's Offices of Montenegro and Croatia on Cooperation and Prosecution of War Crimes Perpetrators, the Special Prosecutor Tanja Čolan Deretic announced that the case surrounding "Lora 3" was formed back in 2009. She stated at the time that 11 people were questioned at the Supreme State Prosecutor's Office and that their statements were forwarded to the County State Attorney's Office in Split in 2012.
In 2016, the SDT opened a new case in relation to seven individuals, but proceeding in that case was almost impossible for years because Montenegro did not have the legal ability to use evidence collected at the Hague Tribunal until the summer of 2024.
Last year, prosecutors from Split submitted a letter of request to the SDT, requesting the submission of additional evidence, and the collection of that request is still ongoing...
I WOULD RECOGNIZE EVERYONE
Veselin Bojović claims for "Vijesti" that he would recognize each of the guards, who he claims organized and carried out unprecedented torture against him and other prisoners in the "Lora" camp.
"It hurts me, I'm the only one left alive from Montenegro. I'm so aware that I think I can still tell you everything. I remember what the camp commander did Tomo Duic, Ante Gudic, Emilio Bungur... He would know everyone. Believe me, these are criminals, these are not people," Bojović points out.
The Žablja resident says he does not know exactly when a group of reservists from Montenegro, members of the Nikšić-Šavnik group, were brought to "Lora", because they were housed in the "notorious Block C", but he well remembers one night and numerous moans, but also pleas - "kill me, kill me...".
"The wall separated us. The torture lasted all night, there were moans, cries... I recognized the Montenegrin accent. The next day everything went quiet, and the guards called me to clean the rooms where they were tortured with another one. There was blood everywhere, body parts...", recalled Bojović, to whom one of the guards, as he claims, said:
"Your countrymen are now in a refrigerated truck."
Bojović was found in “Lora” by the International Red Cross, whose representatives registered him in one of the pavilions on the 29th day after his capture. The representative of that organization, as he said, visited him in the camp, and then on August 14, 1992, he was taken to Nemetin, near Osijek, where the exchange took place.
"Before the prosecutor Lidija Vukčević "I gave a statement in 2012, I told everything I could remember, and there is a lot of that. When I asked about the case, I was told that it was difficult to deal with Croatia. Since then, no one has ever called me again. I once gave a statement in Trebinje, because there are also inmates from 'Lora' there, some cases have also been filed there, there are also their testimonies about torture in the Split camp," Bojović said.
Due to the crimes committed in the Split military detention center, two non-final verdicts have been issued in two retrials in Croatia, three decades later, in the cases of "Lora 1" and "Lora 2".
THERE IS NO WILL TO INVESTIGATE
Legal advisor at the NGO Human Rights Action Bojana Malović She told "Vijesti" that there seems to be no will to bring the case about the suffering of Montenegrin reservists in the spring of 1992 to a close.
In the cases "Lora 1" and "Lora 2", Tomislav Duić, commander of the Lora Military Investigation Center, has already been convicted on the basis of command responsibility for the suffering and torture of prisoners from Serbia.
"Command responsibility could have been applied here as well, because numerous testimonies speak of the cruel torture of prisoners from Montenegro in Block C, additionally naming Duić and his wife." Tatyana as direct perpetrators of these crimes. The testimonies, which were published in 2022 in the documentary film of Nikšić Television 'Evil Spring '92', were submitted by HRA and Documenta from Zagreb - Croatia, which continued to conduct criminal investigations based on them. After that, a letter of request was sent to Montenegro to collect additional evidence and data, but the public was not informed specifically about which ones. For now, we know that Mr. Veselin Bojović has not yet been invited to give a statement to the SDT on this occasion, although it would be essential, since in the film he also talks about the suffering he himself experienced and survived in Lora. We appealed for the investigation to be expanded in this regard, so that his case could also be investigated and that we finally get at least an order to conduct an investigation against specific suspects," Malović stated.
When asked whether now is the time to put the issue of the "Lora 3" investigation on the agenda, given that Croatia and Montenegro have begun bilateral negotiations on open issues, the HRA representative said that she believes that "now is the time to finally put that issue on the agenda."
"Now is the right time to include the issue of 'Lore 3' in bilateral negotiations on open issues between the two countries. In this context, Montenegro should pursue a policy that will take into account the realization of the rights of all victims of war crimes. The process of resolving open issues should include responsibility for war crimes on both sides, so Montenegro must be proactive in seeking answers to questions related to the fate of its citizens. A properly focused approach can ensure not only justice for the victims, but also long-term stability and reconciliation, with a clear recognition of responsibility for everything done during the nineties," she stated.
Malović believes that Montenegro is not prevented from taking an active interest in the "Lora 3" case at this moment, and that "where there is a will, there is a way"...
"However, the revision of the 2006 Agreement is crucial because it would allow Montenegro to find itself in a more favorable position, from which it could officially request information on the status of the cases taken over, including 'Lora 3', and reasonably expect detailed feedback on progress or potential problems in the processing. Providing such information would represent an obligation on the part of Croatia, which is not the case now," Malović said.
The Supreme State Prosecutor's Office announced that in September 2024 they had a meeting with representatives of Croatia to agree on an amendment to the text of the 2006 Agreement. The Agreement applies only in cases of war crimes committed on the territory of Croatia by Montenegrin citizens, which is why the Ministry of Justice in 2023, at the time when the Minister was Marko Kovač, asked the Supreme State Prosecutor's Office to initiate the process of revising the document because Montenegro is in an inferior position.
Monument to warriors and criminals in front of "Lora"
In 2016, Croatia erected a monument in front of the “Lora” Military Investigation Center dedicated to all, including convicted members of the 72nd Battalion of the Croatian Army Military Police in Split.
For HRA's legal advisor, this represents a "shameful attempt to heroize the perpetrators." "This move indicates that even joining the EU does not necessarily mean a change in consciousness in all segments of society. Such relativization of crimes not only undermines justice, but also sends a signal that the importance of true reconciliation based on the recognition of the crimes committed is still not recognized," Bojana Malović emphasized.
HRA, together with Documenta from Zagreb and the Center for Peace, Nonviolence and Human Rights from Osijek, protested at the end of December last year because the film "The Truth" was shown at the anniversary of the founding of the 72nd Battalion, which ignored the judicially established facts about war crimes in "Lora".
"Such behavior not only represents a denial of the facts established by the court, but also a re-injury of the victims and the families of the victims, and a glorification of the criminals, which should not be allowed," Malović believes.
Little is known about crime in Montenegro
The crimes in "Lora" have not been sufficiently researched and discussed in Montenegro, as evidenced by the results of the "Vijesti" survey, because such an answer was chosen almost by consensus on the questionnaire.
The vast majority of respondents - 621 out of 747, or 83,1 percent, know that Montenegrin citizens died in the Split camp, 110 survey participants (14,7%) do not know this, and the answer "I don't know" was given by 16 respondents (2,2%).
Survey participants could choose multiple answers, which they did when asked how they learned about the events in “Lora”. Thus, 369 respondents learned about the crimes from media reports, 246 from books, documentaries or research, 217 through testimonies of survivors or victims' families, and 85 were not informed about it.
564 survey participants believe that the "Lora" case should be processed by the International Court of Justice, with the cooperation of Croatia and Montenegro, 204 chose the Montenegrin prosecutor's office to do so, and 154 the Croatian prosecutor's office.
The vast majority - 669 respondents - believe that it is unacceptable and offensive to the victims that Croatia erected a monument to the military unit that managed "Lora" in front of the camp, and 10 respondents responded that they personally knew the victims or survivors.
"My neighbor was unfortunately killed in Lora. He was called up as a reservist. A guy who was neither a nationalist nor war-minded, I saw him as a YU rocker and bohemian. It's also sad that nationalists are using these people," is one of the comments.
Some comments are that Montenegro has not had the courage to raise the issue of the suffering of reservists in "Lora" for decades.
"JNA reservists were brutally tortured and killed there. Every government is afraid of Croatia...", wrote one of the survey participants.
One of the respondents also recalled the behavior of the former Montenegrin authorities at the time when the bodies of the reservists were transported and buried in Nikšić.
"It's shameful that the former government, which sent those guys to war, distanced itself from them, and no one was even at the funeral of those people in Nikšić."
Bonus video:
