Single Men’s Hotel of Thermal Power Plant

ICTY

In early 1992, Serb reservists, the police (which by then was exclusively Serb), and members of the Serb Territorial Defence (TO) erected barricades in Gacko. Violence against non-Serbs began in March 1992 when members of a local Serb paramilitary unit (it is not specified which paramilitary formation was involved) arrested and killed two Bosniak men. (para. 655. Krajišnik, pp. 238-239.), (para. 1202. Stanišić and Župljanin, vol. I, p. 389.)

As early as April 1992, Bosnian Serbs, including paramilitary groups active in the municipality, were detaining mainly Bosniaks and Croats in at least six locations. These include the Avtovac post office, the Gacko Public Security Station (SJB), the Avtovac barracks, Fazlagića Kula, the Gacko thermal power plant, and the Samački Hotel of the Gacko thermal power plant. (para. 656. Krajišnik, p. 240.)

Two Bosniaks were killed in the hotel. (para. 1229. Stanišić and Župljanin, vol. I, pp. 399-340.)

District Court in Trebinje

During June 1992, one person was taken from the basement of the Samački Hotel, where around 150 non-Serb civilians were illegally detained. The victim’s body was exhumed after the war. (G. G., pp. 2-3, 13, 16-19.)

At least 10 times during June 1992, a detainee was taken from the basement of the Samački Hotel and physically abused in a room behind the reception desk. (G. G., pp. 1-2, 10-12.)

On June 29, 1992, during transport to Bileća, an unknown soldier ordered a detainee from the Samački Hotel to get off the trailer of a truck, after which a member of a paramilitary attacked the detainee and stabbed him in the back and neck with a knife, causing the detainee to fall to the ground and die. His remains have not been found. (Z. S. and M. G., pp. 1-2, 8.)

The detainees were called out from the basement of the Samački Hotel and taken one by one with their hands above their heads, looking at the floor, and passed through a line of soldiers who beat them. They were then loaded into a trailer truck to be taken to the Bileća camp. (Z. S. and M. G., pp. 1-2.)

While the detained civilians were going to the truck that was to transport them to Bileća, a paramilitary member shot a Bosniak civilian (a detainee from the hotel) in the back with an automatic rifle while the detainee was trying to climb onto the body of one of the trucks. The civilian died on the way to Bileća. (G. M., pp. 2, 11.)

Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina

During the second half of June 1992, police officers from Gacko arrested men of military age in the area of this municipality and held them in the Gacko Public Security Station, the school in Avtovac, and the basement of the Samački Hotel, where they detained more than 150 people. (para. 137. Krsto Savić second instance judgment, pp. 5-6, 62,). (para. 169. Boris Bošnjak et al., pp. 80-81.)

Murder, torture and enforced disappearances were recorded in the detention facilities in Gacko. (paras. 142-145. Krsto Savić second instance verdict, pp. 64-65.)