The Silos camp in Tarcin: Serb and Croat Civilians’ Suffering Still Evokes Painful Memories, 30 Years After Shutdown
In mid-May 1992, the Crisis Headquarters of Hadzici Municipality decided to put individuals accused of collaborating with the enemy into isolation. That was when the arrests of Serb civilians from Pazaric, Tarcin and surrounding settlements started. One of the facilities where they were taken was Silos in Tarcin.
Around 500 Serb civilians were detained there for varying lengths of time, from one day to 1,334 days. Around 90 Croat civilians were also held at Silos.
The detainees were held in inappropriate and often overcrowded concrete cells, and were beaten and abused. They were also taken to the front lines to do forced labour, and were mentally and physically abused while doing it.
Former detainees mark January 27, 1996 as the day on which the Silos camp closed down.
Thirty years later, some of the detainees still describe this as the most difficult period in their lives.
Silos was one of seven detention facilities and camps in which Slobodan Mrkajic was held. He spent 15 days there in the spring of 1992.
“There were rows of people there when I arrived - and hunger,” Mrkajic said. They could hear the disembodied screams of people they couldn’t see.
Slobodan Mrkajic, born 1960.
“We only thought about food, because we were so hungry. My cousin died of hunger, right next to me. He literally died of hunger,” Slavko Krstic said. He was imprisoned at Silos on his birthday, June 20, 1992. He spent four-and-a-half months in the detention camp.
Slavko Krstic, born in 1957
Savo Mrkajic was detained at Silos for three years, three months and three days until he fled. Worst of all was the hunger and the torture, the mistreatment and the humiliation.
“The hardest day was June 4, when there was a mass beating - I escaped being beaten, but it was more terrible to watch other people being beaten and blood splashing on the walls. Terrible. This is what has remained in my memory ever since and it wakes me up at night. This is something that can’t be erased,” he said.
Savo Mrkajic, born in 1963.
The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has sentenced seven people to a total of 48 years in prison for crimes against civilians in the municipality of Hadzici.
Journalist: Lamija Grebo
Editor: Dzana Brkanic
Director: Denis Dzidic
Programme manager: Katarina Zrinjski
Detektor, January 27, 2026