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Bridging the Gap - Konjic, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Exhibit showing Serbs from Konjic area
detained in the Čelebići camp

Grozdana Ćećez testified about her rape by
Hazim Delić while being held in Čelebići camp.
► Her Story
Konjic municipality is a mountainous and heavily wooded area situated in central Bosnia and Herzegovina, south of Sarajevo. By mid-April 1992 Bosnian Serb forces had effectively surrounded the town and cut it off from both Sarajevo to the northeast and Mostar to the south.

After a successful military campaign by Bosnian Muslim and Bosnian Croat forces to lift the blockade of Konjic, hundreds of local Serbs, including women and the elderly, were detained in a former military facility in the village of Čelebići. Between April and December 1992, detainees were murdered, tortured, sexually assaulted, beaten and subjected to cruel and inhuman treatment. Several women detained in the Čelebići camp were frequently raped and abused during their detention.
 

“The prisoners were allowed no relief: they were not allowed to leave the hangar, there was very little water supplied, and the hygienic conditions in the hangar were revolting”

Deputy Chief of Investigations,
ICTY Office of the Prosecutor
 
The conference in Konjic enabled the Tribunal to provide key audiences – victims’ associations, municipal authorities, judicial officials and law enforcement agencies, as well as local politicians and civil  society representatives – with a detailed and comprehensive picture of the Tribunal’s activities in relation to allegations of serious violations of international humanitarian law occurring in the area during the 1992-1995 armed conflict.

Making extensive use of the enormous volume of evidence presented in the cases, representatives from the Tribunal were able to give an insight into the meticulous and painstaking investigations conducted by the Tribunal and explain how allegations of killings, torture, rape, inhumane conditions and unlawful confinement of civilians were proven before the court.

In the Čelebići case, three defendants – Zdravko Mucić, Hazim Delić and Esad Landžo – were found guilty of grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions and sentenced to nine, 18 and 15 years' imprisonment, respectively. Zejnil Delalić was acquitted of all charges.

Reactions of the audience highlighted the need to persist with efforts to bring to justice perpetrators of all crimes, regardless of the nationality of the victims or the perpetrators. ICTY representatives reiterated the Tribunal’s preparedness to continue to do all it can to assist domestic authorities in bringing further prosecutions.

The full report contains a summary of proceedings using the transcripts from the day, including opening remarks, presentations from Tribunal staff, photographs used as evidence in the cases and questions from the audience.
 

Mucić et al. case
Case Information Sheet

Legal documents


Z. Mucić
H. Delić
E. Landžo
Z. Delalić