Documentary by Nenad Puhovski «Lora – testimonies» had its first run on Friday, October 15th within the Human Rights Film Festival in Zagreb . The documentary shows shocking testimonies of torture inside the Croatian military prison «Lora» during the war. (OCT-17-04)

Case «Lora»

From 1992 to 1996 «Lora» was a Military Investigation Centre situated inside the Split naval port. In that period approximately 1000 people, mainly Serbs and Muslims, captured in Croatian region Dalmatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina , were imprisoned there. The survivors who are not afraid of public appearance witness about heavy human rights violations in “Lora”. – During the interrogation soldiers used to give us electro-shock treatment by attaching wires under voltage to our ears. Since I twitched hard during the treatment I often interrupted the inflow of electricity, so the soldiers decided to make holes in my ears and put wires into the holes in order to prevent it from happening again. – said one of the prisoners in the film.

Acquitting sentence for crimes?

Unfortunately, some of them did not survive everyday abuse. Since they have been often deported without any identification, number of those who died in “Lora” is still unknown, although some sources state that at least 50 of them died in there. After a decade of public silence about crimes in “Lora”, in 2002. Public Prosecutors Office issued an indictment against eight military policemen for the murder of two Serb civilians. Since eleven out of twelve witnesses for the prosecution changed statements, many of them under death threats, all of the accused were set free of charges. Arguing his decision controversial judge of the County Court in Split , Slavko Lozina confirmed the existence of crimes in “Lora” but refused any relation of this crimes with the accused.

Re-trial?

The Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia overruled this decision in May 2003 and returned the whole case for a re-trial. So far, we are still waiting first court session of the renewed process.

In that context “Lora-testimonies” represent an appeal that once established crimes against humanity must be unconditionally penalized.