According to information obtained by the Human Rights Action (HRA) and Documenta – Centre for Dealing with the Past, having viewed the documentary film and the series created by TV Nikšić, “The Evil Spring of ‘92”, the County State Attorney’s Office in Split (CSAO) will continue to investigate, in cooperation with the police, the brutal torture of prisoners from Montenegro in the Lora camp in Split.

As a reminder, in November 2023, the HRA and Documenta submitted to the CSAO the documentary material of the Radio Television Nikšić, which was provided to them by Mr. Nikola Marković, the Director of said TV station. We also submitted the analysis of the existing data, along with the list of potential witnesses and new victims, all with the aim of enabling progress in this case after 17 years.

For the same purpose, we also held a a meeting with the representatives of CSAO in March 2024, during which we were informed that they were not able to access the submitted material for four months “due to technical reasons”.

Since 2007, the CSAO has been investigating the murders of military reservists from Montenegro who were captured on the Herzegovina battlefield in 1992 and taken to the military investigation centre “Lora” in Split. The case involves 14 members of the so-called Nikšić-Šavnik group, whose rights were protected by the Geneva Conventions and the laws of the Republic of Croatia. They were prisoners of war, and as such deserved protection from torture and murder in line with international humanitarian law. Their names were: Radivoje Petković, Neđeljko Janković, Miljan Šušić, Ratko Simović, Duško Barović, Borivoje Zirojević, Dragoman Doknić, Radomir Vulić, Miloš Perunović, Ranko Vujović, Pavle Popović, Dragan Jakovljević, Luka Gazivoda and Luka Adžić.

Of the above 14 persons, the International Red Cross made a record in Lora only of Luka Adžić, who was exchanged in August 1992 in a highly serious psychophysical condition. He died a year later in Nikšić. The remains of 12 others were discovered in different locations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, near Duvno, Mostar and Trebinje. The body of Miloš Perunović has never been found.

The submitted documentary film made by TV Nikšić also contains the testimony of one of the surviving prisoners from Montenegro, Veselin Bojović. In it, he speaks of the horrors he personally survived, but also about the severe ill-treatment of members of the Nikšić-Šavnik group. We believe that CSAO must investigate the torture of all Montenegrin citizens, such as Bojović, who were exposed to torture in that camp and – possibly – survived.

Once again, we call on the CSAO to investigate this case effectively, especially in view of the fact that Tomislav Duić, commander of the Lora Military Investigation Centre, has already been convicted in earlier cases for the murder and torture of civilians and prisoners of war from Serbia in Lora.