Info

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering

Location: Mostar

Importance of the locality:

On 10 May 1993, HVO forces attacked the Vranica settlement, captured 70 Bosniak civilians and soldiers, and transferred them to the building of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Mostar. The command of the 3rd HVO Military Police Battalion had been stationed at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering since 1993. The prisoners were subjected to daily abuse and torture. On the night of 10 May, 12 prisoners of war from the Army of RBiH who were detained at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering were subjected to repeated abuse and had been missing since that night. In May 2007, a mass grave was found in Goranci, Mostar Municipality. Based on DNA analyses, it was found that among the 15 identified bodies, there were 10 belonging to the 12 ARBiH soldiers that had been captured in Vranica. The prisoners were moved from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering to other detention centres at Heliodrom and Gabela.


Entity: Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Ethnic group: Bosniaks

Area that victims came from: Mostar

Responsibility: HVO

Court trials:

For crimes committed at the Mechanical Engineering Faculty in Mostar, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) convicted the wartime president of HVO and prime minister of HZHB Jadranko Prlić, under the doctrine of command responsibility, and sentenced him to 25 years in prison; the commander of the HVO Main Staff Slobodan Praljak was sentenced to 20 years in prison; the chief of the HVO Main Staff and deputy commander of the HVO forces Milivoje Petković was sentenced to 20 years in prison; the head of the HVO Military Police Administration Valentin Ćorić was sentenced to 16 years in prison; and the head of the Service for Prisoner Exchange Berislav Pušić was sentenced to 10 years in prison.


Data source: ICTY (updated 06.12.2019)

Marked and photographed: 07.07.2019.

Map:


Updated: 06.02.2020

Legenda
Army of Republic of Bosnia and Hercegovina - ARBiH
Security services command centre - CSB
Herzeg Bosnia - HB
Croat Defense Forces - HOS
Army of Croatia - HV
Croat Defense Council - HVO
Yugoslav National Army - JNA
International Crime Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia - ICTY
Ministry of Interior - MUP
People's Defense of the Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia - NO APZB
Police station - SJB
Serb Army of Krajina - SVK
Territorial defense of Bosnia-Herzegovina - TO BiH
Army of Republic of Srpska - VRS
Army of Yugoslavia - VJ