Info

Primary School in Potoci

Location: Potoci, Mostar

Importance of the locality:

The Primary School in Potoci near mostar was used in 1993 and 1994 as a site of detention for Croat from the Mostar area and was under the control of the Army of RBiH. Men and women, predominantly civilians, were detained at the facility. The prisoners were subjected to harsh conditions, beatings and forced labour. At least three prisoners died while being taken out for forced labour. The female prisoners were subjected to sexual abuse.


Entity: Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Ethnic group: Croats

Area that victims came from: Mostar

Responsibility: ARBiH

Court trials:

On 17 May 2006, the Supreme Court of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina upheld the first instance judgement of the Cantonal Court in Mostar and convicted Miralem Omanović for war crimes against Croat civilians at the Primary School in Potoci near Mostar. Omanović was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
For crimes committed at this facility, the Court of BiH convicted the following members of ARBiH: Enes Ćurić was sentenced to 5 years in prison and Ibrahim Demirović to 10 years in prison for participating in unlawful detention, inhumane treatment and imposing forced labour on Croat civilians in Bijelo Polje near Mostar, while Habib Čopelj was sentenced to 2 years in prison for inhuman treatment of prisoners.


Data source: Cantonal Court in Mostar (updated 06.12.2019)

Marked and photographed: 03.12.2017.

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