Duriug his imprisonment in Stara Gradiška, M.Z., a 28 year old electrical engineer,from Nova Gradiška, was present when a group of European humanitarian workers came to the prison. They wanted to meet with the prisoners. He says bitterly:

"One day, a group of people from international humanitarian associations came and a special performance was organised for them. The guards chose about forty people who looked more or less all right, not so skinny and not covered with bruises. When these people in white uniforms came, I saw that they looked more frightened than we did. They were accompanied by a Serbian officer and a translator.

I understand English so I know what we were asked and what our replies were. The Serbian translator didn't pay any attention to our answers. He told them his story and we were not in a position to change anything. In fact, their questions were mostly answered by the Serbian officer and his translator and not by the prisoners.

We didn't have any chance to speak to them alone and they didn't even try to provide such conditions. In the end, they asked such banalities as: "Do you have a bath regularly?" We said that we did. You couldn't say you couldn't have a bath, otherwise you would be dead in the morning.

They asked us if we wrote home and we also said that we did. They asked whether we had enough food. And again, we shouted that we did although it was not true. It was a performance in which everybody took part with different motives. After they had left, the guards were so satisfied with our answers that that day we were not tortured.

Before Christmas we werc exchanged. The exchange took place on the bank of the River Sava, near Davor. Even then we almost l.ost our lives because a guard grabbed a machine-gun and threatened to open fire on us shouting: "The living for the living, the dead for the dead". From the other side dead Serbian volunteers were sent in coffins and this guard (Slaviša) concluded that we should also be sent across the river in coffins.

I remember when they took the corpses out of the boat. They made us watch the identification. I think that even these dead looked better than we did. They were pale but washed and tidy.

I was stripped naked

Some prisoners often thought about escaping , from Stara Gradiška even though they knew that their chances were low, as they could not endure the torture they were subject to. 36 year old J.Ž,from the village Gornji Varoš, even tried to commit suicide so as to avoid torture.

"They took off all my clothes and ordered me to lie down so they could examine me. Then they put me in the solitary cell number one in Stara Gradiška camp. Soon afterwards, a reservist from Gredjani came, if I remember well. He started to beat me and he kept striking my head against the wall asking me to give up arms, radio and some other military things although he knew well that I had been arrested as a civilian.

Once, three men from Kotor Varoš came into my cell and the youngest among them said laughing: "Let,s see how much this Ustasha can endure on his feet". He was probably a karate fighter as he broke my glasses striking me with his foot. My head was covered with blood and when I fell down after six or seven strikes I heard him say: "Let's go, he's dead. It's better for us not to have anything to do with it".

I thought that I wouldn't be able to endure anymore of this torture. I was fully aware of the situation and I knew what I could expect. I found an old nail and tried to kill myself. I took this nail, leaned against the wall and tried to push it into my chest. I drove it into the area of my heart for approximately 8 cm and then I pulled it out. I thought I was going to die because I fell on the floor. I was lying unconscious till the evening when some guards found me and took me to the hospital in Bosanska Gradiška.

I was x-rayed and told that I was lucky to have missed my heart by a few millimetres. I was sent back to my cell with a little bandage.

Underground Pools for Torture

M.S., a restaurant owner aged 29, was arrested when he came back to his home in Derventa (Bosnia and Hercegovina). Having been tortured for days by Serbian reservists in an improvised prison in Račanski most near Derventa, he was taken to Stara Gradiška.

"We were ordered to sit in a military jeep with our hands tied behind our backs. We were asked if we were hungry, thirsty, we were given cigarettes and nobody touched us on our way.

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