Torture, beatings, fear, cockroaches, attacks on Christian inmates and Islamization are some of the deplorable conditions in Bosnian Muslim prisons and the Bosnian Muslim authorities deny any of it.

“Thirty or 40 years ago, not even the International Red Cross could enter this prison. Today, I can assure you that in this prison, there is no ill-treatment or torture anymore,” said prison director Nihad Spahic said.

Amnesty International says that the Zenica prison is the place of ill-treatment of prisoners.

Zenica’s cell block No. 1 is over 100 years old. It was built when Austro-Hungarian empire annexed Bosnia.

The prison is also known to be a marketplace for weapons and drugs.

In 2008, prisoners used pigeons to bring in the drugs and investigators never found the official who took the pigeons out of the prison to let them fly to the drug suppliers.

Prison is also known for massive brawls between prisoners and the trigger for the fight can be anything.

Former prisoner recently told the Bosnian Muslim media in Livno that the prison is full of weapons, drugs and organized rape.

“Rackets is a norm,” tells this prisoner and adds that it does not stop after a prisoner is freed.

The former prisoner declined to comment on rapes but he said that prisoners had to pay up to 1,000 Bosnian marks to the racketeers in order to get a weekend out of the prison and be with their family.

“Authorities decide from the outside and evil men threaten with death and decide when one can go out for the weekend,” said the prisoner.

The former prisoner also describe the organized Islamization inside the prison and that Christian Croats and Serbs fear for their life as Bosnian Muslims have organized themselves into violent clans inside the prison.

“Croats and Serbs do not have a right to weekend,” said the prisoner.

The former prisoner cited the case of the Bosnian Muslim terrorist, Topalovic who murdered Croatians on Christmas.

“Topalovic who murdered Croats on Christmas has the most superb treatment in the prison, he has a right to a job, and he is allowed to write letters to the families whom he has killed,” said the former prisoner.

In August of 2008, Croat and Serb prisoners in Zenica sent an appeal for help citing Islamic terror inside the cells.

“Our prisoner days have become real hell, and death would for us be salvation,” said the letter of appeal.

The letter says that Christians are routinely beaten on the daily bases inside the prison. Croats and Serbs are also routinely attacked with knives inside the lunchrooms.

Bosnian Muslim authorities, say these prisoners, do nothing about Bosnian Muslim attacks on Christians.

October 22, 2010
SERBIANNA

• A Permanent Economic Emergency