Gorjanc-Prelević: Women who witnessed abuse at Lora must be questioned urgently, it is high time the facts were established and those responsible held accountable

Thirty-four years after the crimes committed at the Lora military prison in Split and nearly two decades after the investigation began, it is high time that the facts were established and those responsible brought to justice - Executive Director of Human Rights Action (HRA) Tea Gorjanc-Prelević said during an appearance on the Budilnik programme on Television E.

Gorjanc-Prelević stressed that there was no doubt that the acts committed at Lora were absolutely prohibited and punishable, regardless of the nature of the armed conflict.

HRA and Centre for Dealing with the Past Documenta, based in Zagreb, are calling for the urgent questioning of two women who witnessed the abuse of Montenegrin reservists at Lora in 1992. Their testimonies could prove crucial to shedding light on crimes that have been under investigation since 2007.

- They testify that Montenegrin reservists were held at Lora in April 1992, that they were tortured there, and that one of them died as a result of the torture. There is a possibility that his body was transported to Bosnia and Herzegovina - Gorjanc-Prelević said.

She explained that the bodies of reservists belonging to the Nikšić-Šavnik group had been found at several locations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, while the existence of evidence confirming their presence at Lora had been questioned for years.

- In addition to Veselin Bojović, who gave his testimony in 2025, we now have two more witnesses who confirm that they saw them - she stressed.

Gorjanc-Prelević recalled that amendments to the cooperation agreement between the Montenegrin and Croatian prosecution services had enabled more intensive exchanges of evidence and information. She said she expected a joint investigative team to be established, following the example of the cooperation in the Štrpci case.

- These are people’s lives. Fourteen reservists from the Nikšić - Šavnik group died as a result of abuse, and to this day, the whereabouts of one of them’s remains are still unknown - Gorjanc-Prelević warned.

She stressed that, after so many years, there was no longer any justification for delaying the questioning of the witnesses or the establishment of accountability for the crimes committed at Lora.