Hunting Lodge in Begejci, Torak, Republic of Serbia

The Hunting Lodge in Begejci (today’s Torak) was used from 1 October 1991 as a detention site for Croats and Serbs from Osijek, Vukovar, Vinkovci and the surrounding area. Most were detained at the Begejci Hunting Lodge after the fall of Vukovar in November 1991. Until its closure in December 1991, members of the Croatian armed forces, as well as a smaller number of JNA reservists from Serbia who refused to participate in the war, were held at the Begejci Hunting Lodge. Apart from them, there were also civilians, women and children. It is estimated that around 750 people had been held at these detention facilities, and that there were 37 women among them. The prisoners slept on concrete floors and had an improvised toilet. There was little food and there was just one slop bucket and one mug to be shared by all the prisoners. During the night, guards would wake the prisoners and force them to sing Chetnik songs. At the trial of Goran Hadžić before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), doctor Mladen Lončar, a Croat from Ilok who had been one of the prisoners, testified about the beatings and rapes that were committed at the detention facility.