Sarajevo to Turn Wartime Kon-Tiki Detention Centre into Museum

The Kon-Tiki building in the Sarajevo municipality of Vogosca was officially handed over to the Sarajevo Canton's ministry of veterans' affairs on Wednesday and will be turned into the Museum of the Suffering of the Citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Kon-Tiki, which used to be a restaurant, and an underground bunker next to it, were both used as detention facilities for Croat and Bosniak civilian prisoners during the 1992-95 war.

"After more than ten years, we have implemented the [Sarajevo] assembly's decision and started the process of remodelling the Kon-Tiki space, all with the aim of cultivating a culture of memory," Omer Osmanovic, the minister of veterans' affairs of the Sarajevo Canton, told BIRN.

"With the official handover, now we can start the process of remodelling of the building and the bunker from World War II which is next to it," Osmanovic added.

Earlier in January, the government of Sarajevo Canton bought the Kon-Tiki, the former Bunker detention facility and surrounding land for 750,000 Bosnian marks, roughly 380,000 euros.

According to Osmanovic, another 300,000 Bosnian marks, some 150,000 euros, have been secured for the renovation and equipping of the space, which is planned to be complete by mid-2023.

Former Bosnian Serb Army soldier Branko Vlaco, who established the Bunker detention facility according to the Bosnian court, was sentenced to 13 years in prison in 2015 for crimes committed in Vogosca in 1992.

The verdict found that he took part in a wide-ranging and systematic attack by Bosnian Serb forces which involved the persecution of non-Serb civilians who were illegally detained in the Planjina Kuca, Nakina Garaza and Bunker camps.

In 2019, the Bosnian court sentenced Jovan...