Did they sit there alone, or would someone watch over them? I remember that there would always be a group of two-three soldiers around them, but those soldiers would also join us for smokes inside the canteen. It was right at the entrance to the canteen. Totally surreal. When I think about it nowadays, it’s ridiculous. We’re not supposed to be watching TV while a guy is sitting right there, shackled and with his eyes [covered] … For me, personally, it was really really hard. I remember asking a lot of questions, because I couldn’t figure out why they were there. If they have to wait so long, [shouldn’t they have] water, food, anything? They have to sit right there, next to us, while we’re joking around together? It was ridiculous, totally surreal.
What kind of answers did you get when you asked all those questions? That they would be seen by the doctor very soon. Even we, as soldiers, sometimes had to wait for hours until the doctor arrived, so obviously they would have to wait. So the medics would check them very quickly, and I guess some of them needed some kind of paperwork. I remember that it took hours. From noon until night-time, there were always people sitting out there.
Blindfolded and shackled the whole time? Yes, yes. There were a few times when they were with their eyes [uncovered], because I remember the looks in their eyes. Suddenly, now, I remember those kinds of looks that I didn’t understand, of course. I would look at them and they didn’t understand why I was looking at them, either. Now that I think of it, I remember myself staring at them. It was this kind of inability to understand what was going on there. It didn’t make sense to even walk past them. Not because they scared me, but because I felt, I don’t know…
What about food and water? I don’t remember anyone ever giving them food or water. I’m sure it didn’t happen, because I used to ask “Do you need [anything]?” I remember once or twice going over to them to ask if they needed water, and I was specifically told not to approach them. I was told, “Don’t go near them, they’re in custody, you can’t talk to them, you’re not allowed to talk to them”. I really felt that they were like abandoned dogs, they had this empty gaze, I can’t explain it. Everyone walking past them and no one paying any attention to them. It was really…
What kind of reactions did you get from the others? “Forget it, let it go, that’s how it is”. That’s how I felt, as if it wasn’t even my place to inquire. “That’s how it is: we were on an arrest mission – we brought two in; we were on an arrest mission – brought another one in. That’s how it is”. No one explained to me what they were suspected of doing or why, no one explained anything to me. I must admit that at some point, I probably stopped asking. I’m sure there was a time there when I enjoyed smoking cigarettes with the other soldiers, and they convinced me that this is how it works.
That didn’t last long, I gather. I asked questions but didn’t do too much about them. I went into a kind of state of “that’s how it is”, and that was the hardest part. If I think about myself back then, that’s the hardest part, kind of erasing the person I had been before the army and the person that I am now. Another day and another and another and that’s how it is… But I can say that, for half a year, I kept on going into the canteen. I remember how once, we sat on the steps, playing the guitar and singing, and two meters away from us, some suspects were sitting. It’s sad.