Kurtovic: A Childhood Friend

Prosecution witnesses Marinko Dreznjak and Ivan Pavlovic have identified indictee Zijad Kurtovic as the person who maltreated them in All Saints church in Donja Dreznica, Mostar municipality.

Kurtovic is charged, in his capacity as commander of the Military Police Squad with “Dreznica” Independent Battalion of the Army of BiH, with having tortured and maltreated 20 prisoners of Croatian nationality, causing them bodily and mental injuries in a catholic church in Donja Dreznica near Jablanica in the second half of 1993.

Marinko Dreznjak has said that he knew Kurtovic when they both were young and described the indictee as a person inclined to “excesses”.

“He used to maltreat children on their way to school,” he has added.

Dreznjak has described the torture of detained Croats, both soldiers and civilians. The witness claims that, a side from Kurtovic, the group of BiH Army soldiers who maltreated them also included Hasan Delic, Senad Bobic and the persons whose nicknames were Bimbo and Nono.

During direct examination, the witness said several times that Kurtovic issued orders, but when asked by the Trial Chamber to list the orders the witness personally heard, he was not able to recall any.

“When I was beaten up I asked Kurtovic to help me, but he did not do it. He was the chief,” Dreznjak has said.

The witness claims that Kurtovic also issued orders for the forced labour of detainees, performed on the front lines. The detainees were taken by Alija Bobic and Ahmet Kurtovic, who, according to Dreznjak, is the indictee’s brother.

In his statement given to the prosecution during the investigation, Dreznjak said that the detainees were maltreated during the first five days of their stay in the church and that, after this period, they had been handed over to the Civilian Protection Unit and that the maltreatment had stopped.

After the statement was presented to him, Dreznjak has said that his statement given in the courtroom, which says that the maltreatment lasted longer, is actually correct. Explaining this, and other contradictions in his statements, he has said that he was not able to recall all the details during the investigation.

Dreznjak has informed the court that, in August this year, he received an anonymous telephone call and that a person, whose voice he could not recognize, tried to persuade him to refuse to testify. The witness, who lives in Mostar, has also said that one window of his refurbished family house in Grabovica was broken on Tuesday, 2 October.

Second witness Ivan Pavlovic from Jajce told the court that he was arrested when a member of the Croatian Defence Council (HVO). Describing the happenings in the church he has said: “Most orders were issued by Zijad”. He claims to have heard the orders personally.

“Zijad gathered us around a piano and ordered us to sing. As he did not like the song, he pulled the piano keys out and hit us. He was the leader of it all,” Pavlovic has said. He claims to have been told by Marinko Dreznjak that the name of the person who issued all orders was Zijad Kurtovic.

Pavlovic says that he was able to see “briefly” the persons, whose identity the prosecution protected by giving them pseudonyms A and B, being forced to take part in oral sex.

Explaining the discrepancies between the statements given during the investigation and in the courtroom, this witness also said that he could not remember the events very well.

“There are so many facts that I cannot remember every one of them,” he has said.

The trial is due to continue on 18 October, when a protected witness shall testify.