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Male members of Balkic family – a father and his three sons – were captured in Bosanska Krupa in late April. After the capture, they were examined by “judge” Mladen Drljaca.
Adem and Asim Balkic spoke about this, as Prosecution witnesses at the trial of Mladen Drljaca, Gojko Klickovic and Jovan Ostojic.
The three men are charged with having participated in the crimes in the Bosanska Krupa area in 1991 and 1992. The State Prosecution considers Klickovic and Drljaca responsible for taking prisoners to the temporary Court Martial, where Drljaca was “the presiding judge.”
“I was captured, together with my father, my brothers and other residents, on April 22, 1992. The following day we were first taken to a gunpowder factory in Lipik and then to a school building in Jasenice. From the school building we were taken to the Serbian court, where there was judge Mladen Drljaca, Mitar Ciganovic and a woman typist. They questioned me about weapons and some people form Krupa,” Adem Balkic said.
Witness Adem Balkic said that, a few days after the examination, he was taken to Petar Kocic School building, where detainees were guarded by “military police.” According to him, the detainees were ill-treated ‘by steel devices, guns, knives and electric shocks.”
“Groups of soldiers, who abused the detainees, used to come to the school. However, they did not abuse me. When we were cleaning the town, military policemen used to insult, attack and beat us. One of them hit me on my back with a shovel. People could do whatever they wanted at the time,” Adem Balkic said.
Second Prosecution witness Asim Balkic said that, during his detention in the school in Jasenice, he was taken to “Drljaca or Oljaca”, who examined him. While he was held in the school, he saw protected witness A3, who was beaten up, in the gym.
“That person, whose name was Drljaca or Oljaca, wanted to sentence me, but Mitar Ciganovic told the woman to type that I was neutral. I think that the court was situated in a museum in Jasenica. The person named Oljaca had black hair and he was about 50 years old,” Asim Balkic said, adding that “other detainees” told him “the judge’s” name.
During cross-examination, witness Asim Balkic accidentally disclosed the name of protected witness A3. The Defence drew attention to this fact but neither the Trial Chamber nor the Prosecution reacted.
Asim Balkic said that there were “between 45 and 47 people” in the Petar Kocic school building and that two women were among them. He thought that those women were abused.
“A person named Zeljko Smoljanac often took the younger of the two women out and she cried when she came back, just like the older woman, who was unkempt when she returned. When I asked them what happened to them, they would say: ‘Don’t ask anything’,” Asim Balkic said.
Asim and Adem Balkic said they were exchanged on May 10, 1992.
