Gasal et al: Statements change

Prosecution witness Zoran Pocrnja changed the statement which he gave in the course of the investigation. During his testimony in the courtroom he said that indictee Enes Handzic did not drive him “by truck from the furniture shop to Vojin Paleksic school building,” claiming that a person named Enes Sijamija did that.

“It is possible that I made a mistake when I said that. I am sure that Handzic did not do that, as I do not know the man. I had known Sijamija from before. We used to work together. I remember me asking him where I was going. He just said that he had got the list, adding that he did not know anything more about it,” Pocrnja recalled.

The indictment alleges that Enes Handzic was assistant commander for security with the 307th Brigade of the Bosnian Army. He is charged, just like Senad Dautovic, former commander of the Joint Staffs of the Bosnian Army in Bugojno town, with having participated in the capture of civilians in Bugojno, as well as its planning and abetting others.

Besides that, the Prosecution charges Nisvet Gasal and Musajb Kukavica with responsibility for the functioning of “Iskra” stadium detention camp in which more than 300 Croatian men were held in inhumane conditions in the course of 1993 and 1994.

Witness Pocrnja introduced yet another change in his original statement, by recalling that he was sent directly from Vojin Paleksic school building “to Prusac to perform forced labour over a period of one month”.

In the course of the investigation he claimed to have been first transferred from the school building to “Iskra” detention camp, adding that he was then taken to Prusac, where he stayed for two months.

Pocrnja specifically mentioned the bad conditions in the detention camp during the course of his detention.

“We used to sleep on the concrete floor. We almost got no food at all. Literally, I ate only when a family member would bring food to a detainee and he would share it with me,” the witness said. He claims that detainees used to be called out at night and they would come back beaten up.

Second Prosecution witness Mirko Tomljenovic recalled the difficult conditions in “Iskra” detention camp, claiming that he still felt the consequences.

“I suffered from mental and physical consequences. I have got a medical report, confirming that my disability rate was 40 percent,” Tomljenovic said. He identified Nisvet Gasal in the courtroom, claiming that he was “the chief in the detention camp”. He also identified Musajb Kukavica, adding that he had known him from before. He said that Kukavica “visited the detention camp very often and he sometimes called out some detainees”.

The next hearing is due on August 27.