Gasal et al: Master of life and death

Testifying as Prosecution witness, protected witness B said that Enes Handzic was “the master of life and death in Bugojno” in the post-war period, adding that Nisvet Gasal and Musajb Kukavica were the commander and shift commander of the detention camp at “Iskra” stadium when he was detained in it.

The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina approved additional protection measures in the case of this witness, so witness B testified from a separate cabin, while his voice was altered and his face was blurred.  

The witness said that, on July 23, 1993 he was captured by “soldiers of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina” and took him to “the detention camp in the Gymnasium in Bugojno”. 

“Upon our arrival to the gymnasium building, soldiers were standing in the corridor, forming two lines. The worst period of my life started. They hit me with all kinds of objects. This was when I got a hernia and a broken collar-bone,” the witness said.  

The Prosecution charges Nisvet Gasal, Musajb Kukavica, Enes Handzic and Senad Dautovic with crimes against Croatian civilians, who were detained in detention camps and garages in Bugojno in the course of 1993 and 1994.  

Gasal and Kukavica are charged with responsibility for functioning of the “Iskra” detention camp, while Enes Handzic, former assistant commander for security with the 307th Brigade of the Bosnian Army, and Senad Dautovic, former member of the Joint Staffs of the Bosnian Army for Bugojno, are charged with participating in capturing civilians in Bugojno and its planning.  

As he explained, after having been detained in the gymnasium for three months, witness B was transferred to “Iskra” detention camp, where he stayed for six months in “conditions, which cannot be called conditions of life at all”.  

“From that detention camp they took me somewhere to be used as human shield. The hygiene was extremely bad. Up to the last night in this camp, they took people out and mistreated them,” the witness recalled.  

In the course of cross-examination the witness said that he never saw Gasal or Kukavica “personally taking or mistreating” detainees, adding that they “behaved in a correct manner”. 

Sabahudin Gazic, former member of the Bosnian Army in Bugojno, testified at this hearing. In the course of the summer of 1993 he used to work as “commander of security” in the “Vojin Paleksic” school. 

“Members of the Croatian Defence Council surrendered in May or June 1993. This happened after Senad Dautovic and Abdulah Jelec had promised them, using a public address system, that nothing bad would happen to them,” Gazic recalled, adding that 15 of them were transferred to a nearby garage, while all others were taken somewhere else.  

“I once saw Enes Handzic in the garage. He came there and ordered Vlatko Kapetanovic to take his clothes off down to his waist and stand in cold water,” Gazic said. 

As indicated by this witness, detainees were “taken out, beaten and murdered” in the detention camp in “Vojin Paleksic” school building. He considered that those actions were undertaken as per Handzic’s orders. 

The next hearing is due to take place on December 10, 2008.