Savic and Mucibabic: Reign of Terror in East Herzegovina

By Merima Husejnovic

Over the past seven months more than 70 Prosecution witnesses testified spoke about their experiences in four municipalities in eastern Herzegovina in 1992. They spoke about having lost their family members, being raped and abused, frequently mentioning the names of the two indictees – Krsto Savic and Milko Mucibabic.

Savic, former chief of the Public Services Centre in Trebinje, responsible for the public safety stations in Nevesinje, Gacko, Kalinovik and Bileca, is charged by the State Prosecution with having “planned, ordered and committed” the persecution of Bosniak and Croatians from these municipalities in 1992.

Milko Mucibabic, policeman from Nevesinje, is charged with participation in the capture, detention and mistreatment of Bosniaks in the premises of the Public Safety Station, PSS, in Nevesinje.

The indictment alleges that in 1992, members of the PSS in Gacko, which was under the control of the Safety Services Centre, SSC, in Trebinje, participated in the capture of Bosniaks who were then held in detention camps in the premises of the PSC in Gacko, a school in Avtovac and basement of a “single people’s hotel”.

“While they were examining us, they hit us on our ribs and they jumped on us,” Asim Poskovic recalled. His testimony was one of many testimonies describing conditions in these detention camps.

The Prosecution considers that Bosniak civilians from Nevesinje municipality were exposed to prosecution, unlawful capture detention and mistreatment in the police building, cinema hall and “Alatnica” tools factory, at the hands of the local police.

Protected witness H was captured on June 16, 1992, and taken to the Alatnica factory. “We spent eight days in the tools factory. The youngest prisoner was five months old,” the witness said.

Musan Sarancic said his mother and wife, Sabira, were detained in the same building as witness H, adding that his wife was five months pregnant at that time.

Sabira’s remains were found in the Nevesinje area a long time after the war ended. Musan still does not know what happened to his mother.

One count in the indictment charges Krsto Savic with the murder of Redzo Trebovic from Nevesinje. Behrija Trebovic, Redzo’s wife, and his brother, Fadil, claim they saw Savic shooting him.

“I tied his thigh with a blanket, because I could not see where the wound was. On the way to the ambulance, Redzo died,” Behrija said, recalling her husband’s last moments alive. Her husband’s body was left in the ambulance. Neither she nor his family has found his remains to date.

Zeljko Pasajlic, a policeman from Nevesinje, said that he “heard others say” that Savic shot Trebovic, adding that he spoke to him about this event on several occasions.

“He would always say: ‘Let it go. It was my bad luck.’ I guess he did not intend to kill him. I think he found it very hard to cope with that,” Pasajlic said.

Behdzida Custovic’s husband was among the missing persons. She said that some soldiers, accompanied by policemen from Nevesinje, had taken him away.

“Heis still registered as missing. I have looked for him everywhere. I begged and have paid, but I haven’t found him,” Custovic said.

Witness B was also detained. He claims to have met Milko Mucibabic in the police station in Nevesinje after the arrest.

“Hesaid: ‘Room 1 – exchange; room 2 – macellare, (slaughter)’. Then he told them to take me to the exchange room,” the witness said, adding that he did not know what “macellare” meant, but thought that Mucibabic helped him on this occasion.

Witness Irfan Catic was aged 11 when captured, alongside his two brothers, aged eight and 12, his mother Ema, father Mujo, grandfather Ibro and grandmother Djulsa, in the vicinity of Nevesinje on June 29, 1992.

“I remember this date, because we celebrated my brother’s birthday up there in the woods on the 26^th,” Catic recalled.

Except for the three brothers, who were detained for a long time, all the other members of the Catic family were killed. Their remains were found “in a cave” in 1998.

Irfan Catic recalled what he survived after having been arrested. He also mentioned Djuro Ivkovic, policeman from Nevesinje, claiming this policeman from Nevesinje rescued he and his brothers. “I can never forget what this man did for us,” he said.

Former policemen from Nevesinje, Dragan Radovanovic, Zeljko Kovacevic and Dragan Savic, testified, claiming that they did not know of the mistreatment of Bosniaks in the police station. Miodrag Kovac and Dragan Ivkovic spoke about some detention centres in the town, which were not under the control of the police.

“Some paramilitary formations may have detained civilians. We heard that there were some volunteers. Muslims used to come to the police station trying to protect themselves from those soldiers,” Ivkovic said.

Numerous witnesses confirmed the allegations contained in the indictment that detainees from Nevesinje were transferred to a prison in Bileca. Sacir Kljako claims to have been arrested by Milko Mucibabic in June 1992, adding that he was transferred to Bileca “as per an order issued by Krsto Savic”.

“It would have been better had they killed me in Bileca, instead of having to endure torture for 60 days,” Kljako said.

The indictment alleges that members of the PSS in Bileca participated in the prosecution and capture of Bosniaks and their detention and torture in detention camps in the police building and “students’ house”.

The Prosecution charges Krst Savic, as chief of the SSC in Trebinje, with having been responsible for members of the PSS in Kalinovik, who captured several hundreds of Bosniaks and detained them in the Miladin Radojevic school, the police station and the “Barutni magacin” detention camp, which was formed in the former military barracks in the course of 1992.

Dzemila Redzovic told the Court that, on June 25, 1992, she watched “policemen from Kalinovik” capturing her husband, who was then taken to the school building and then to Barutni magacin.

“On that day my husband left and never returned,” said Redzovic, holding her late husband’s photo in front of her during the course of her testimony.

The indictment alleges that, on August 5, 1992 more than 80 men were taken from Barutni magacin to Ratine, and shot dead. Fejzija Hadzic survived the shooting and testified about it in the courtroom.

“On August 5, some soldiers beat us up and loaded us onto a military truck. A police cares corted the truck. We reached Ratine. When we got to a barn they took us off the truck and they started shooting at us. I was hit in my knee and I felldown. I was the only one who survived the massacre. The bodies of the killed men were taken to the barn and set on fire. I managed to open the door and runaway,” Hadzic said.

Elvir Custo’s father and brother were detained in the Miladin Radojevic school building. He was 15 when he visited them, together with his mother.

“They were all standing in the school corridor. Men were crying… This was the last time I saw my father and brother. Later on, I heard that my father was killed while being used as a human shield by the Serbian Army. My brother, Almir, who was 17, was killed and set on fire in the barn in Ratine,“ Custo said.

Protected witness W, who was detained in the school building, together with her baby and four-year-old child, said that in August 1992 “paramilitary soldiers” used to take women and girls away and rape them.

“One night they came and took a girl with them and raped her. She was 12 or 13 years old. Then a group of soldiers, headed by commander Bjelica, came. He asked for ten women. I was among them.

They took us to some building and distributed us inseparate rooms. I was raped several times.” Witness dded that she was taken away and raped several times again a few days later.

Dragan Cerovina, a retired policeman from Kalinovik, said he heard of rapes committed in the school building in the presence of duty policemen.

“Policemen were saying that there were rapes, murders and so on. They mentioned that this was done by some soldiers, who had come from other places. The bodies of those people have not been found. I maintain that the police know where those people have been buried,” Cerovina told the Court.

Merima Husejnovic is a BIRN – Justice Report journalist. [email protected]. Justice Report is a weekly online BIRN publication.